Arson a possibility in abandoned El Cid Hotel blaze

Fire investigators are looking into the possibility that arson was the cause of a blaze that damaged part of an abandoned downtown hotel Monday night.

Las Vegas Fire Department spokesman Tim Szymanski said it appeared that the fire in a first-floor unit of the El Cid Hotel might have been intentionally set in three different places.

The two-story annex to the hotel, on the corner of Seventh Street and Bridger Avenue, had been boarded up for years but furniture was still inside the rooms, Szymanski said.

When firefighters arrived at 7:40 p.m. they found heavy flames coming from one of the units. They rescued a man inside one of the rooms who was trying to escape. He was taken to University Medical Center with slight smoke inhalation, Szymanski said.

The fire gutted the room and caused roughly $30,000 in damage. He said that homeless people had been known to reside in the building after it was boarded up.