Comments on: Fire and Dice

By: Eric

Eric — Sat, 08 Jan 2022 06:05:23 +0000

There were two additional firefighters with those Illinois firefighters. Unfortunately, they stepped on an elevator not knowing a fire was raging below. Had an alarm sounded they would have most certainly avoided the elevator. Just really bad timing. :(

They were from my home town. I know some of their family
https://patch.com/illinois/westernsprings/the-las-vegas-fire-that-touched-western-springs

By: AzKhaleesi

AzKhaleesi — Thu, 29 Apr 2021 22:08:05 +0000

I wish they would’ve expanded on why it’s now Bally’s and why MGM is located elsewhere. Why didn’t they keep it there. But a very good article indeed.

By: AzKhaleesi

AzKhaleesi — Thu, 29 Apr 2021 22:05:55 +0000

I wish they would’ve included more history as to why this became Bally’s and when they rebuilt the now MGM grand. I’m very interested why they didn’t just keep the original site and re do it. But super interesting. Loved the story.

By: JarvisLoop

JarvisLoop — Fri, 31 Jan 2020 01:23:48 +0000

Back again.

By: JarvisLoop

JarvisLoop — Fri, 22 Nov 2019 02:38:37 +0000

I am returned.

By: JarvisLoop

JarvisLoop — Thu, 22 Nov 2018 13:46:22 +0000

The second reading of the article and some of the comments is even more chilling.

By: LObsTeR

LObsTeR — Tue, 08 Aug 2017 16:37:35 +0000

Back in 2015, I stayed at this hotel — on the 22nd floor — and in a fit of morbid curiosity, I pulled up the 1980 MGM Fire Investigation Report to see if the room I was staying in was one of the victims’ rooms. The report mentioned that a couple of deaths on 22 occurred in the center stairwell due to the fact that the doors locked from the inside; and since this one particular stairwell had no roof access, once inside you were now committed to only going to the very bottom.

Because thick black acrid smoke was funnelling up the stairwells, anyone who entered and let the door close behind them were absolutely screwed. I took a peek into this very stairwell and was shocked to find out 25 years later these doors still lock from the inside; to this day, once you venture into the stairwell, you are trapped and must descend to the bottom. I propped the door open and took a little tour and discovered the only way out is at the very bottom where there is one emergency exit with one of those big red paddles you must push that activates an alarm. This is so stupid on a thousand levels. There are occasions where people have family or friends on adjacent floors and might just want to skip the elevator and walk up a flight. Perhaps someone might want to walk off that evening’s buffet slop and walk up 10 flights.

I mean, the elevators gave you free reign of the building, so it’s not like they’re worried about guests accessing other floors they “don’t belong on”, so what could be the official reason? How on earth are locked stairwell doors a safety measure and why do you suppose they insist on keeping it that way when those locks are the very thing that ended up killing people? If the official answer is “we don’t want smoke from the stairwells to fill the hallways” then they are basically saying “if you’re already in the stairwell and it’s full of smoke, too bad, no air for you, sucka!”

(PS: The stairwells at the residential tower unfortunately named “The Torch” in Dubai which caught fire recently have some sort of feature that somehow makes them fire and smoke-proof — so the technology apparently exists. Bally’s of all places could take notice of this..)

By: Xerxes910

Xerxes910 — Thu, 13 Jul 2017 03:03:21 +0000

I remember waking up and turning on the TV and seeing some bearded guy climbing down ropes that had been dropped from the roof. I thought he was crazy…I was born and raised in Las Vegas and was 9 when the fire occurred. My friends dad was a captain in the fire department and what he saw haunted him. I remember the Hilton fire shortly after and how the news spent months on the issue. Those two fires changed Las Vegas for the better. From tragedy came reform and lives are safer for it.

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 01 Jul 2017 16:08:50 +0000

As one who was involved in the investigation I read your article with great interest. I only wish you had given more attention to the positive impact the sprinkler system, where installed, had on the containment of the fire and probably preventing additional loss of life. In addition, I believe the contribution of the sprinkler system in the MGM fire has greatly contributed to not only industrial and commercial use and expansion of such systems. but residential use as well.

By: fungod

fungod — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 18:24:44 +0000

I lived less than a mile from the hotel on that morning. I was a senior at UNLV and remember that day well. The whole day was chaos and the university opened their doors to the victims. It was a very sad day. It was very hard to believe that a fire like that could cause so much damage that quickly. So sorry for all the victims and their families. Almost 37 years ago.