A major building of the Strip District was besieged by fire damage of all sorts last Friday, June 20th. A 30,000-square-foot grocery outlet located in the basement of a Smallman Street building suffered the most damage of the building's other six businesses. Excessive water from sprinklers and firefighters' hoses caused extensive damage to KML discount grocery outlet's stock.

Whiskey Dick's Saloon, the Metropol and Rosebud nightclubs, Costume World and Sam Zuckerman & Sons distributors were also damaged in the small blaze.

The fire began on the western end of the roof that borders 16th Dtreet. Workers for a company that was instlling a new roof presumably started the fire while using a welding torch. This caused sprinklers in two skylights on the roof (among others) to turn on, which prevented the fire from spreading. The water from the sprinklers, coupled with that of firefighter hoses, resulted in a great amount of damage to the innards of the building, especially in the aforementioned KML discount grocery outlet store's basement.

Beginning at 6:38 p.m., the fire spread black smoke (caused when several layers of roofing were burned) throughout the Strip until it was contained over an hour and a half later.

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