For Terri Penuelas, the previous Gold Strike Inn & On line casino was greater than only a place the place she labored for almost 4 many years. It was dwelling.
“Again then, everybody was like household, prospects included,” she stated. “We had many regulars. Our prospects have been one of the best, and we nonetheless had most of the identical regulars 37 years later. We had a $1.49 buffet, 99 cents (senior nights), and a Friday night time all-you-can-eat crab/seafood buffet. This could usher in many purchasers, who would line up hours earlier than to select up a quantity to get into the buffet.”
However all that got here to a screeching halt on June 16, 1998. Within the early morning hours, a hearth unfold via the on line casino, destroying all the constructing.
“The night time the Gold Strike burned down was very unhappy,” stated Penuelas, who began there in 1983. “I keep in mind watching it on the information and couldn’t consider it. I consider it was closed for 18 months to rebuild after which turned the Hacienda. It was by no means the identical after the fireplace.”
5-alarm fireplace
Greater than 100 firefighters from Boulder Metropolis, Henderson, Clark County, Nationwide Park Service and the Bureau of Land Administration battled the blaze, which brought on greater than $30 million in injury. It was later decided the fireplace had been unintentionally began throughout roofing work.
“It’s miraculous nobody was injured, particularly not any firefighters,” Steve La-Sky, Clark County Hearth Division spokesman, advised the Las Vegas Solar the day of the fireplace. “The warmth and depth of the gasoline load is unbelievable. The water strain hindered us. If we had extra water, faster, we probably might have managed the fireplace earlier. But it surely wouldn’t have saved (the on line casino).”
Crews quickly depleted a million gallons of water that had been saved in tanks on the property, and used greater than 500,000 gallons pumped in by a six-inch line from Boulder Metropolis a couple of hours into the fireplace, La-Sky advised the Solar.
Then-Boulder Metropolis Hearth Division Capt. John Kinney advised the Boulder Metropolis Information, “We made the choice the fireplace had began on the entrance and was quickly spreading from there. There’s a fireplace wall that separates the lodge (which acquired smoke injury however no fireplace injury) from the on line casino, so we began our protection on the wall.”
Invoice Sherman spent 33 years within the Nationwide Park Service and on the time of the fireplace, labored at Willow Seashore. The Lake Mead dispatch, together with many different fireplace and medical businesses, have been requested to ship no matter manpower and fireplace engines they might, to the on line casino, he stated. The engine from Willow Seashore did simply that.
“With all the tools and firefighters there, a number of obstacles prevented any nice success in combating the fireplace,” Sherman stated. “Despite the fact that the on line casino had its personal water provide, it was shortly exhausted and the previous development allowed the flames to shortly engulf all the construction.”
The Willow Seashore crew, together with others, was tasked with halting the unfold of the fireplace from the on line casino, eastward via an enclosed hallway to the lodge rooms, he stated. There have been fireplace blocks constructed adjoining to the rooms, however the intense warmth and wind brought on the fireplace to breach these boundaries.
“We entered the room, in full protecting gear, with hand instruments and hose strains,” he stated. “We pulled down ceiling tiles and wallboard to show the burning development supplies and used water to forestall additional injury to the remainder of the motel rooms. For sure, this was a really memorable expertise for all the many individuals that assisted.”
Workers displaced
Penuelas stated that within the days following the blaze the on line casino had a job honest to attempt to get individuals positioned at sister properties. This included the Monte Carlo, Railroad Go, properties in Jean, and Circus Circus, which is the place she landed. Penuelas would later return as soon as the on line casino reopened because the Hacienda. It’s now owned by the Dotty’s company.
Barbara Queen, a supervisor/shift chief, was on the on line casino these early-morning hours of the fireplace. She was nearly to do a shift change and hand issues over to Kay Holliday when the alarms started to go off.
“I used to be on the lodge desk checking on them (alarms) and noticed the flames dropping from the roof and gave the evacuation order,” she stated. “Everybody on obligation, together with Kay, went into motion to get the friends out as safely as potential.”
Queen went via all departments to make sure they have been turning off gasoline strains, locking banks, and evacuating all staff and themselves.
“I used to be exterior the present store’s doorways sitting on a rock when the fireplace blew the doorways open,” Queen stated. “At the moment, I spotted we misplaced the on line casino.”
On the time of the fireplace, Steve Fishburn was lead slot technician on the on line casino.
“After the fireplace, we needed to spend the following two weeks digging via burnt slot machines for all the cash we might recuperate,” he stated. “At first it was quarters on up, however after a day or two of that we simply went for the greenback tokens, specialty cash, and payments. It was loopy after I would open invoice validator cans and discover stacks of 100-dollar payments that have been burnt fully in half.
“I had been there 13 years and it was fairly unhappy going via all of the burnt-out recollections,” he added. “A whole lot of historical past gone in a single night time.”
Fishburn stated one of many change cubicles was scooped up and brought to the dump. Unbeknownst to anybody on the time, he stated the sales space had round $80,000 in it on the time of the fireplace.
“Individuals have been handing over greenback tokens to Railroad Go for a yr, nonetheless within the buckets of dust that they dug it out of from the dump,” he stated. “I believe some individuals made some huge cash.”
Fishburn ended up being moved over to Excalibur, the place he retired in 2019.
“What a beautiful, busy, loopy time it was working at Gold Strike,” he stated. “I nonetheless miss everybody I had the privilege to work with there.”
Crystal Youngblood had been the hostess/cashier on the buffet and restaurant for a yr previous to the fireplace.
“My mother-in-law known as us and advised us about it,” she stated of the fireplace. “I couldn’t consider it till we noticed it for ourselves.”
She stated she labored at Railroad Go for a few week however received a job in retail till the on line casino reopened below the Hacienda title. She labored there till 2002.
Her husband, Fred, had been a longtime Gold Strike worker however was working elsewhere on the time.
“It looks as if it was yesterday,” he stated. “It was devastating for my household – for my spouse, my mom and our pals. A tragic day for positive.”
Like Fred Youngblood, Mike Salay had been a longtime Gold Strike worker however was working elsewhere when the fireplace passed off.
“Luckily, I had a job, however the 400 staff on the time wanted to search out jobs,” he stated of the Gold Strike workers. “Lots of my pals discovered work at Circus Circus properties, whereas others discovered a possibility for a profession change.
“The next day my daughter and I drove by the particles; it was nonetheless smoldering. I felt a way of loss. The constructing was greater than a set of wooden, carpet, slot machines, lights, and noises. It was dwelling to so many patrons and staff.”
