Cosmopolitan Las Vegas Reopens a Day After Pool Fire Sparks at Cabana

The Cosmopolitan hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip reopened on Sunday, a day after a cabana on the resort’s rooftop pool caught fire and sent thick black smoke through the air, leading to two injuries and a partial evacuation of the building.

Tourists were relaxing on the 14th floor bamboo pool deck around 12:15 p.m. when one of the foam palm trees went ablaze, and the flames quickly spread to the nearby cabanas.

Greg Cassell, Clark County Fire Department spokesman, called the foam and bamboo area “liquid gasoline,” the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

Officials are unsure what started the fire, though the cause may have been electric and ignited by the strings of lights that were wrapped around the flammable trees.

"We are not surprised when we see these products and the way they react to fire," Leo Durkin, Clark County Battalion Chief, told The Associated Press. “Had we not had the wind, this might have been a much smaller problem."

The fire department’s prompt response mitigated the fire’s damage. More than 110 Clark County firefighters extinguished the blaze in less than 30 minutes, preventing the flames from actually entering the 61-story building.

“We did not have any fire inside," Cassel assured the Review-Journal while praising the fire department and its firefighters who are “very, very good at what they do.”

The pool deck, as well as the other afflicted areas on and around the 15th floor, reopened by 10 a.m. Sunday. The fire forced an evacuation of the hotel and some guests were given new rooms in the neighboring Vdara and Aria resorts.

There were no burn injuries but one guest went to the hospital as a result of smoke inhalation and another was treated and released at the scene.

The hotel’s guests had varying experiences during the fire. Some were horrified by the fire’s destruction, while others praised the hotel’s management.

"So much smoke reminded us of something from a horror movie," Michelle Manson, a guest who was evacuated from her 40th-floor room facing the pool, told the RJ.

Jill Alegre of Las Vegas was in the pool when the flames started and says the hotel handled the fire well.

"We were in the pool, saw flames and everyone scrambled," she said. "The staff was pretty calm and under control. There were people outside and in the stairwell telling us where to go."

However, Naylah Tuaoa-Medeiros had a more chaotic experience when she was evacuated from her 35th-floor room.

“All they kept saying was 'The building is on fire! The building is on fire!,'" she recalled to the RJ. "They were so disorganized," she said of the housekeeping staff on the floor. "There was no sense of urgency, there was no flow."

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