![]() ![]() “Everyone on duty, including Kay, went into action to get the guests out as safely as possible.” “I was at the hotel desk checking on them (alarms) and saw the flames dropping from the roof and gave the evacuation order,” she said. She was just about to do a shift change and hand things over to Kay Holliday when the alarms began to go off. ![]() It is now owned by the Dotty’s corporation.īarbara Queen, a manager/shift leader, was at the casino those early-morning hours of the fire. Penuelas would later return once the casino reopened as the Hacienda. This included the Monte Carlo, Railroad Pass, properties in Jean, and Circus Circus, which is where she landed. Penuelas said that in the days following the blaze the casino had a job fair to try to get people placed at sister properties. Needless to say, this was a very memorable experience for all of the many persons that assisted.” “We pulled down ceiling tiles and wallboard to expose the burning construction materials and used water to prevent further damage to the rest of the motel rooms. “We entered the room, in full protective gear, with hand tools and hose lines,” he said. There were fire blocks constructed adjacent to the rooms, but the intense heat and wind caused the fire to breach those barriers. The Willow Beach crew, along with others, was tasked with halting the spread of the fire from the casino, eastward through an enclosed hallway to the hotel rooms, he said. “Even though the casino had its own water supply, it was quickly exhausted and the old construction allowed the flames to quickly engulf the entire structure.” ![]() “With all of the equipment and firefighters there, several obstacles prevented any great success in fighting the fire,” Sherman said. The engine from Willow Beach did just that. The Lake Mead dispatch, along with many other fire and medical agencies, were requested to send whatever manpower and fire engines they could, to the casino, he said. There is a fire wall that separates the hotel (which received smoke damage but no fire damage) from the casino, so we started our defense at the wall.”īill Sherman spent 33 years in the National Park Service and at the time of the fire, worked at Willow Beach. ![]() John Kinney told the Boulder City News, “We made the decision the fire had started at the entrance and was rapidly spreading from there. But it wouldn’t have saved (the casino).”Ĭrews rapidly depleted one million gallons of water that had been stored in tanks on the property, and used more than 500,000 gallons pumped in by a six-inch line from Boulder City a few hours into the fire, La-Sky told the Sun. If we had more water, quicker, we possibly could have controlled the fire earlier. “The heat and intensity of the fuel load is incredible. “It’s miraculous no one was injured, especially not any firefighters,” Steve La-Sky, Clark County Fire Department spokesman, told the Las Vegas Sun the day of the fire. It was later determined the fire had been accidentally started during roofing work. More than 100 firefighters from Boulder City, Henderson, Clark County, National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management battled the blaze, which caused more than $30 million in damage. I believe it was closed for 18 months to rebuild and then became the Hacienda. “I remember watching it on the news and couldn’t believe it. “The night the Gold Strike burned down was very sad,” said Penuelas, who started there in 1983. In the early morning hours, a fire spread through the casino, destroying the entire building. This would bring in many customers, who would line up hours before to pick up a number to get into the buffet.”īut all that came to a screeching halt on June 16, 1998. We had a $1.49 buffet, 99 cents (senior nights), and a Friday night all-you-can-eat crab/seafood buffet. Our customers were the best, and we still had many of the same regulars 37 years later. “Back then, everyone was like family, customers included,” she said. (Las Vegas Review-Journal archive photo)įor Terri Penuelas, the former Gold Strike Inn & Casino was more than just a place where she worked for nearly four decades. An inside view from the hotel in the days following the fire. ![]()
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