Escape from Hilton by N.Z. woman

Press, 13 February 1981, Page 4

Escape from Hilton by N.Z. woman

A former Timaru woman who was staying at the Las Vegas Hilton when fire broke out on Wednesday has telephoned her. mother in Christchurch to Ijet her know she is unharmed. • Eight people were killed and 200 injured in the blaze. Mrs Jo-Anne Rhodes, aged 24, called her mother, Mrs Josephine Cole, twice yesterday from the Flamingo Hotel, in Las Vegas where she • is- -. recovering, from smoke inhalation. Mrs Rhodes was staying on the fifth floor of the Hilton when the fire broke out. She had gone to her room to get ready for an Andy Williams concert which was to be held at the hotel that night. When she left her room she saw smoke coming out of the elevator. She returned to her room and telephoned reception who told her to go to the .fire escape at the north - or south end of the floor. She: panicked when she arrived at what she- thought was the north end of the

floor/ only to find it was a dead-end. She began shouting and banging on doors, some of which had “Do Not Disturb” signs hanging on them. One man came to his door, “stark naked,” wondering. what all the noise, : was about. ' x Mrs Rhodes returned to her room to collect belongings, then covered her face with a wet towel and left the building via the .stairs. She was met at the entrance by. a television crew who interviewed her, before she was "bundled” into an ambalance and takent 6 hospital. She was given injections for smoke inhalation, X-rayed, and \ checked for lung poisoning. .“Priests ..were running about everywhere,” she told her mother; While leaving the hotel, Mrs Rhodes saw one person jump from a window, and another woman was “screaming her lungs out.” She did not know if the person who jumped survived.

She told her mother that the entertainer, Natalie Cole, who was staying at the hotel, was “running round looking for her two children” amid the confusion. Mrs Rhodes had noted that there were ■no alarms working at the time of the fire. • Meanwhile a small slender porter at the hotel yesterday faced charges of being the arsonist who-start-ed the fire, a crime' that could bring the death penalty in Nevada. The police arrested .Philip Cline, aged 23, a busboy on room service at the Las Vegas Hilton whom Deputy Police Chief Eric Cooper said was the first to report the fire. Cline faces charges of one count of arson and eight counts of homicide. Three smaller fires were set at the hotel after the first devastating fire, but the police were keeping open the question of who was- responsible for these other acts. Earlier report, Page 8