When asked repeatedly about how Las Vegas can come back from the coronavirus, I kept thinking about an earlier Las Vegas disaster–the 1980 MGM Grand fire and the subsequent Las Vegas Hilton blaze, which provoked a national conversation about highrise safety. I wrote something for KNPR’s DC Blog about how Las Vegas came back from the fires:
That day saw heroism — helicopters from Nellis Air Force Base rescuing guests from the hotel’s 26th story roof, iron workers using their scaffolding to help others out of their windows, the 200 firefighters who battled the blaze. Yet there was also the sense that this tragedy was avoidable.
Read it all: It Took a Fire to Change Us | Nevada Public Radio