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FIRE-LAS VEGAS
6 killed, 13 injured in Las Vegas apartment fire
LOS ANGELES, Dec 22, 2019 (BSS/XINHUA) – Six people were killed and 13
others were injured in a fire at a three-storey apartment in Las Vegas
downtown on Saturday, local fire department said.
According to a statement released by the Las Vegas Fire Department on
Saturday afternoon, the Alpine Motel Apartments caught fire early in the
morning. When firefighters arrived at the wood frame building, “many people
were hanging out windows along with thick black smoke pouring out.”
The crews put out the fire in less than one minute, the statement said,
but the smoke made it impossible to see and breathe inside the building, and
many occupants were trapped inside.
“After the fire was distinguished, crews found three people deceased in
the building,” it said, adding three others were found dead outside.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, and there is no evidence
of any criminal activity, the statement said.
Investigators believed that the fire originated from a stove in a unit
on the first floor of the building, the statement said, adding residents told
firefighters that they were using stoves since the building did not have
heating.
Survivors told local newspaper Las Vegas Review-Journal that they were
alerted to the fire not by alarms but by neighbors pounding on their doors,
and they had to jump from second- and third-storey windows to escape since
the stairwells were locked.
The tenants said they had complained about safety issues in the building
on several occasions, such as a lack of fire safety equipment.
According to building managers, nearly 50 people were displaced after
the fire, which caused damage estimated at 475,000 U.S. dollars.
The fire is the deadliest one in the city’s history, Las Vegas Fire
Department spokesman Tim Szymanski said.
BSS/XINHUA/FI/ 1450 hrs