Las Vegas NowMGM Grand Fire's 22nd Anniversary

MGM Grand Fire's 22nd Anniversary

(Nov. 21) -- The Clark County Fire Department has long maintained that a deadly fire 22 years ago at the MGM Grand Hotel was accidental, not arson. But a pair of former Metro detectives say that key evidence relating to the fire was suppressed. The detectives think the person who set fire at the MGM is the same one who torched the Hilton Hotel months later.

Nov. 21, 2002, marks the 22nd anniversary of the worst disaster in Las Vegas history: the MGM fire, which killed 84 people and injured hundreds more. Investigators concluded the fire was caused by an electrical malfunction, but is that what really happened? The Channel 8 I-Team has found three veteran investigators who say there are strong indications the fire was set by an arsonist, which would make the fire the largest mass murder case in Nevada history.

Millions of dollars were spent on the investigation, and the experts say the evidence is clear. But a handful of former detectives say they were ordered to bury some of the facts. And, they say, they know who may really have set the fire.

On Nov. 21, 1980, a fire was first reported just after 7 a.m. at the MGM Grand. By the time firefighters arrived, a one-million-cubic-foot wall of flames was rushing through the casino, melting slot machines and sending a cyanide-laced cloud of killer smoke pouring upward.

Radio DJ Lark Williams was working that day as an MGM keno runner and managed to get out just ahead of the fireball. Williams was interviewed numerous times by investigators but remains curious to this day about the kinds of questions she was asked: “Not, what time did I smell smoke?’ but names that were paged, did I see someone down this hallway at such and such a time. There's always been something in my mind that didn't ring true about the findings.”

But the day after the fire, investigators had already announced the cause of the fire saying, “The only thing in the areas of origin is electrical in nature.” In reality, the debate over what caused the tragedy continued for weeks.

Then-District Attorney Bob Miller, Nevada’s former governor, was the first person after the fire department into the scene. He heard many viewpoints from investigators in the days ahead. “Some felt there were indications it was arson," he said. "Some indicated it was an individual or suspicious activities. We always kept it as a possibility because if it's true, we wanted them brought to justice.”

Miller says the preponderance of evidence convinced him and others that arson was not the cause. That evidence is contained in the county fire department's voluminous report on the tragedy. The report states the fire began inside a wall between the MGM's deli and coffee shop. Several factors contributed, but basically, it was the result of an electrical short.

But 81 days after the MGM burned, something else happened that would raise questions for some investigators: The Las Vegas Hilton caught fire, and eight people died. Because four fires had been set, investigators knew it was arson.

Veteran homicide Sgt. Bob Hilliard says he talked at the scene with a senior arson investigator who told him “the same guy who burnt this place burnt the MGM.”

Hilliard and his team had toured the MGM after the blaze and accepted the official story. “I said, 'You guys ruled it accidental.' He pulled out a keno slip and drew a diagram of exactly how the suspect did the arson at the MGM,” said Hilliard. “He said the suspect wired open the flue through the air conditioner that fed the paper products room, went through a wall where the keno board was in the coffee shop and took out the casino in 90 seconds.”

The arson investigator was named Loren Lomprey. He later denied having the conversation with Hilliard, but there was another witness, detective Chuck Lee, who confirmed to us Hilliard's account. It was Lee who helped nab the suspect in the Hilton fire: a troubled, 23-year-old busboy named Phillip Cline. Cline eventually admitted he started the fire but said it was an accident. A jury found otherwise. He was convicted on eight counts of murder.

Phillip Cline Hilliard and his team thought otherwise and began looking for links between Cline and the MGM fire. “My investigators were able to place him at the MGM fire at the approximate time the fire started. He said he was there to meet a friend in the coffee shop,” said Hilliard.

They also found that Cline had worked at the coffee shop, the site of the fire, earlier in the same year. But when Hilliard took the information to his superiors, “I was told by the lieutenant in charge: ‘We don't want 85 murders on the wall. The fire department ruled it accidental, and you'd better back off it,’ ” said Hilliard.

He followed orders.Within four months, Hilliard, Chuck Lee and almost everyone else in their unit were transferred out of homicide. The lieutenant who gave the order to keep quiet is John Connors. He died a few years ago.

Not only was Phillip Cline at the MGM when the fire started, the detectives say, he can be linked to several other fires at his workplaces, information that's never been made public before. The detectives are now collaborating on a book project.

MGM Grand Fire, Part II
Phillip Cline is serving eight consecutive life terms for the murders of the eight people who died in the 1981 Hilton Hotel fire, a fire Cline says started accidentally while he was involved in a gay encounter on the eighth floor. But at least a few detectives think Cline is responsible for many more deaths.

The Hilton blaze erupted just 81 days after the even more tragic fire at the MGM Grand, in which 84 people lost their lives. An intensive investigation by several agencies found the MGM fire was accidental, that it broke out inside a wall between the MGM’s coffee shop and deli in a bus boys station, and that the cause was electrical. But at least a few investigators still harbor doubts today. Homicide detective Bob Hilliard says his began the night of the Hilton fire, when arson investigator Loren Lomprey told him that the same person had torched both the Hilton and the MGM.

“I don't believe it was accidental based on what Lomprey told me, and he was very upset when he told me, upset with his department,” said Hilliard.

Another former detective, Chuck Lee, says he heard Lomprey, too.

When Cline emerged as the prime suspect in the Hilton fire, Hilliard's homicide squad began digging into possible links to the MGM tragedy. They found them. Cline, who had worked at the Hilton only a few days before setting fire to it, had also worked months earlier at the MGM in the coffee shop, next to where the fire began. What's more, he was there the day the fire started, Hilliard says.

The team also found that fire seemed to follow Cline. Fires were set at a hotel and a restaurant in California, both after Cline had been fired. In Las Vegas, Cline was caught stealing on the job at the El Cortez; two fires were set there days later. Cline was questioned by police. The same happened at a roller rink after Cline was questioned by cops. Cline's defense attorney, without comment on his guilt or innocence, concedes he heard stories about Cline's interest in fire. Police believed Cline gets sexual pleasure from fires.

John Wawerna was the point man for the DA's office on the MGM case. He says Cline claimed to have been at home when the MGM fire erupted, and that Cline added seeing the fire on TV aroused him. But that's as far as Wawerna goes. He concedes there may be some coincidences, but he says the evidence is overwhelming -- there was no MGM arson, by Cline or anyone else.

Hilliard admits he didn't have access to all of the scientific evidence in the case, but he wonders what made Lomprey, a top arson investigator, confide to both him and Lee. Lomprey has been unreachable for comment, but a former partner of his, one-time private eye Robert Peoples, says he, too, heard the fire was fishy saying: “Loren indicated on a few occasions he had altered his [MGM] report to say what higher ups wanted it to say.”

The one person who knows for sure is behind bars in the Lovelock Prison. The I-Team wrote to Cline. He wrote back and agreed to an interview. A day later, he changed his mind and has not responded to other inquiries. Cline’s attorneys are still arguing he didn't get a fair shake in the Hilton case and hope for a new trial.

Click here to download a copy of the MGM Grand Hotel Fire Investigation Report