The fire, which Clark County Fire Chief Roy Parrish said broke out in a huge kitchen area that services six restaurants at the hotel, started about 7:15 a.m. They were taken, mostly by helicopter, to the county morgue on Shadow Lane. The names of the victims were not immediately available. Five firemen were also injured, none seriously, from flying glass and smoke inhalation. Hospital spokesmen said at least 534 persons were treated for smoke inhalation, lacerations, broken bones and heart attacks, and said 195 were admitted for further treatment. More than 200 firefighters from all over Clark County responded to the blaze, and helicopters from Nellis Air Force Base were used to pluck some of the hundreds of stranded guests from their rooms high up in the 26 story resort, which is one of the largest in the world with 2,100 rooms.Īmbulances streamed back and forth from the hotel carrying the injured to four area hospitals and an emergency station at the Convention Center. At least 10 bodies were found in the casino area of the hotel, which was gutted when flames spawned from a kitchen fire suddenly tore through the casino-level ceiling and enveloped unsuspecting gamblers. Most of the dead were trapped in the upper floors of the hotel and died of smoke inhalation before they could be rescued.
At least 81 people were killed and hundreds more injured Friday morning when fire raced through the MGM Grand Hotel in the second-worst hotel fire in the nation’s history.
