Vegas Has a Blast as 200,000 Watch Demolition of Dunes

In a city where even the bizarre becomes blase, 200,000 people emptied out of casinos and homes and swarmed the Strip to bid a fiery farewell Wednesday night to one of their favorite hotels.

The 38-year-old Dunes tower was reduced to dust and rubble in a stunning pyrotechnic demolition that offered testimony to casino mogul Steve Wynn’s ability to captivate the city by making even a casino’s destruction something to celebrate.

This was no ordinary demolition, though, explaining why gamblers poured out of casinos to witness Wynn’s execution of the Dunes.

“It was like a bomb hit the place,” gambler Kathy Markowski said of the empty Caesars Palace, where the pit bosses bellied up to the bar to watch the demolition on television.

There was a bomb, but its target was the Dunes.

The nighttime $1.5-million extravaganza began with a six-minute fireworks show and ended in a series of carefully choreographed explosions and an all-consuming fireball. For a moment, the 24-story structure hung in suspension, then collapsed, and the street crowd howled its approval. The explosions produced a thick cloud of volcano-like smoke and ash that enveloped Bally’s casino across the street. People like Vincent Downs, empty beer cup in hand, began collecting bitsy scraps of the Dunes for posterity.

“Oh, Steve, you are so good!” someone in the Bally’s parking lot shrieked as the night sky turned explosive-white.

“I’m not much of a Steve Wynn fan,” resident Jerry Dietz said of the chairman of the company that owns the Mirage--with its signature volcano--and the new Treasure Island, with its hourly pirate battles. The company bought the Dunes last year to build a third Strip resort. “But he really outdid himself this time.”

“The only way Steve can top this is to blow up (Hoover) Dam,” Dietz said.

The Nevada Highway Patrol stopped traffic on nearby Interstate 15 during the explosion, and had closed the Strip three hours ahead of the demolition. The resulting carnival atmosphere on Las Vegas Boulevard was unprecedented, said Metro Police Lt. Carl Fruge. “It was eerie,” he said. Yet, despite “packing themselves in like sardines in a can,” there were only 13 arrests for minor disturbances. “It just proves that Las Vegas knows how to party, safe and sane,” he said.

This demolition party was a blast. The Dunes was filled with 465 pounds of nitroglycerine-based explosives, 18,000 feet of detonating cord, 185 pounds of black powder and, for good measure, 550 gallons of aviation fuel.

Wynn addressed the crowd on an extensive public address system along the street, warning everyone about what to expect, suggesting that the weak-of-heart might want to move back another 800 feet from the initial 800-foot safety perimeter, then inviting everyone to “Have fun!”

Cue the cannon fire from Treasure Island hotel one block away. Cue the fireworks. More cannon fire. Roll the cameras. (Wynn has purchased an hour of prime-time air time on NBC to broadcast the spectacle, a made-for-TV special to pitch his newest hotel, and staged the Dunes’ implosion as its action sequence.)

Other casinos in town could only grin and bear the distraction.