Fire prompts brief evacuation of Saddle West resort

The casino area of the Saddle West resort along Highway 160 was evacuated for a time after Pahrump Valley Fire and Rescue crews were dispatched to battle a structure fire there on Saturday, March 8.

Fire Chief Scott Lewis told the Pahrump Valley Times the blaze began just after 7 a.m.

Lewis said that the initial call for service stated that there was heavy smoke showing from the area of the roof, but the fire was thought to be on the outside of the structure.

Upon arrival, crews confirmed a working structure fire with heavy smoke showing from the roof of a decorative tower located on the east corner of the building, according to Lewis.

Further investigation revealed a sprinkler activation and sounding alarm resulted in the building being evacuated.

“Crews raised the aerial ladder to the roof, while a second crew went to the interior where they found a working fire within the tower on a chaise used for running electrical wire,” Lewis said. “The fire well developed into the structural members above the sprinkler system, thus the sprinkler system was having no immediate impact on suppression of the fire.”

Lewis went on to say that crews, however, were able to stretch hand lines to control the fire with no further extension.

“There were no injuries, and the initial cause of fire is thought to be accidental in nature, related to electrical arcing,” he said.

“The casino portion was the only area that needed to be evacuated, and that was executed well before our arrival, thus the life safety aspect was already removed. The biggest challenge was chasing the seat of the fire down in the decorative tower, because it only had a few access points, and most of them were relatively small. The crews did a great job in controlling and suppressing the fire.”

The resort resumed normal operations after several hours.

Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com.