More than 20 displaced after fire at Las Vegas apartment complex
More than 20 people were displaced after a fire tore through a central Las Vegas apartment building Sunday afternoon.
Crews responded to the Solaire Apartments, located at 1500 Karen Ave., around 3 p.m. Sunday, Clark County Fire Department Assistant Fire Chief Scott Carnahan said. The complex is near Sahara Avenue and Maryland Parkway.
About 55 fire personnel from the Clark County Fire Department, Las Vegas Fire Department and North Las Vegas Fire Department fought the blaze, which scorched four units in a 12-unit building, Clark County Fire Department Battalion Chief Kenny Holding said. The blaze was out in about 25 minutes.
Two people were treated for smoke inhalation, Holding said. One animal was killed. No firefighters were injured.
Officers from the Metropolitan Police Department shut down traffic in the area and evacuated part of the complex as fire crews worked to extinguish the blaze. Metro Lt. Brian Boxler said arson investigators are working the case, but the cause of the fire was unclear as of Sunday evening.
No other information was immediately available.
Between 2011 and 2018, the Clark County Fire Department responded to more than 50 fires at the Solaire Apartments, a focus of the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s “Valley of Fires” investigation in 2018, which found that fire safety in the valley’s urban core had been left behind, sometimes with deadly consequences.
Myriam Hernandez Estrada, 26, was killed in a fire at the complex in August 2018, her burned body found buried under debris. Updated figures on fire calls at the complex were not immediately available Sunday.
“This complex has a lot of buildings — it’s a really big complex and it’s a really old complex,” Holding said at the scene Sunday. “So yeah, the history, there’s been a couple fires here.”
Rico Avent, who has lived in the complex for 22 years, and Kim Gonzalez, who has lived in the complex for four years, both said Sunday that fires and crime are common in the neighborhood.
“They don’t police over here,” Avent said, adding that he was shot outside the complex this winter.
“They don’t value our lives,” Gonzalez added.
Gonzalez said she had left about 10 minutes before the fire started Sunday to purchase some new sheets for her bed. While shopping, she said her niece called her in tears and said the building next to hers was on fire.
“My neighbor’s dog was killed in the fire. She’s distraught,” she said. “A lot of people lost their homes today. It’s terrible.”
Cynthia De La Torre, a spokeswoman for the American Red Cross of Southern Nevada, said the agency is assisting the 16 adults and six children who were displaced.
Contact Alexis Ford at aford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0335. Follow @alexisdford on Twitter.
