[UTES]

On the morning of Nov. 21, 1980, 85 people died and more than 700 were injured as a result of a fire at the MGM Grand Hotel.


MGM Hotel Fire 1980


I was living in California at the time and remember live coverage of the fire. A sad day.


Bill

[Katie the heartbreaker]

I was 3 when it happened. Maybe that is why I never heard of it.

[airics]

My old neighbor in ohio was at the hotel. She survived the fire

[Hockeygirl063]

I was just talking to my mom about that fire.

Isn't Bally's where MGM was? Did they build the new MGM at its current location after that fire?

[UTES]

Originally Posted by Hockeygirl063

I was just talking to my mom about that fire.

Isn't Bally's where MGM was? Did they build the new MGM at its current location after that fire?

Yes - the old MGM was renamed Bally's. The new MGM is to the South down by the Tropicana.


Bill

[EA]

I was -2

[Hockeygirl063]

Thanks Bill that's what i thought. I remember watching some old news files and documentary about that fire. I lived on the east coast and remember seeing it on the news.

[Buzz123]

My late exwife was very lucky that day. She was working as cashier in the deli right under the KENO board that started the fire, and she had just gone on break in the downstairs Help's Hall when they ran in and said to get out fast. They all went out the back door into the alley. Another couple of minutes and she would have been one of the casualties. As soon as I heard about the fire I called my daughter and she said her mom was OK and had just called. My wife, Carol, and I have been trying to remember why she wasn't doing coverage of the fire that day at CH-3. We think she was off that day, but I know she went in to help the producer at the studio. She also covered the next fire at the Hilton, and brought an older couple home with her so we could give them some clothes. People had no where to go after either fire. Some of the hotels started putting them up.

Those two fires resulted in the Nevada legislature passing laws making Las Vegas hotels the safest in the world in case of fire.

[beachhead]

I was just 4 days away from being able to legally drink/gamble there...But I remember reading about it..in the stars and stripes over in Germany.

[Everdeen]

I knew someone whose wife was a court recorder for the legal end of it. She said that lawyers and judges were in tears during some of the testimony.