It has been thirty four years since the calamitous fire of the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada took place. It was November 21, 1980 that this fire made it as the second most disastrous hotel fire during it's time. Although I had not been present during that time and was unable to physically experience the devastating event, during my research I was able to develope empathetic connection to how exceedingly this situation affected not only the people who were actually involved in the fire, but also to the idea of overlooking the health and safety of our fellow people. Construction of the MGM Grand Hotel started in 1972 with a total square feet of two million. There were 2,078 rooms, including an arcade, multiple showrooms, and a convention center. And of all those rooms that were built within that two million square feet, only the ardade, showrooms, and convention center had fire sprinklers installed by the time of construction completion in 1973. The Orvin Engineering company suggested that fire sprinklers should be installed but Fred Benninger, MGM Grand Hotel chair at the time, had decided against the suggestion. The construction cost for the entire hotel was aproximately $106 million and to install the fire sprinklers through the hotel would only amount to $192,000 but was saught impracticable. According to firehouse.com and a unnamed documentary the discovery of the fire was at 7:05 AM by an employee. The fire was located at a snackshop called "The Deli." At 7:17 AM the Clark County Fire Department were notified. 7:19 AM the first fire engine made it's way to the hotel. Within six minutes of the discovered flame, 450,000 square feet was involved in the fire at a burning rate of 15-19 feet per second. There were 5,000 people inside; 650 hospitalized and 85 fatalities. It took 90 minutes to get the fire controlled on the
