Site of deadly Las Vegas fire improperly zoned so not on city’s inspection list

A fourplex in downtown Las Vegas did not have smoke alarms and had never received a fire safety inspection before a deadly fire broke out inside it early Wednesday morning, according to city officials.

City spokesman Jace Radke said the house at 721 N. 1st St. had been converted into four apartments. However, it was improperly subdivided and remained zoned as a single-family home and therefore was not on the city’s inspection list.

“It was subdivided without our knowledge,” Radke said. “If this fourplex had gone through the (zoning) process … then it would have been up for inspection by fire prevention.”

Las Vegas intensified its focus on inspecting three- and four-unit apartment complexes in 2017 after discovering such homes were not tracked in the city’s business licensing database, the source of its fire inspection database.

A Las Vegas Review-Journal investigative series published in November found that most deadly fires in Las Vegas over the past decade occurred in the city’s three oldest and most urban wards — areas with older homes and apartments where current safety measures such as sprinklers and interconnected smoke alarms are not required. That includes Ward 5, where Wednesday’s deadly fire occurred.

In the latest incident, firefighters responded to the home on N. 1st St. at about 3:25 a.m., Las Vegas Fire Department spokesman Tim Szymanski wrote in a statement.

Firefighters forced their way into the house and found an unconscious man on the floor of an apartment bedroom, Szymanski wrote. The man was pronounced dead outside the home. Authorities have yet to release his age or identity.

Another man was taken to a hospital with burns to his ear, Szymanski wrote. The fire gutted the apartment and caused an estimated $25,000 in damage.

The blaze started when a sofa caught fire, Szymanski wrote. Arson investigators had not determined the fire’s cause as of Wednesday afternoon.

Szymanski wrote that the one- story, 2,400-square-foot building was “divided into four small apartments.“ Apartments are subject to fire safety inspections, but Radke said city officials have no authority to inspect single-family homes without being invited.

The investigators did not find smoke alarms inside the home, a requirement under state law for both apartments and single-family homes.

Built in 1942, the home was purchased in 2006 by Manojle and Vera Bjelicic of northern Ohio, according to Clark County property records. The Bjelicics could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Contact Michael Scott Davidson at sdavidson@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861. Follow @davidsonlvrj on Twitter.