Story by Barry Harper
Photos by Mitzi Johnson
At 6:56 AM on May 4, 2001 the North Tunica County Fire District responded to a report of a structural fire at
the Grand Casino.
On arrival, they discovered the front wall at the North entrance of the casino was heavily involved.
At the front of the casino there is an iron fence and water with a
ramp walkway and a metal cover over the walkway stretching over the water to
the casino appoximately 125 feet. Because of this it was impossibe to attack
the fire with handlines.
The flames had already went up the front wall to the
roof by the time we arrived. We setup our 100 foot platform and attacked the
blaze with the two monitor nozzles on the platform. As the platform operation
was going on a team of firefighters went interior to check and see if the
fire had penetrated the casino and what the conditions were.
The casino was
evacuated and the report from the interior crew reported no
smoke or flames inside the casino and all floors were secure. The exterior
fire was extinguished very quickly and upon investigation found that a faulty
neon light had ignited the front wall which is a facade that is constructed
of styrofoam and stucco.
There were no enjuries reported.
The Grand Casino
was built six years ago and has over 140,000 square feet and 8 restaurants
and 3 seperate hotels with a total of 1200 rooms. The North Tunica Fire
Department was establiished three and half years ago due to the growth in the gambling industry with a total of 10 casinos.
