When the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino first opened in 1973, it was the largest hotel in the world, with advertisements claiming more square footage than the Empire State Building. Why, then, were they surrounded by corpses? From where David Demers and his fire investigation team stood on the 23rd floor, no one would have even felt the temperature rise. The room’s plastic and chrome-plated decor, it turned out, had been as much a facade as its promises of riches.įortunately, the Clark County Fire Department had responded immediately, and the blaze never spread beyond the first floor.
Bodies sat frozen in front of what had once been slot machines, now no more than blackened pillars jutting upward from a flow of melted slag along the floor. In the early morning hours of 21 November 1980, a fire had broken out in the Las Vegas landmark, ripping through the lounge in an explosive wave that instantly killed everyone in the area. Downstairs in the casino, little remained of the MGM Grand Hotel’s former glory.
