{"id":1469,"date":"2025-01-22T14:36:19","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T22:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stand77.biz\/category\/casino-resorts\/the-mgm-grand-fire-classic-las-vegas\/"},"modified":"2025-01-22T14:36:19","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T22:36:19","slug":"the-mgm-grand-fire-classic-las-vegas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stand77.biz\/category\/casino-resorts\/the-mgm-grand-fire-classic-las-vegas\/","title":{"rendered":"The MGM Grand Fire \u2014 Classic Las Vegas"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The fire fueled with toxic smoke had only one place to go and that was up.\u00a0 Due to faulty smoke dampers, the fire was able to get into the hotel ventilation system.<\/p>\n

Don Feldman was a baker on duty that morning.\u00a0 Along with John Scott and Clarence White, he had stayed behind when word began to spread of a fire.\u00a0\u00a0 As he explained at a panel discussion on the subject that I moderated six years ago as part of “Untold Stories<\/a>“, he felt that staying behind to continue working wasn’t putting himself in danger because, after all, it was the MGM and surely they would take care of the problem before it got too big.<\/p>\n

As the smoke intensified and the lights began to flicker, Feldman realized that staying behind perhaps wasn’t the best choice.<\/p>\n

The three men sought refuge in the walk-in freezer.\u00a0 As time passed, Feldman would go out and try to raise someone on the phone to let them know where they were.\u00a0 The phone line was dead.\u00a0\u00a0 Clarence White finally decided to go for help.<\/p>\n

While White was gone, Feldman wrote a message on the back of pie liner.\u00a0 He began to think they might not make it out alive.\u00a0 When they could take the cold no longer, Feldman and Scott decided to try and find a way out.<\/p>\n

As they inched down the dark and smoky hallway, they found White’s body.\u00a0 He had died of a heart attack.<\/p>\n

They made their way to the stairs and up to the casino area.\u00a0 The casino was covered in water and windows were blown out.\u00a0 Bodies were strewn about.\u00a0 But, luckily, firefighters saw them and helped them to safety.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, the toxic smoke was making its way through the ventilation system.\u00a0 Hotel guests were roused by other guests in the hallway or by knocks on the door.\u00a0 The fire alarms were strangely quiet.<\/p>\n

Many guests opted to take the elevators down to the casino.\u00a0 Of those that did, many died in those elevators.<\/p>\n

Others ran towards the stairs and began the descent down.\u00a0 Many encountered thick black smoke and had to turn back.\u00a0 While some returned to their rooms (those who had their room keys could, those who left them behind on nightstands and in purses found themselves locked out), others raced up the stairwell for the roof.<\/p>\n

As the fire raged on, guests could be seen on balconies and at windows begging for help.\u00a0 Helicopters from around the valley, including Nellis Air Force Base, helped rescue rooftop guests.\u00a0 Some 2,000 guests made their way to the rooftop hoping to be rescued.<\/p>\n

Fire ladders only went as high as the 9th floor but the hotel was 26 stories tall.\u00a0 Guests on higher floors screamed for help.\u00a0 Some jumped. Hotel workers used scaffolding to try and reach and rescue guests on higher floors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[ad_1] The fire fueled with toxic smoke had only one place to go and that was up.\u00a0 Due to faulty smoke dampers, the fire was able to get into the hotel ventilation system. Don Feldman…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[637],"class_list":["post-1469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stand77.biz\/category\/casino-resorts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stand77.biz\/category\/casino-resorts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stand77.biz\/category\/casino-resorts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stand77.biz\/category\/casino-resorts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stand77.biz\/category\/casino-resorts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stand77.biz\/category\/casino-resorts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stand77.biz\/category\/casino-resorts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stand77.biz\/category\/casino-resorts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stand77.biz\/category\/casino-resorts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stand77.biz\/category\/casino-resorts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}