Fire at MontBleu quickly suppressed, sends two to the hospital

A large oven fire at MontBleu Resort Wednesday afternoon caused the evacuation of 200 people from the casino and sent two people to the hospital with smoke related complaints.

Just after 3 p.m., Tahoe Douglas Fire received a call about a fire at the South Shore casino. The fire department responded with a full structure fire team according to Fire Marshal Eric Guevin.

"When we got there we found significant amount of fire and smoke," Guevin told South Tahoe Now. "Casino staff had tried to extinguish the fire with three extinguishers."

A large oven in the main kitchen at the resort caught fire. The flames were about four feet high and eight feet wide according to Guevin.

Staff from the immediate area and casino customers were evacuated as a safety precaution. At one time they were considering evacuating the Casino Cage due to it's proximity to the kitchen, Guevin said.

They were able to put out the fire fairly quickly. Smoke had migrated up to the 17th floor but was very prevalent on the 10th and 11th floors. The elevators were out of commission for about an hour.

The safety threat was eliminated once the flames were suppressed and those evacuated were allowed back inside after 20 minutes.

Even though the kitchen was open for business as soon as the water was mopped up, the large oven is out of commission until Health Department inspectors look at it today and clear it for operation.

Several fire agencies responded to the fire. The Incline Village department arrived to cover the district, Lake Valley Fire came with ambulances, and fire fighters from South Lake Tahoe and East Fork District all responded.

Crews were on scene for about two hours and the all was cleared by 6 p.m.

A call to a MontBleu spokesperson has not been returned as of yet.