Elderly couple taken to hospital after fire at southwest Las Vegas home
An elderly couple was taken to University Medical Center on Friday evening after their stove top caught fire, filling their southwest valley home with smoke.
The Las Vegas Fire Department responded to a Crystal Bay Drive house near West Sahara Avenue about 6:30 p.m, department spokesman Tim Szymanski said.
When officers arrived, the elderly woman was outside of the couple’s home, yelling in fear that she couldn’t find her husband. Firefighters soon found the elderly man sleeping upstairs, then “picked up the soot covered man and took him outside,” Szymanski said.
“You can’t smell smoke when you sleep,” Szymanski said. Both the woman and her husband were hospitalized for nonlife-threatening smoke inhalation.
The Friday fire was contained to a stove top and microwave oven, Szymanski said, and the blaze was out in about two minutes. Cooking-related fires are the leading cause of fire injuries in Las Vegas, as well as the country, he added.
It was unclear if the couple had smoke alarms installed in the house; their home was built in the 1980s, before the city adopted a code in 1993 that requires smoke alarms in new homes, Szymanski said.
As a precaution, Szymanski said he strongly encourages homeowners to install smoke alarms regardless of when homes were built.
Clark County Fire Department firefighters assisted at the scene Friday. Damages were estimated at about $10,000.
No first responders were injured, Szymanski said.
Contact Jessica Terrones at jterrones@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @JessATerrones on Twitter.
