1 found dead in south Las Vegas fire

One person was found dead after an early Saturday morning fire at a south Las Vegas apartment complex, fire officials said.

The Paradise Spa Apartments at 9457 Las Vegas Blvd., where Saturday’s fire severely damaged a building in the complex, has been the scene of several fires in recent years, including one in October and other blazes in 2016 and 2012.

In an emailed statement, a Clark County Fire Department assistant fire chief said no residents were displaced, the cause of the fire and the death had yet to be determined, and that the case was “open and ongoing.”

Assistant Fire Chief Carlito Rayos said in the email that the department was notified about a house fire at the complex around 3:13 a.m. Saturday. Crews arrived within seven minutes to find a vacant, single-story apartment building with heavy smoke and flames erupting from multiple units.

As firefighters fought the blaze, the incident commander requested more crews just after 3:30 a.m. to prevent its possible spread, Rayos’ email said. The fire was knocked down roughly 15 minutes later, Rayos said.

During a primary search at 3:48 a.m., crews found a dead man, said Rayos. That person’s identity hadn’t yet been released Saturday.

Past fires

Saturday’s fire marked the latest in a series of fires at the apartment complex.

Nearly two weeks ago, a bedroom fire broke out, but no injuries were reported. In 2016, eight of the 16 apartments at Paradise Spa burned, displacing twenty people, the Review-Journal previously reported. In 2012, an early morning blaze caused $150,000 in damages and displaced two people.

Dennis Snapp, the president of Paradise Spa’s homeowners association, said Saturday afternoon the complex has become a “hive for the homeless” and that much of the complex is unoccupied. When Paradise Spa was first built as a luxury housing property, he said, there were 300 available units. Now, he said, only 125 are occupied.

In the visibly decaying complex on Saturday, some buildings had only blackened frames surrounded by rubble, while others featured “no trespass” signs and broken windows. Leftover furniture spilled out of nearby dumpsters.

Most unoccupied units have since been “secured” by code enforcement, meaning they have been boarded up with wooden planks or sectioned off using metal fencing, Snapp said. As a result, these apartments often do not have working smoke detectors or power, he said.

“Abandoned unsecured and dangerous residence has become a harbor for squatters as well as criminal activity,” stated a notice from the Clark County Code Enforcement Unit posted on doors in the complex.

“The homeless break into these units to live, smoke, and steal copper from the wires,” Snapp said.

‘Trespassing and theft have become common’

The building scorched Saturday was mostly vacant, Snapp said. Only one resident lived in the building but in a unit on the opposite side of where the fire started, he said. The resident will have to be relocated, Snapp said, because the belongings in the occupied unit were soaked by the water used by firefighters to extinguish the blaze.

“In the past few decades, this complex has been mismanaged, and trespassing and theft have become common,” Snapp said. “We’ve never really recovered.”

Snapp added that, when he can, he tries to help the unhoused people who frequent the complex, ensuring that Narcan, a medication that is used to reverse an opioid overdose, is readily available in medical emergencies.

Jeffrey Carlson of Vintage Las Vegas, a blog that chronicles Las Vegas history, said that what is left of the Paradise Spa Apartments has been there since the 1960s.

“Heers Bros built the apartments. They were a pretty notable construction and development firm at that time,” said Carlson. Some have reported that it was once a hangout spot for the Rat Pack. I don’t know if I buy that, but I know the place was popular because there were few like it outside of the Strip.”

Contact Akiya Dillon at adillon@reviewjournal.com.