MGM Grand Hotel & Casino Fire

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Table of Contents

Name, Date and Location of fire
The 5 W’s of fire
Codes and technologies in existence at the time of the fire.
Safety features in the building
Codes changes that were prompted as a result of this fire.
Proposals to avoid another fire like this
Works Cited

Name, Date and Location of fire

In the history of the United States, MGM Grand Hotel and Casino experienced one of the largest fire tragedies that claimed eighty five lives and injured a dozen more.

The fire tragedy was named as the MGM Hotel Fire which took place on 21 November 1980 in a town called Las Vegas, Nevada. “The MGM Grand Hotel/Casino was located at 3645 Las Vegas Boulevard South, City of Las Vegas, County of Clark, Nevada (southeast corner of the intersection of East Flamingo Road and Las Vegas Boulevard South (“MGM HOTEL FIRE REPORT” par. 3)”.

The first units that came to put out the fire were the Clark County Fire Department and it got assistance form the local fire department. At the time of the fire, there were approximately five thousand people in the hotel including staff of the hotel. Some of the people were able to evacuate the building on their own while approximately three hundred people were evacuated by use of a helicopter that answered the police call for assistance. Many other people were evacuated by fire fighters and people of goodwill who had come to help.

The 5 W’s of fire

The people who were involved were the firefighters, the local people, the police department, the guests and the staff. What was involved was the fire that broke out in the Deli of the hotel. The fire took place in Las Vegas, Nevada in Clark County. The people who died were as a result of smoke inhalation and burns. The fire happened because of an electrical fault in the restaurant (Craighead, 2009).

Codes and technologies in existence at the time of the fire.

There were emergency evacuation plans in the MGM Hotel that were meant for fire evacuation in case of an emergency such as fire or a terrorist bomb attack. The security statement stated the route to be followed in case of an emergency, and people were to follow the outside stairways. The security statement was categorical that only the outside stairway was to be used and not the inside stairway (Mirkhah, 2010).

Safety features in the building

The safety policy of the hotel stated that safety glasses had to be worn in some areas within the hotel in order to protect the eyes. It was also required that one had to wear protective gear such as gloves, apron, helmet and gumboots when they were undertaking any task requiring them to wear this protective gear.

It was against the policy of the MGM Hotel and Casino to wear high heeled shoes, soft shoes, moccasins and tennis shoes. Also, loose clothes and neck-tie were not permitted in the area of work especially in the kitchen and when someone was operating a machine that would easily catch them (Stewart, 2010).

It was also required that those employees who had hair longer than the collar had to cover it properly. It was required that, where safety equipment was a requirement in ones place of work, then the employee had no alternative but to wear them.

Codes changes that were prompted as a result of this fire.

Since the hotel had partial sprinklers, it was changed such that the whole building would have fire sprinklers all over. The other code to be implemented was to put in place a fire assembly point where people would converge in case of a fire in the hotel. It was also agreed that all hotels that were taller that fifty five feet were to be with fire sprinklers (Craighead, 2009).

Proposals to avoid another fire like this

The following are proposals to avoid this kind of fire in the future,

Fire prevention duties. It is of paramount importance to conduct fire preventions to protect the larger society. This is safe for the citizens as well as for the firefighters.
The fire prevention unit should be part and parcel of fire department. It should be actively involved in all phases of a development project from planning to review. Non-code compliance can have adverse effects if an accident was to occur.
The fire prevention and plan review units should be highly financed. This would ensure that the fire department is well equipped and financed.

Works Cited

Craighead, Geoff. High-Rise Security and Fire Life Safety. New York: Butterworth- Heinemann, 2009. Print.

MGM HOTEL FIRE REPORT 1990. Web.

Mirkhah, Azarang. Lessons from the Past: MGM Grand Fire. 2010. Web.

Stewart, James. Lessons from the Past: Learning Fire Prevention Basics from the MGM Grand Fire. 2010. Web.

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