Later estimates by the Clark County Fire Department clocked the speed at 15 to 19 feet per second! Many of the elegant touches like the wall paper, the paintings of famous MGM characters, the carpet and more fueled the fire as it raced. They were barely 40 feet inside the hotel when a fireball roared out of the Deli and through the casino gaining speed as it raced across the three football fields burning everything in its path. He opted to warn as many of them as he could.įirefighters from nearby stations had arrived and were making their way to the Deli which was now enveloped in black smoke. He tried to contain the fire but as it grew bigger he realized that not only was his life in danger but casino patrons and other workers were as well. He immediately called security and went looking for a fire extinguisher. On closer inspection, he discovered the fire. One of the workers on a marble and tile replacement crew entered the Deli to check for broken tiles and noticed a flickering light. Unfortunately, the Deli no longer was open 24/7 and the fire began while the Deli was closed for the night. Had the Deli still been open around the clock like it had been when the hotel originally opened, the fire would likely have been spotted and contained easily.

The fire began there and burned for a while, undetected.

The vibration of the rotating cabinet had caused the wiring to fray and the wires rubbed together. That wiring powered the refrigeration unit for a nearby food cabinet display. The fire had been sparked by wiring inside the soffit. On November 21, 1980, early in the morning, a fire, that had started hours earlier, broke through a wall soffit in The Deli and roared into the casino. It was the deadliest hotel fire in Nevada history and the second deadliest in American history. There were, by estimates, 5,000 guests staying the luxury hotel on the morning of the fire. But in 1980, an early morning fire changed forever the way we remember that beautiful hotel.

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