Inspectors expand search for Rio remodeling flaws

Due to a pattern of faulty remodeling workmanship on two floors of the Rio's Ipanema guest tower, county building inspectors have expanded their search for similar flaws to 14 more Ipanema floors.

"They're moving up the tower, two floors at a time," county spokeswoman Stacey Welling said.

Inspectors were working earlier this week on the tower's third and fourth floors, which are currently closed to guests. A Wednesday correction notice describes a "consistency of discrepancies" from building codes found on those two floors, and then expands inspectors' work to floors five through 18.

"This validates the inspection process, and is another nail in the coffin in the way Harrah's (Entertainment) did this" remodeling, said Terry Taylor, an independent fire investigator from northern Nevada, after reading the correction notice issued.

"In all rooms in (all three wings of the Ipanema), corridor and party walls are compromised," the notice reads. Welling said the walls' fire resistance was compromised by the presence of one to three small, but unsealed holes per suite, for electrical wall outlets. The code requires sealing, to stop smoke from traveling from one guest unit to another, or from a guest unit to the hallway.

Small, unsealed openings only several inches wide are a far cry, however, Taylor cautions, from code violations that went uncorrected in another era. He said investigation of the lethal 1980 MGM Grand fire showed that a large unsealed penetration, several feet wide -- through a key casino wall rated for four hours of fire resistance -- helped spread flames and fumes to guest rooms.

The same Wednesday correction notice also ordered owners of the Rio to repair fire-rated walls on floors five through 18 of the Ipanema in key locations, including near the central elevator lobby, in storage rooms near the lobby and in "all stairwells."

Taylor said he was concerned to read of violations involving the stairwells, which, during a fire, should be, "the places that are consistently designed to keep us safe and get us out of the building, regardless of what's going on in a room" where a blaze has started.

But the deficiency in the Ipanema stairwells is comparatively minor, according to Welling. It entails electrical junction boxes installed in walls without the required fire sealing, at an interval of about one box per two floors of the tower.

Taylor, who has served as state deputy fire marshal in Nevada and California at different points in his career, noted that any large facility that has existed long enough to undergo remodeling will have scattered code deficiencies, due to human error or oversight. He credits county building inspectors for noticing a pattern of deficiencies at the Rio, which will guide their future work. Tearing up walls purely for exploration purposes is "horribly expensive," he said.

But the downside to discovering a pattern of construction deficiency is, according to Taylor, a shift from a "presumption of correct construction ... to a presumption of faulty construction."

After discovering systematic repetition of violations, the next logical step, Taylor said, is to determine why they occurred. "Is it stupidity or is it intentional? Either answer isn't good, in the long run. But there's a big difference in how you deal with it as a regulator."

Welling said Thursday she did not know when the Clark County Fire Department will issue its misdemeanor citations in connection with bungled remodeling or maintenance at the Rio or two sister properties, Harrah's Las Vegas and the Flamingo Las Vegas. The county building division issued 18 hotel-related citations on Friday.

At left is a chronological summary of other code violations discovered from Nov. 14 through Wednesday at the Rio Hotel, 3700 W. Flamingo Road.

Unless otherwise noted, items are based on documents issued by the building division, which is tracking remodeling violations from discovery through repair. Items are ordered from newest to oldest. Text in parentheses provides further explanation.

Officials from the county's building division or the Clark County Fire Department began investigating the site in late September for construction violations. An earlier Review-Journal report contained a list of problems recorded by inspectors Nov. 13 or earlier.

Contact reporter Joan Whitely at jwhitely@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0268.