6 die in Las Vegas apartment building fire

LOS ANGELES -- Six people were killed and 13 others were injured in a fire at a three-storey apartment in Las Vegas downtown on Saturday, local fire department said.

According to a statement released by the Las Vegas Fire Department on Saturday afternoon, the Alpine Motel Apartments caught fire early in the morning. When firefighters arrived at the wood frame building, "many people were hanging out windows along with thick black smoke pouring out."

The crews put out the fire in less than one minute, the statement said, but the smoke made it impossible to see and breathe inside the building, and many occupants were trapped inside.

"After the fire was distinguished, crews found three people deceased in the building," it said, adding three others were found dead outside.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, and there is no evidence of any criminal activity, the statement said.

Investigators believed that the fire originated from a stove in a unit on the first floor of the building, the statement said, adding residents told firefighters that they were using stoves since the building did not have heating.

Survivors told local newspaper Las Vegas Review-Journal that they were alerted to the fire not by alarms but by neighbors pounding on their doors, and they had to jump from second- and third-storey windows to escape since the stairwells were locked.

The tenants said they had complained about safety issues in the building on several occasions, such as a lack of fire safety equipment.

According to building managers, nearly 50 people were displaced after the fire, which caused damage estimated at $475,000.

The fire is the deadliest one in the city's history, Las Vegas Fire Department spokesman Tim Szymanski said.