LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A massive fire that ripped through the MGM Grand Hotel on Nov. 21, 1980 still impacts the lives of every Las Vegas resident and visitor today. It led to fire code updates that fire officials say have made all of us safer.
Thursday marks 44 years to the day since the fire that killed 87 people and injured more than 600 others.
"The further away we got from the fire, the more casualties there was," Jerry Berndorf told Channel 13 in a previous interview.
Berndorf was serving his first year as a captain in the Clark County Fire Department when the fire happened.
"It got to the point that, on top, you couldn't see anything. You could knock down doors and get people to the stairwells and then let them go down on their own," Berndorf recalled. "The firemen, they took their masks off and they would put it on the people as they helped them."
[FROM THE ARCHIVES] Channel 13 cameras captured the aftermath of the destructive blaze
The fire and suffocating smoke that spread through the hotel-casino began in a first-floor restaurant and soon spread through the hotel tower. It led to some of the toughest fire codes in the nation being put in place at resorts here in Las Vegas and across the country.
"It's terrible to have that many people pass away from it, but some good things did come of it, as far as fire code, sprinkler systems," Berndorf said.
For example, all resorts are now required to have sprinklers, automatic fire alarms, emergency evacuation systems and pressurized exit stairwells, fire officials previously told Channel 13 anchor Abel Garcia.
