3, including firefighter, hospitalized in central Las Vegas blaze
Three people, including a firefighter, were hospitalized after a Saturday morning fire that spread to two homes in the central Las Vegas Valley, the Las Vegas Fire Department said.
One person was hospitalized for burns, and the other two, including the firefighter, were hospitalized due to possible smoke inhalation. Fire crews were called about 12:20 a.m. Saturday to report of a house on fire on the 800 block of Eugene Cernan Street, near Alta and Buffalo drives, the department said.
Two of the people taken to University Medical Center in serious condition, the department said in a tweet about 1:40 a.m. The firefighter may have breathed in some of the dense smoke around the home, and was hospitalized “to be checked out,” the department said in a news release.
When crews arrived, they found “intense flames” coming from the garage area of the one-story, wood-frame home. The flames began to threaten the two-story home next door, which eventually caught fire, the department said.
“Because of the calm and hot weather conditions, dense smoke blanket the entire area making visibility almost nil and it was difficult to breath in the smoke,” the department said in a news release. “Numerous bystanders converged to the fire scene and police officers kept them back out of the smoke.”
It took about an hour and a half to put out the bulk of the fire, the department said. Both houses sustained heavy damage, estimated to cost a total of $500,000.
Crews with the Clark County Fire Department also helped fight the fire. Five adults were displaced because of the fire, the department said in a tweet about 3:40 a.m.
The cause of the fire remained under investigation Saturday morning. The department said that as of about 5:15 a.m., the fire was too hot for investigators to inspect the scene.
UPDATE: Bulk of fire KNOCKDOWN, 2 houses involved, 2 victims serious taken to UMC Trauma, cause U/I, crews starting to transition to offensive in 1-sto house. #PIO1NEWS pic.twitter.com/zkvXlIcYE9
— Las Vegas FireRescue (@LasVegasFD) July 11, 2020
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter. Dennis Rudner contributed to this report.
