Las Vegas Hotel Casino on fire

Looks like a fire made Las Vegas hotel guests and personnel to abandon the Monte Carlo Resort & Casino rooms in today. There are no direct reports yet of injuries in the burn, originaly reported around 11 a.m. in the south tower of the enormous hotel compound on the Las Vegas stripe. Everything is under control and no one was entrapped, and there were no reports of major injuries, said Ed Cagalo of the Clark County Fire Department. The 32-floor building was completely evacuated.

The hotel was promptly emptied out and everything was shut down in both directions, jamming traffic for miles onto Interstate 15 as embers and debris fell into the street. .

The fire burned "just on the upper couple of floors" and the damage may be just to the exterior of the building, said Gordon Absher, a spokesman for the hotel's owner, MGM Mirage.

"We've been going door to door. All of our emergency procedures are working," Absher said of the evacuation, adding that some guests were being relocated to other MGM properties in the area, including the New York-New York and MGM Grand.

Facilities include a magnificent entrance hall, health resort and gym and huge pool area with a stifling theme.