Yet another fire at the Moulin Rouge

Wow. I haven't even taken off yet -- I'm at McCarran heading to Florida to see my folks for Mother's Day weekend -- and already disaster has struck in Vegas in my absence, as is tradition. (I was also away when Monte Carlo burned, when a bomb exploded at Luxor, when a gunman opened fire at New York-New York, when CityCenter nearly went bankrupt and God knows what else.)

Today, the Moulin Rouge, the legendary and legendarily troubled landmark that was the first integrated casino in Las Vegas, is up in smoke -- again. Read all about it at LasVegasSun.Com. I'm posting that link because I suspect the Sun will continuously update their coverage at the same URL and I have no confidence the Review-Journal's Web folks would ever do anything that intuitive. Just in case they do and the Sun doesn't, go here, too.

Just a few months ago, I was being regaled by the Moulin Rouge owners about their lofty plans for a multibillion-dollar construction project. It seemed unrealistic so I merely discussed it on the March 10 episode of "The Strip" but didn't move on a piece for any of my clients. I figured if they had the money for it, I'd write about it when they actually started building. Good thing, though, they moved the iconic sign to the Neon Boneyard just the other day. Suspiciously just before that fire, huh?

Gotta fly now. Keep the city safe for me so I can enjoy my visit, will y'all?

The Strip is LIVE on Tuesday w/ LANCE BURTON

Sorry, Alanis Morissette fans. You oughta know you'll have to wait a couple weeks to hear her. I'm chatting with Lance Burton as he prepares to return to work at the charred Monte Carlo. And I've got one hand in my pocket for next week's show, even though I have no idea what that means. Isn't that ironic?

ANYHOW, join us at 7 pm PT for the live show at LVROCKS.Com. Hear all the funny outtakes! Chat with fellow fans! Drink when Miles cusses!

Or don't and you'll get the episode Thursday on the podcast feed. Your call.

Monte Carlo to reopen Feb 15

I'm sick today -- very uncomfortable -- but I woke from my afternoon sleep and found this in my email box just a couple minutes ago. Three things of interest below:

* Nothing like a profitable holiday weekend to get them moving, huh? Although they are missing Chinese New Year. Whatever.
* Apparently they've taken advantage of the misfortune (and insurance money?) to do more extensive remodeling of those 500 upper rooms. Smart.
* Not sure why they'd delay opening the buffet and brew pub if they're opening 2,500 rooms. Weird.

MONTE CARLO HOTEL TO REOPEN FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15

Round-the-Clock Effort Will Have Hotel Ready

To Welcome Customers for Presidents’ Day Weekend

Las Vegas, February 8, 2008 -- MGM MIRAGE (NYSE: MGM) announced today that the Monte Carlo Hotel will reopen its doors for customers on Friday, February 15.

Monte Carlo President and COO Anton Nikodemus announced the news, saying, “After what can only be described as an incredible effort by the best team of employees and contractors in the business, the Monte Carlo family will be in place February 15 to welcome guests for Presidents’ Day weekend.”

Monte Carlo plans to open with no fewer than 1,200 guest rooms available and management anticipates an additional 1,300 rooms will become available by February 22. The remaining 500 rooms in Monte Carlo’s normal 3,000-room inventory are located on the upper floors and will remain out of service while undergoing more extensive redesign.

The majority of guest services will open on February 15, including the Monte Carlo Casino, meeting and convention facilities, the wedding chapel and the Spa & Salon Monte Carlo. All food and beverage outlets will open on the 15^th, with the exception of the buffet and the Monte Carlo Brew Pub, which will open as business demands, but no later than the 22^nd. Most retail outlets will open February 15, with all opening no later than the 22^nd.

Master Magician Lance Burton will resume his long-running show February 15, in the 1,200-seat Lance Burton Theater.

Remediation work continues both inside and outside the hotel, which was evacuated and temporarily closed January 25, after a fire damaged portions of the building’s exterior façade. Clark County firefighters, supported by emergency personnel from around the valley, quickly extinguished the blaze. Fire suppression efforts caused water damage to a number of guest rooms and suites.

Approximately 5,000 guests and 1,000 employees were safely evacuated from the hotel with no serious injuries. Preliminary results of the Clark County Fire Department’s investigation have determined that welding activity on the hotel roof started the fire. A total damage figure has not yet been determined.

“Monte Carlo President Anton Nikodemus and the entire Monte Carlo team are to be commended for their tireless efforts,” said Bobby Baldwin, President and CEO of CityCenter and Chief Design and Construction Officer for MGM MIRAGE. “Without the leadership, dedication and perseverance of these individuals, along with the professional support of the entire MGM MIRAGE family, this rapid turnaround would not have been possible. This accomplishment is no less than a testament to their commitment – both to our customers and to one another. ”

Fear Not For MGM Mirage, Little Ones

Since I'm sure you've been worried, I just got a little piece of info that I guess I should've known but didn't. In chatting with Alan Feldman, the MGM Mirage spokesman and veep, he explained that it's difficult to assess how much the Monte Carlo fire and closure will cost per day because they have "business interruption insurance." Apparently, they also had that in 2004 when the Bellagio was shut down for four days because of an Easter-weekend blackout.

I'd love to find out what such insurance costs and covers and who provides it to businesses that lose MILLIONS a day when they're closed. Also, I can't think of another resort company in Vegas that's ever had to employ it. The MGM Mirage, after all, had to shut down the Bellagio and the Monte Carlo because of freak events. What other resorts have had such misfortune? Did they shut down the MGM Grand casino when they had that riot after the Tyson fight a while back? That, too, was an MGM Mirage property, unless it happened before 2000. I wonder if all those casinos on the Gulf Coast were covered -- and up to how much? -- after Hurricane Katrina.

Feldman also says there's no telling yet when the place would reopen, but he and I will speak later tonight after he goes to a briefing for a SPECIAL EDITION OF THE STRIP that I'm going to try to post much later tonight.

Live From, Uh, New York?

ABC News' billboard in Times Square, 1/25/08

How does one cover a fire in a city 2,000 miles away? Well, if the fire turns out to be less than a holocaust (look it up - a "holocaust" originally meant a devastating fire), it's not that hard. Also, if you're able to tap into a huge network of Vegas people from the blogs and list-servs, it's also doable. Not ideal, but doable.

Here's what I ended up with. I got quite a ribbing from my family for the idea that I could write a piece in this manner. As I said, it's not how I'd normally do it. But in a pinch -- evidently the Times simply could not find another reporter in Vegas -- it'll do.

My Las Vegas Weekly column will discuss this further, but there was something else about this experience. Since I wasn't there, I was glued to the TV. And, while I was thrilled to see that KVBC logo in the corner indicating that CNN was using Miles' TV station's footage, it was just sickening to realize that even in its hour of trauma, Vegas just isn't taken seriously.

There 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 this 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 be pushing 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.