Here is the text of an email sent to a local columnist about the MGM fire back in 1980:

"As a young physician with a new practice, I was in Las Vegas for a medical conference at the time of the MGM fire.

"I wanted to treat my wife to a nice place and go to the MGM. She refused as it was too expensive, and we stayed at the Barbary Coast instead.

"The morning of the MGM fire, a security guard who knew that I was a physician asked me to see a person who had just gotten out of the fire.

"The Barbary Coast had cleared out their Keno Lounge, and they were bringing people in from the fire.

"I was joined by a pediatrician from Phoenix who had been in the MGM, a PA (physician's assistant) from Pittsburgh who had also been in the fire and a nurse who was so energetic I never got a chance to talk to her.

"We screened people all morning long to determine if they needed to go to the Convention Center or the hospital. No one outside of Vegas expected much from the city at that time.

"I could not believe how well-prepared Las Vegas was for a disaster of this proportion. Very few cities in the country were prepared for disasters - especially if they had never experienced a disaster.

"In the Barbary Coast, when we needed oxygen, the security guards brought it to us immediately.

"When they ran low, they brought oxygen from the other casinos, and shortly after that, someone from an oxygen supply was there with more bottles.

"If someone needed to go to the hospital, an ambulance crew was there within two minutes - there were ambulances lined up outside ready to take patients.

"When people had to go to the Convention Center, there were buses lined up outside to take them there.

"Doctors and nurses were waiting for patients at the hospital. When the first people arrived at the Convention Center they had food, clothes and cots ready for them.

"I told my wife that this was a city that I would like to live in some day.

"Four years ago we bought a house here and we will retire here when I fully stop working.

"The PA from Pittsburgh had to go to the hospital later in the day as he had burned his feet in the fire and had smoke inhalation. But, it did not keep him from seeing patients at the Barbary Coast."