![]() The building director at that time, John Pisciotta, sided with the ownership and rendered a decision that the fire sprinkler requirements in their codes did not apply to the hotel and casino. So they sought relief from the Clark County Building Department. The total construction cost of the hotel was $106 million and apparently the owners deemed the $192,000 cost for the sprinkler installation not to be feasible. ![]() The articles indicate that, despite receiving a recommendation letter from one of their own consultants, Orvin Engineering Company indicated "the liability of all the unsprinklered areas in this building should be a concern to your corporation." Fred Benninger (MGM chairman at the time) decided against installing the fire sprinklers. Only partial fire sprinkler protection was provided for limited areas (arcade, showrooms and convention areas) on the ground level.Īccording to the local newspaper articles of the time, despite pressure from the fire marshal during the construction (and even after the building occupancy), the owners fought installing the fire sprinklers. Fire sprinkler systems were not installed in the high-rise hotel, the casino (approximately 380 by 1200 feet, or 450,000 square feet), and the restaurant areas. There were 2,078 rooms at the hotel and the total area of the hotel and casino was approximately two million square feet. And with that in mind, taking a very brief look at the MGM Grand fire could provide valuable lessons for our younger generation of firefighters that could hopefully prevent similar tragedies in future.Ĭonstruction of the 26-story MGM Grand Hotel and Casino (currently Bally's) started in 1972 and it opened in December of 1973. ![]() I believe that learning from the past could be our guiding light for future. So my knowledge of that event is also second-hand and is only limited to reading the various reports and the accounts of the events described in the newspaper articles from the time. It was even before my time in the fire service, as I was still in college. And certainly our youngest members now would not know much about it since they were not even born then. ![]() But even our young rookies back then have now reached the retirement age and have limited knowledge of the event. Most of our senior peers from that era certainly remember the MGM tragedy. ![]() November 21, 2010, marks the 30th anniversary of the MGM Grand fire in Las Vegas. ![]()
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