Monte Carlo Casino Fire

[stephenvegas]

Today there was a 3 alarm fire at the Monte Carlo Casino and Hotel (located between the New York New York and the Bellagio) on the Strip here in Las Vegas. Although the Monte Carlo had to be evacuated, so far no injuries have been reported.

The fire was mostly on the exterior of the top of 2 wings of the Monte Carlo and forced The Strip to be shut down between Tropicana (where the MGM Grand is at) and Harmon (where The Flamingo is at). I was just recently at the Monte Carlo last year when I went to see a Ring of Honor Show almost directly across The Strip from it. They have a pretty good brewery there called the Monte Carlo Brew Pub.

Tomorrow I am actually going down to The Strp to see a concert (Social Distortion) at Mandalay Bay and I'll probably also walk up The Strip to see what the damage looks like at the Monte Carlo.

[Matt]

Hmmm...I'm not sure if I've ever been inside the Monte Carlo, but hope the damage isn't too severe.

[stephenvegas]

Well although whole chunks of the roof are now missing, the damage appears to look worse than it actually turned out to be because the damage was mostly to the exterior facade. But some of the hotel rooms suffered some water damage and the whole casino-hotel will be shut down for awhile.

According to the local news, the gambling continued for awhile in the Monte Carlo after the fire started even though the TVs on the casino floor were showing footage of the Monte Carlo on fire in two different wings. But they eventually evacuated everyone safely (unlike in the historic and horrible MGM Grand fire in 1980 that killed over 80 people- that was at the MGM Grand's original location that is now Bally's) and all the guests are being set up at other hotels owned by the company and all 950 workers at the Monte Carlo will continue to get paid including projected tip compensation until the Monte Carlo can reopen.

When I go down to The Strip in a few hours, I am going to walk by the Monte Carlo and check it out.

[Matt]

That's cool that the guests and employees are being taken care of.

[stephenvegas]

While I was on The Strip for about 9 hours yesterday, I walked by the Monte Carlo. Looking at the front of the Monte Carlo from The Strip, the fire damage really isn't too evident. But when I was driving South on I-15 on my way to The Strip, I passed the Monte Carlo and you can really see the fire damage on the two wings in the back of the casino.

Although they still lit it up in neon at night, the entire Monte Carlo is still closed. Even Diablo's Cantina in the front of the Monte Carlo wasn't open yesterday. But today they're saying that the Monte Carlo should reopen in just a few days except for floors 27-32 where the fire happened.


BTW, speaking of Diablo's Cantina- this is a relatively new place that I went to last October and I recommend going to anyone who gets the chance. Great food and HOT chicks.