NBC Nightly News - Nov 21, 1980 - MGM Grand Fire

[mjm050380]

@patronsaintofpoison they didn't build Bally's on the site they simply changed the name. The same building that was on fire is the same one that is parallel to flamingo.

[C4Spaze]

LMAO to the people dat think dey are victims just cuz dey were born around dat time or stayed der before the fire started..

[XxThreeFriendsXx]

It was actually 85 people

[bigkevcxza]

the only one i  remember was Tom Brokaw

[patronsaintofpoison]

I live in Vegas. I was born in '85 so I don't remember it, ofcourse, but it is something everybody knows about. They built Bally's over the site of the original MGM and I can't bring myself to go in there. Really a terrible tragedy, like you heard in the video, so many of those people never stood a chance.

[metrotek5]

2:05 . . . Fire alarm system knocked out ???  Damn

[denny906]

I was in Vegas and staying at the MGM Grand hotel exactly a week before the fire. What a surprise when I saw news of the fire. It still haunts me.

[darrylhaynes]

i was lucky...i made it out...

[WORLD8NSH5KNIGHT1]

30 Years Ago Today. May the victims rest in peace.

[MrGrevy]

Lol at the shegro! She probably broke the windows to try to loot something

[mathewbailey08]

From what I read, from an online article,some of the people who died were trapped in the elevators.

[Tracymmo]

@mathewbailey08 People were trapped in stairwells too. Very sad.

[hilarioph]

The hotel got on fire. So sad ;-(

[babygiraffe123]

I remember seeing this on a show on the Discovery Channel. I can't remember the name of the program, (I think it was Seconds From Disaster) but in it, they said 85 people in TOTAL, died. WAY less than hundreds. I think there may have been a lot of inaccuracies in that episode, because they said the fire was in Nov '81, not '80.

[radiodj1520]

In This Clip, From 0:00 To 0:30, It Was NBC News' NBC Nightly News With John Chancellor Video Open From Friday Evening, November 21, 1980.

[MattTheSaiyan]

Most of those who died where nowhere near the flames....ventilation shafts (or something like that) drew in the toxic gasses into rooms. After this, during the rest of the 1980s, rules were made more strict as far as design is concerned.

[kittywoman5309]

In the 80,s no sprinklers were required!!The decor were Hollywood polyuerathane props!!The MGM is now Bally's,and rebuilt to code!!!Most people that didn't make it had succumbed to poly gasses,and just fell asleep!!!It wouldn't happen today!!They are Very Srict to inforce the materials used!!!The stucture itself steel,and concrete remain the original!!!

[Srd1126]

2,000 rooms considered big back then? Imagine if it happened today. Ignoring the advances in building codes to supress fire, the toll would be far higher if say the same thing happened at The Mirage for example.

[JetRanger0007]

Probably one of Tony's friends did it to get people over to the StarDust and Riveria, so they could get more skim ! Anthony "Tony" - Spiltoro , "The Ant"

[JimmBailey]

Hey, Elegance...I was 12 when this happened and remembered even then how I riveting it was on television. Very sad.

I was just in Vegas two weeks ago, staying downtown and felt traces of sadness walking through the strip and going through Bally's. I'm glad you survived the fire. Hopefully it's now just a memory and you've moved on and done okay since :(

[helookalikaman79]

This happened on my 1st birthday, I was born and raised in las vegas and my late father worked there. It is now a very small hotel (in comparison to the newer hotels) called ballys... its one of the dinosaurs.....  OUT with the OLD in with the NEW....

[wrkn258]

its not a small hotel, i looked at the top 20 biggest hotels in the world. mgm came in second place

[helookalikaman79]

The MGM in current records is the MGM GRAND, the building that burned back then was MGM at the time it is now BALLYS hotel as MGM moved to the new current campus down the strip from the origional building. Ballys (now) is the same building MGM (then) ..... BALLYS is a very tiny hotel in comparison to the NEW mega resorts we have here in Las Vegas

[wrkn258]

no im talking about the current mgm, not ballys

[helookalikaman79]

Yep, then it is one of the biggest, but in the video the building burning is ballys hotel (at the time of the fire it was MGM )

[nanlisa]

I was working as a full-time dietary aide at a Catholic nursing facility when this happened. That same night, CBS aired the infamous "Who Shot J.R.?" episode of Dallas; breaking a 13-year drought as the most-watched TV episode of all-time. (The one before that was the final episode of The Fugitive.)

[elegance954]

I will never forget that day , as I am one of the surviviors of this tragic fire. I was only 15 a the time. Hard to believe  it will be 30 years next Nov.

[useless925]

i was there in feb to get maaried there. it's now Bally's hotel.

[patmix]

the sin's city on fire !!!!!!!!

[shydmples]

yeah..this was 1980...I was in the 4th grade...seems like yesterday

[snoops71]

I was in the 4th grade, too;-)

[shydmples]

lol..man....time flies, huh? lol Are you in Vegas?

[snoops71]

No, I'm in TX, but I did visit Vegas over the summer.

Is that where you are?

[shydmples]

No...but I I'm in Chicago (unfortunately) lol I'm trying to move back to Vegas...that's where I was born & raised...I remember the fire & remember being in elementary school when it happened....I remember that like it was yesterday...that definitely was a tragedy.

[snoops71]

I know I heard about it on the news. We didn't watch NBC then, but CBS. It was an awful tragedy. When I was in Vegas, my sister and I went through the MGM Grand. I hope you make it back to Vegas soon! What was it like growing up there?

[shydmples]

I'm trying to send you a message so we don't clutter up this message board..lol..put me on your buddy list so I can go into detail about Vegas..lol

[snoops71]

You do have a point! I'll send you a friend request now...

[elegance954]

I was 15 years old when we were staying there and escaped by heading up to the roof. I cant believe it has been almost 30 years since the fire.I have only been in the hotel once since the fire since it has become Ballys. Iam in Vegas every spring and that building still gives me chills when I see it. We stay at the beautiful Mandalay Bay Resort every year.

[RySenkari]

"real athletes, phony students"

Some things never change.

[mellielou48170]

I just found out that my dad, though his obituary tributes from former co-workers at the MGM, saved the lives of the employees in the coin vault. The coin wrapping machines were too loud for the workers to hear the fire alarms. He took rolls of coin to bang at the vault door until someone opened it. He led them out the back door to safety. I'm very proud to have heard this story and am glad there were not more deaths due to his bravery.

[NYbeerdude]

this was broadcast 3 weeks and 1 day before the day I was born .... its freaky watching this...

[allman27]

Huge ass at 1:17

[bigwin06486]

your a huge ass... :-I

[penske369]

Wasnt this the same day as Who Shot JR?

[16Lizards]

maybe 11-21-81...not sure but it was sometime in 1981.

[penske369]

Are you sure this was in 1981? Im pretty sure I read that it was the same morning as the Who Shot JR? episode aired, and that was 11-21-80.

[16Lizards]

Apparently it was 11-21-80...just looked it up. I remember the JR publicity and thought I remember what grade I was in, but wrong :)

[soundsfromnothing]

I Think it happened in '80 too. Plus, this was featured early on, on the "that's incredible" tv show.

[CoreyLongmire]

this sound similar to what the victims went through on 9/11

[AmbientMusic]

This was sad. I remember watching it on television when I was a youth.

[wmbrown6]

The opening announcer was Bill Hanrahan. Also, the teletype sound heard at the opening was the same as was used on the "Weekend Update" sketches in the early years of "Saturday Night Live."

[wmbrown6]

(PART 2) . . . which indicates that that particular teletype sound was from NBC's own in-house SFX library.

[MizNelson]

I miss the older days of television news with the sound of the teletypes chugging away in the background.

[blanchelincoln]

There was another infamous hotel fire just a couple of weeks later on Dec. 4, 1980 at the Stouffer Inn in Harrison, NY. And then in July 1981 was the walkways collapse at the Kansas City Hyatt Regency.

[byrd56]

I wish you had that "Special Segment" on "Real Athletes/Phony Students"...some of that still applies today.

[BojanglesUdon]

Roger Mudd is awesome

[GFI888]

This is great - excellent quality. People in Vegas still talk about this fire decades later. Fire laws changed and casinos are safer because of it. The MGM rebuilt in a new location. This is where Ballys is now.