A Las Vegas casino was evacuated after patrons and employees smelled smoke in the building.
According to the Associated Press, employees of the Excalibur casino on the Las Vegas strip was evacuated of of the casino's four towers early Tuesday morning when the building smelled like smoke. Guests were removed from the building for two hours starting at 2 a.m..
Dave Ward, a guest from Canada, was one of many guests who had to evacuate during the early hours. He was sleeping and he received a phone call from his friend who already evacuated.
"I jumped out of bed and looked out the window to see all the emergency response," he told AP. "So I got dressed and grabbed my essentials and walked out."
Ward could sense the smell of burning plastic.
Hotel staff found that there was no fire in the building. The ventilation motor had overheated and spread a smoke smell throughout the building. By Tuesday afternoon the issue was fixed.
MGM resorts spokesman Gordon Absher apologized to guests for the late night inconvenience and the hotel may compensate some guests.
"As far as compensation, we will handle this in the normal course of delivering our good customer service," he told AP. "We'll deal with this on a case by case basis."
Ward was told that he would receive a refund on his hotel room charges and a complimentary buffet.
Las Vegas hotels and casinos follow strict fire codes. This has been in place since two deadly high-rise hotel fires occurred more than 30 years ago. In 1980, 87 people died in a fire at the MGM Grand Hotel. three months later, eight people died in another fire at the Las Vegas Hilton.
This incident at the Excalibur comes just three months after two died in a murder-suicide at the hotel-casino.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
