Bendorf dictated notes to his wife immediately after fighting the fire 40 years ago. Jerry Bendorf’s notes from the MGM Grand fire, shown at his Las Vegas home on Nov. Retired Clark County Fire Department Capt. “And if you weren’t working on it, it was because you didn’t want to.” “Pretty much everyone in town was working on the case,” said attorney Will Kemp, 65, who represented plaintiffs. The result of the massive litigation in the valley, which did not have enough firms at the time to handle the workload, is that talented attorneys arrived and grew firms over the next few years, significantly expanding the legal community in Southern Nevada. More than 1,350 legal claims stemmed from the deaths and injuries at the MGM Grand, paving the way for a $223 million settlement. Coupled with the deadly Hilton Hotel blaze three months later, the two fires led to public policies that upgraded fire safety standards in high-rise buildings throughout the state. 21, 1980, sparked by faulty wiring in a deli restaurant at the east end of the casino, revealed code violations, design flaws and other serious vulnerabilities in one of the most modern resorts. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal) and present The photo was taken by a fellow firefighter as they drove to the fire. Jerry Bendorf shows a photo of the MGM Grand fire at his Las Vegas home on Nov.

It killed 87 people and injured hundreds more inside the Las Vegas Strip property, changing so much about the valley 40 years later. He was just one of more than 200 firefighters who responded to the catastrophic MGM Grand fire in 1980, the worst blaze in Las Vegas history. “I kind of thought to myself: This is like being in a movie or something. “I didn’t feel like it was me there,” he said.

He said he had done so in order to remember specific accounts of his experience to tell his children and grandchildren.īendorf, 75, recalled sitting against the wall in a lobby as he watched other fire personnel give CPR to victims and thought about how he could relate to Hollywood’s depiction of the fog of war. Jerry Bendorf dictated personal recollections to his wife to type. Other memories can fade with time, so after the devastating fire, rookie Clark County fire Capt.

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