By: Las Vegas Now Staff
A fire at an abandoned restaurant has been burning nearly all morning. Dozens of firefighters from three agencies near Nellis Air Force base have been called in.
The fire started just before 9 a.m., and it's still flaring up. The Chinese Village Buffet was boarded up. The firefighters are still working very hard to make sure it doesn't start back up. Every once in a while they find a pocket of flame.
Firefighters from North Las Vegas, Clark County and the city all responded. The problem was in the back of the building where some unique architecture made it hard for firefighters to haul hoses in and out — exhausting shift after shift of firefighters in a very unfamiliar kind of fire.
“It is very dangerous for our firefighters to go into a building that has been reconstructed because we deal with false ceilings, false floors that we don't even know are there. It can be dangerous because you think you are dealing with one situation, and it turns out to be totally something different,” said Scott Allison of Clark County Fire.
In a rare move, firefighters resorted to cutting holes in the outside of the building and shooting the water in, rather than trying to haul the hoses through tight corners.
This is a very unpredictable structure fire. Firefighters have started to put away their resources only to find that they have to bring them back out to battle more smoke and fire.
As to how it started, firefighters say its only speculation at this point — but it was a boarded up building and typically it's a problem with the homeless. People in the area have told us they see homeless in and out of there all the time.
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