Badly burned man dies 5 days after central Las Vegas fire
A man who was badly burned when a fire swept through a boarded-up central Las Vegas office building died over the weekend, marking one of the deadliest weeks in history for the Las Vegas Fire Department.
According to the department, the victim died on Saturday, five days after the fire that left him hospitalized in critical condition. It was the fourth fire-related death this year investigated by the Fire Department, three of which occurred last week during National Fire Prevention Week.
The man who died will be identified by the Clark County coroner’s office once his family has been notified of his death.
The fire erupted just before 6 a.m. Oct. 7 at 824 E. Sahara Ave., a vacant office space near South Sixth Street. When firefighters arrived, the man had just been pulled out of the burning building by a passerby, who noticed the fire as he was driving by.
The victim had burns “over most of his body,” said department spokesman Tim Szymanski.
Firefighters had most of the fire out within a half-hour of their arrival at the building, which Szymanski said appeared to have been used by squatters.
The next day, a woman and her 6-year-old son, identified as Renai and Gavin Palmer, died in a house fire in western Las Vegas.
And by Friday morning, another house fire had broken out in central Las Vegas, near South Decatur Boulevard and Alta Drive, leaving a man and woman in critical condition.
The cause of the fires remained under investigation Monday morning.
Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter.
