Casino Disaster Avoided
Gamblers fled the casino floor as firefighters rushed up flights of stairs, but remarkably no one was seriously injured in a blaze that blackened the top floors of the 32-story Monte Carlo hotel-casino. The 3,000-room resort was at near capacity Friday when the fire broke out midmorning, sending guests and employees onto the Las Vegas Strip where ashes and embers rained. The blaze was contained within an hour. 
An ambulance company spokeswoman said 17 people were taken to area hospitals with minor injuries, mostly from inhaling smoke or from fleeing the building. None of the 120 firefighters who fought the blaze was hurt. The spectacle brought to mind the state’s deadliest fire. In 1980, 87 people were killed in a fire at the old MGM Grand just down the street from the Monte Carlo. The Monte Carlo Resort & Casino has 3,002 guest rooms and 211 suites. The resort, on Las Vegas Boulevard near Tropicana Avenue, opened in June 1996 and is modeled after the Place du Casino in Monte Carlo, Monaco.