A fire erupted and "jumped from floor to floor"
at the 30-story Las Vegas Hilton Tuesday night, shooting
flames 100 feet up the side of one of the world's
largest hotels.
When the MGM Grand Hotel fire occurred in November
of 1980, the Las Vegas Hilton realized that its own
fire protection system needed to be upgraded. Speculation
was that since the same companies hired to build the
International also built the MGM Grand, that the International/Las
Vegas Hilton had the same flaws and should be retrofitted.
Approximately 90 days after the MGM Grand fire, February
11, 1981, while the Hilton was being retrofitted,
a fire broke out. Firefighters using the knowledge
they had recently learned from the MGM fire promptly
used the local television networks to notify people
to stay in their rooms and not go out to the halls
and stairwells. Because of the lessons well learned,
eight people perished in this fire compared to the
85 people who died in the MGM Grand fire.
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