Casino Connection Nevada

Live, From NYC, the Monte Carlo Fire!

by Steve Friess

How does one cover a fire in a city 2,000 miles away? Well, if the fire turns out to be less than a total disaster, I just found it it’s not that hard. I was in New York visiting family when some welders lit up the top of the resort in January and, tapping into a huge network of Vegas people through my blog and through list-servs, I managed to put together something decent for the New York Times that included some on-the-ground testimonials. It’s not ideal, but doable.

That said, let me say that I’ve rarely been quite this disappointed in the national media. Even in its hour of trauma, Vegas just isn’t taken seriously. I was near tears watching the apparent destruction of a major structure and worrying about the pandemonium of thousands of guests and employees having to get out. I assumed that there were tourists in the upper floors who were trapped and possibly dead. That it all worked out OK does not minimize what it looked and felt like in the beginning of the crisis.

But the folks on cable news? They thought the fire was entertaining. One CNN reporter actually wondered jokingly in the earliest stages whether the Monte Carlo buffet comp he’d recently received in the mail was still valid. FOX News Channel, which carried every O.J. Simpson press conference live, didn’t bother to pick up its local affiliate’s feed from the briefing by Las Vegas Fire Chief Steven Smith. And, yes, some bozoette on one of those stations—can’t recall which—really thought she was clever muttering, “Like Paris Hilton would say, that’s hot!” Can you imagine such irreverence if it had been the Sears Tower?

Just as amazing was how quickly the story died the minute it turned out that no humans had. Were I not on vacation, I would have pushed editors to let me do the obvious follow-up: A 32-story building containing 5,000 or so people caught major fire and everyone got out calmly. And alive. Imagine that.

Seriously, you folks who work at the Monte Carlo and elsewhere for MGM Mirage ought to be incredibly proud of yourselves. I’ve yet to hear from anyone who was displaced who wasn’t completely satisfied by the arrangements made in the face of such a difficult, unexpected event. Well done.