200 Guests Flee Fire at Las Vegas Hotel

Fire ripped through a hotel before dawn Saturday, sending more than 200 sleepy guests scurrying to safety from the flames and smoke near the glittering Las Vegas Strip.

Three people were treated for minor smoke inhalation injuries in the fire at the Las Vegas Inn, but no serious injuries were reported and no one was believed trapped in the five-story hotel, officials said.

Early warnings allowed nearly all the guests, estimated at more than 200, to evacuate the hotel without injury, fire authorities said.

Two smoke victims were treated and released from Valley Hospital, nursing supervisor Eleanor Jakobs said. A third was treated and released from University Medical Center, according to a nursing supervisor who said hospital policy prohibited giving his name.

“Looks like the Inn is burning to the ground to me,” the supervisor said after viewing the flames from the hospital roof.

“Billowing smoke rising into the clouds above the lights on the Strip--one hell of a light show,”

Flames broke through the roof of the hotel, sending smoke across the Las Vegas Strip, two blocks away, and throughout a section of Las Vegas, witnesses said.

Scores of onlookers lined the street as firefighters rained water on the blaze that broke out about 2:30 a.m. and defied control two hours later.