2nd body recovered from rubble of January wedding chapel fire
Nearly two months after a fire destroyed a wedding chapel on Las Vegas Boulevard, a second body was found in the rubble.
People who illegally entered the fenced-off site of the former chapel that burned in January found the body Saturday, the Las Vegas Fire Department announced Monday.
It was the second body to be recovered from the remains of the chapel at 1431 Las Vegas Blvd. South, near Charleston Boulevard. A day after the Jan. 12 fire, officials found the body of 30-year-old Steven Travis Warren.
In a statement, Fire Chief Jeff Buchanan said the second body was found under “significant debris and insulation.” Buchanan said it appeared to arson investigators that the person was at the chapel at the time of the fire.
According to the department news release, machines started sifting through the site Monday morning “to see if there are any more victims and attempt to find where the fire started.”
The Clark County coroner’s office as of Monday afternoon had not identified the second person found dead.
Firefighters on Jan. 12 were initially called at about 5:25 p.m. to the single-story chapel. About 70 fire personnel responded.
The building was destroyed, the fire department reported, and damage was estimated at $1 million.
At the time, the department reported that the building was “vacant.” But the next day, crews located Warren’s body.
It remained unclear as of Monday how crews initially missed both victims. In the Monday news release, the department said the fire investigation is ongoing.
Contact Blake Apgar at bapgar@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5298. Follow @blakeapgar on Twitter.