LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Apartment building 22 at Riverbend Apartments in East Las Vegas on Spencer Street and Viking Road near Flamingo Road is where a deadly fire broke out sunday night.
“When you look at the windows it was all full of fire, even the entrance was full of fire," said a four-year resident at Riverbend Apartments.
“It was very scary because at that moment it looked like it was going to spread to other buildings," said Tameka Nelson, another resident affected by the fire.
Nelson and Chavez both live next door.
They tell me they were both evacuated, along with most other nearby tenants.
“The police department was coming up the stairs making sure everybody was getting out of the building and also kicking in people’s doors because people were asleep," Nelson said.
Clark County Fire tells Channel 13 that two people died, and four were hurt and taken to the hospital. The Clark County Coroner's Office has identified one of the victims as 24-year-old Kameron Moore. They have not identified the second person who died.
American Red Cross says 14 units were impacted, leaving 30 people without a home.
I asked Nelson what it was like seeing the devastation of what the fire caused.
"It’s emotional because somebody actually passed away and when you’re in a situation like this you want to help, but if you would have seen the flames, there’s no way that you could help," Nelson said.
The building, a day later is all boarded up and fenced off. The displaced are now getting assistance from the Red Cross.
It's an issue all too familiar in the valley.
I dug through American Red Cross Southern Nevada numbers on the amount of fires they've responded to in recent months.
According to documents I found last week, they responded to 11 home fires displacing 39 people. And in just the first eight days of this month, 29 fires displaced over 130 people.
These 30 people are now added to those numbers.
“Now seeing them the way that it is, I’m still processing it since yesterday all I could think, the same thing keeps replaying in my head all day, it just keeps replaying. I’m still having trouble processing it," Chavez said.
I asked Chavez if she has had any sleep since the fire.
"I didn’t sleep until 5 a.m. last night," Chavez said.
Clark County Fire tells Channel 13 they're still investigating the cause of the fire. We will have that information out to you as soon as we get it.
