LAS VEGAS -- Investigators are looking into the cause of a fire that gutted a small, vacant house in the downtown part of the city early Tuesday morning. The house has been vacant for several months, according to neighbors. There were no injuries reported during the incident.
According to a release from Las Vegas Fire & Rescue, dispatchers received several calls at 5:31 a.m. that a house in the 500 block of Earl Street, near Bruce and Charleston, was on fire. When firefighters arrived, heavy flames were blowing out of the front door and windows of the small one-story, wood-frame house. It took firefighters only a few minutes to bring the fire under control and put it out.
Officials talked with one man who said he had been living in the house for the past few weeks with three or four other people. The occupants told fire officials they had permission to stay in the house by the owner, although that could not be confirmed. The occupants also said they left for the night and returned to find the house on fire.
No one was in the house when firefighters arrived on scene. The fire completely gutted the house.
Neighbors told fire officials that within the past few days, people have been going in and out of the unsecured house at all hours of the day. The house was in the process of being boarded up after firefighters cleared the scene today.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. The occupants admitted that they all smoked and used candles, along with flashlights, for lighting because there was no electricity connected to the house.
-- From news release
