Coroner IDs man killed in central Las Vegas building fire
The Clark County coroner’s office identified the man who died days after he was injured in a fire that swept through a boarded-up central Las Vegas office building last week.
The man, 35-year-old Fernando Lopez, was one of three people whose deaths were investigated by the Las Vegas Fire Department last week. Lopez was only the fourth person this year whose fire-related death was investigated by the department.
Lopez’s cause and manner of death were still pending Thursday afternoon, the coroner’s office said.
He died at University Medical Center on Saturday, the coroner’s office said. The fire erupted just before 6 a.m. Oct. 7 in a vacant office space at 824 E. Sahara Ave., near Sixth Street. When firefighters arrived, Lopez had just been pulled out of the building by a passerby, who noticed the fire as he drove by.
Lopez suffered burns “over most of his body,” said department spokesman Tim Szymanski.
Szymanski told the Review-Journal that it appeared the building was being used by squatters. The cause of the fire remained under investigation Thursday.
On Oct. 8, 47-year-old Renai Palmer and her son, 6-year-old Gavin Palmer, died in a house fire in western Las Vegas. By Friday morning, another house fire broke out near Decatur Boulevard and Alta Drive, leaving a man and woman in critical condition.
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.
