6 killed in Las Vegas apartment building fire identified by coroner
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Soot darkens the backdoor of a three-story apartment complex Saturday, Dec. 21 in Las Vegas. The fire was in first-floor unit of the Alpine Motel Apartments and its cause was under investigation, the department said. Authorities say multiple fatalities were reported and many more were injured.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Investigators walk through an interior corridor after a fire at a three-story apartment complex early Saturday, Dec. 21 in Las Vegas. The fire was in first-floor unit of the Alpine Motel Apartments and its cause was under investigation, the department said. Authorities say multiple fatalities were reported and many more were injured.
LAS VEGAS FIRE DEPARTMENT VIA AP
This photo provided by the Las Vegas Fire Department, firefighters work the scene of a fire at a three-story apartment complex early Saturday, Dec. 21 in Las Vegas. The fire was in first-floor unit of the Alpine Motel Apartments and its cause was under investigation, the department said. Authorities say multiple fatalities were reported and several were injured.
LAS VEGAS >> A Las Vegas coroner identified six people ranging from age 46 to 72 who were killed in a weekend fire at a downtown apartment building.
County Coroner John Fudenberg identified the victims Tuesday as city and county officials were investigating the cause and spread of the Saturday fire that also injured 13. His office said it did not yet have the cause of death for the victims and expected to release that within six to eight weeks.
The victims were identified as: Henry Lawrence Pinc, 70; Tracy Ann Cihal, 57; Francis Lombardo, Jr., 72; Cynthia Mikell, 61; Kerry Baclaan, 46 and Donald Keith Bennett, 63.
Bennett was a maintenance worker at the building whom surviving residents credited with saving lives. Survivors said the disabled Marine veteran risked his life as he ran through the building early Saturday, pounding on his neighbor’s doors and screaming “fire” as black smoke filled the hallways.
His actions allowed others to escape in time. Resident Floyd Guenther recounted seeing Bennett trying to kick open doors to a back stairway that was bolted shut.
“It is not surprising. Helping people … it was in his DNA,” his cousin Ray Bennett of the Baltimore, Maryland-area, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The predawn fire appeared to start Saturday around a stove in a first-floor unit of the building, forcing some residents to jump down from upper floor windows to escape thick smoke blocking exits.
Firefighters began treating the injured and helping rescue people hanging or jumping out of windows, according to Las Vegas Fire & Rescue spokesman Tim Szymanski. He said three people were found dead inside the building and three outside after the fire was extinguished.
City officials say there had been past code violations lodged against the building but all had been quickly resolved. Investigators are looking into resident complaints that the building’s smoke or fire alarms weren’t working properly and that some residents didn’t have heat and were using stoves to keep warm.
