Gold Strike fire: Sense of loss still smolders for many former employees

For Terri Penuelas, the former Gold Strike Inn & Casino was more than just a place where she worked for nearly four decades, it was home.

“Back then, everyone was like family, customers included,” she said. “We had many regulars. Our customers were the best, and we still had many of the same regulars 37 years later. We had a $1.49 buffet, 99 cents (senior nights), and a Friday night all-you-can-eat crab/seafood buffet. This would bring in many customers, who would line up hours before to pick up a number to get into the buffet.”

But all that came to a screeching halt on June 16, 1998. In the early morning hours, a fire started, which spread through the casino portion, destroying the entire building.

“The night the Gold Strike burned down was very sad,” said Penuelas, who started there in 1983. “I remember watching it on the news and couldn’t believe it. I believe it was closed for 18 months to rebuild and then became the Hacienda. It was never the same after the fire.”

Five-alarm fire

More than 100 firefighters from Boulder City, Henderson, Clark County, National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management battled the blaze, which caused more than $30 million in damages. It was later determined the fire had been accidentally started during roofing work.

“It’s miraculous no one was injured, especially not any firefighters,” Steve La-Sky, Clark County Fire Department spokesman, told the Las Vegas Sun the day of the fire. “The heat and intensity of the fuel load is incredible. The water pressure hindered us. If we had more water, quicker, we possibly could have controlled the fire earlier. But it wouldn’t have saved (the casino).”

Crews rapidly depleted one million gallons of water that had been stored in tanks on the property, and used more than 500,000 gallons pumped in by a six-inch line from Boulder City a few hours into the fire, La-Sky said to the Sun.

Then-Boulder City Fire Department Capt. John Kinney told the Boulder City News, “We made the decision the fire had started at the entrance and was rapidly spreading from there. There is a fire wall that separates the hotel (which received smoke damage but no fire damage) from the casino, so we started our defense at the wall.”

Bill Sherman spent 33 years in the National Park Service and at the time of the fire, worked at Willow Beach. The Lake Mead dispatch, along with many other fire and medical agencies, were requested to send whatever manpower and fire engines they could, to the casino, he said. The engine from Willow Beach did just that.

“With all of the equipment and firefighters there, several obstacles prevented any great success in fighting the fire,” Sherman said. “Even though the casino had its own water supply, it was quickly exhausted and the old construction allowed the flames to quickly engulf the entire structure.”

The Willow Beach crew, along with others, were tasked with halting the spread of the fire from the casino, eastward through an enclosed hallway to the hotel rooms, he said. There were fire blocks constructed adjacent to the rooms, but the intense heat and wind was causing the fire to breach those barriers and allow some combustion in the room walls.

“We entered the room, in full protective gear, with hand tools and hose lines,” he said. “We pulled down ceiling tiles and wallboard to expose the burning construction materials and used water to prevent further damage to the rest of the motel rooms. Needless to say, this was a very memorable experience for all of the many persons that assisted.”

Employees displaced

Penuelas said in the days following the blaze that the casino did have a job fair to try to get people placed at sister properties. This included the Monte Carlo, Railroad Pass, properties in Jean, and Circus Circus, which is where she landed, but would later return once the casino reopened as the Hacienda. It is now owned by the Dotty’s corporation.

Of those interviewed for this article, Barbara Queen, a manager/shift leader, was the only one at the casino those early-morning hours of the fire. She was just about to do a shift change and hand things over to Kay Holliday when the alarms began to go off.

“I was at the hotel desk checking on them (alarms) and saw the flames dropping from the roof and gave the evacuation order,” she said. “Everyone on duty, including Kay, went into action to get the guests out as safely as possible. Security took control of the hotel with Kay’s guidance.

Queeb went through all departments to be sure they were turning off gas lines, locking banks, and evacuating all employees and themselves.

“I couldn’t have had a better crew to go through that with,” she said. “The slot mechanics, security, Kay, and engineers were well trained as a precaution and we got everyone out safely. Once all guests and personnel were safe, the firemen made me leave.”

She added, “I was outside the gift shop’s doors sitting on a rock when the fire blew the doors open. At that time, I realized we lost the casino.”

At the time of the fire, Steve Fishburn was lead slot technician at the casino.

“After the fire, we had to spend the next two weeks digging through burnt slot machines for all the money we could recover,” he said. “At first it was quarters on up, but after a day or two of that we just went for the dollar tokens, specialty coins, and bills. It was crazy when I would open bill validator cans and find stacks of 100-dollar bills that were burnt completely in half.

“I had been there 13 years and it was pretty sad going through all the burnt-out memories. The wooden Indian, was half burnt sticking out of one of the piles of debris. An image I’ll never forget. A lot of history gone in one night.”

Fishburn said one of the change booths was scooped up and taken to the dump. Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, he said the booth had around $80,000 in it at the time of the fire.

“People were turning in dollar tokens to Railroad Pass for a year, still in the buckets of dirt that they dug it out of from the dump,” he said. “I think some people made a lot of money.”

He said his stepson, who also worked at the casino, was returning from a trip and passed the fire around 4:30 a.m.

“When I finally got up and around, me and my wife went down there around 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. and saw it was fully engulfed,” he said. “Fire engines were everywhere so we obviously had to stand back by the road. There was a bunch of other employees and we just kind of stood and watched in disbelief. No one really knew what to say or do.”

Fishburn ended up being moved over to Excalibur, where he retired in 2019.

“What a wonderful, busy, crazy time it was working at Gold Strike,” he said. “I still miss everyone I had the privilege to work with there.”

Crystal Youngblood had been the hostess/cashier at the buffet and restaurant for a year prior to the fire.

“My mother-in-law called us and told us about it,” she said of the fire. “I couldn’t believe it until we saw it for ourselves.”

She said she did work at Railroad Pass for about a week but got a job in retail until the casino reopened under the Hacienda name. She worked there until 2002.

Her husband, Fred, had been a longtime Gold Strike employee but was working elsewhere at the time.

“It seems like it was yesterday,” he said. “It was devastating for my family – for my wife, my mother and our friends. A sad day for sure.”

Like Fred Youngblood, Mike Salay had been a longtime Gold Strike employee but was working elsewhere when the fire took place.

“Fortunately, I had a job, but the 400 employees at the time needed to find jobs,” he said of the Gold Strike staff. “Many of my friends found work at Circus Circus properties, while others found an opportunity for a career change.

“The following day my daughter and I drove by the debris; it was still smoldering. I felt a sense of loss. The building was more than a collection of wood, carpet, slot machines, lights, and noises. It was home to so many patrons and employees.”