Fire destroys outbuilding, damages power lines in downtown Las Vegas

A fire that started outside a downtown Las Vegas home destroyed one building and damaged power lines Saturday afternoon, the Las Vegas fire department said.

The house fire at 309 N. Eighth St. near Las Vegas Boulevard North was reported around 2 p.m.

Upon arrival, Las Vegas Fire Department spokesperson Tim Szymanksi said, a small storage shed was fully involved with flames spreading to an apartment next door at 307 N. Eighth St. and got into the attic. One adult has been displaced and is being assisted by Southern Nevada Red Cross volunteers.

A NV Energy power pole caught fire, causing a number of live power lines to fall to the ground, which in turn started some small grass fires on the ground. Power had to be shut off to the wires before firefighters could put the small fires out, Szymanksi said.

The outage caused several traffic lights in the area to go out of service for a short while.

At 5:03 p.m., RTC Southern Nevada tweeted that the signaled intersections where outages have occurred throughout downtown should be treated as “all way STOP,” but cite a time of 3 p.m. in the tweet.

The cause of the fire is undetermined, starting in the shed. Residents of the apartments said they heard noises from the shed, and when they went to check, it was on fire, Szymanski said.

There were no injuries, and damages have been estimated at $20,000, Szymanski said.

Contact Jessica Terrones at jterrones@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @JessATerrones on Twitter.

fire outside my building on 8th and stewart. power out in our building not sure if this caused that tho. pic.twitter.com/RMkVSaOAcP

— Rachel Aston (@Rookie__Rae) July 16, 2016

Pwr off to pole, 1 bldg destroyed, no inj's, cause under investigation. PIO1 pic.twitter.com/VzjQElUqVc

— Las Vegas FireRescue (@LasVegasFD) July 16, 2016

Cross pole burned and fell to ground energized, started small fire on ground. NV Energy has shut down pwr to area. pic.twitter.com/VduKA773Rj

— Las Vegas FireRescue (@LasVegasFD) July 16, 2016