no one suspects the busboy:

high-rise arson

tragedy at the hottest hotel in las vegas

The Las Vegas Hilton featured some of the most modern amenities in town along with showcase entertainers during the 1970’s, and the hotel looked poised for additional growth and success heading into the 1980’s, ready to benefit from the steady transition of control of Vegas casinos from organized crime councils in Kansas City to corporate boards.  But a twisting story involving the deadliest arson in modern Nevada history temporarily derailed the steady expansion the Hilton had enjoyed, while putting a young hotel busboy in the national spotlight as the unlikely hero-turned-suspect behind the blaze.

viva las vegas

The Las Vegas Hilton grew into one of the most happening places in town over the course of the 1970’s.  The Central Tower of the property was the first part of the hotel to be constructed in 1969, which opened as The International, a hotel with rooms featuring themes from different countries.  Ownership was transferred to the Hilton in 1971, which was followed by an expansion to the hotel in 1975 with the construction of the East Tower, and a further addition added in 1979 with the opening of the North Tower. 

These rapid expansions led to the Hilton becoming the largest hotel in the United States by 1981, featuring over 2,700 rooms. The Hilton brought in thousands of patrons on most days with draws like a state-of-the-art sports book, as well as headliners like Elvis and Liberace. Plus, its location in close proximity to the Las Vegas Convention Center helped keep occupancy rates high at the Hilton as the city gained a reputation for hosting conventions for groups from hackers to salespeople of every stripe.

inferno on the eighth-floor

Between guests lounging in their rooms and patrons filling the restaurants and showrooms occupying the ground floors of the casino, around 4,000 people were packed in the bustling Hilton on the night of February 10, 1981 - a decent crowd for a Tuesday, bolstered by attendees of a savings and loan convention.

Philip Cline, a twenty-three-year-old busboy who only recently started working at the Hilton, went on his break at 8:00 p.m. when he noticed a small fire in an eighth-floor elevator lobby of the East Tower.  Cline rushed to a nearby courtesy phone and dialed the hotel operator to alert the security department.  After he raised the alarm, the busboy hung up the phone and grabbed a nearby trashcan.  Cline headed to a sink in a guestroom and filled the trashcan with water, returning to the fire where he futilely flung the liquid at the growing inferno.

Cline was relieved when a security guard appeared on the scene with a fire extinguisher in hand - but his heart sunk when the extinguisher failed to work.  The guard threw the useless red metal tube to the ground and left to find a functioning extinguisher.  Cline remained, but by this point the fire was growing at a rapid rate, feeding on the carpeted walls and ceiling lining the elevator lobby.  Cline inched back from the increasing heat before he made the decision to abandon his post. 

As the suffocating smoke generated by the flames grew darker and darker and fell lower down the hallway, Cline knocked on several doors to alert guests of the threat before making his way to the stairwell.  He exited on the second floor and burst into the room service employee area to warn everyone of the danger unfolding above, prompting his colleagues to commence their evacuation of the hotel. 

Meanwhile, the fire was rapidly becoming uncontrollable.  The blaze flashed over and the temperature rose to the point it shattered the large window overlooking the city that lined the eighth-floor elevator lobby, allowing flames to flicker out into the cool Vegas night.  In a horrific cascading effect, the heat from the fire shattered the window of the floor above, allowing the flames to ignite the flammable carpeted walls and ceiling of the exposed elevator lobby, fueling the upward rise of the fire along the side of the hotel.    

Within twenty minutes of the first flames breaking out, the fire consumed enough furnishings and combustible material to stretch from the eighth to the thirtieth floor of the Hilton.  The raging fire cut a “V-shaped” gash into the façade of the grand hotel while spewing ceaseless volumes of acrid smoke into the stairwells that became so thick it was barely possible for escaping guests to see their hands as they fled for safety.  Fortunately, a few guests had the foresight to hold wet towels to their face to blunt the choking effects of the smoke as they made their escape.

Guests that managed to escape by descending the stairs and exiting the ground floors were covered in soot, with many coughing and crying uncontrollably from the blistering effects of the smoke. As for Philip Cline, he eventually made his way to the employee parking lot where he watched alongside his coworkers as the fire consumed the hotel’s East Tower.

calm and chaos

The chaos unfolding on the upper floors of the Hilton was contrasted with scenes of calm on the two ground-floor levels of the establishment, where many guests reported never even hearing a fire alarm.  It fell to rank-and-file employees to perform the task of ensuring an orderly evacuation of the Hilton’s restaurants and showrooms.

While one guest and her husband were dining at a Japanese restaurant on the ground floors of the hotel, their waiter brought the check and then nonchalantly informed the couple they should finish their drinks and head toward the exits as there was an undescribed “issue” on the upper floors.  Patrons chatted as they exited the ground floor, some still carrying their cocktails, only to be confronted once outside with the jarring sight of furniture crashing to the pavement as hotel guests smashed their room windows with whatever was available to gain relief from the stifling smoke. 

Outside the Hilton developed a chaotic juxtaposition of uninjured guests in dining attire intermixed with those fortunate enough to escape the upper floors who were dressed in blackened nightgowns and pajamas, some with bloodied hands from smashing the windows in their rooms.  Stunned guests and employees massing outside watched in dreadful suspense as hundreds of feet above people dangled from bed sheets, attempting to make their way from one balcony to another in an effort to evade the flames.

Over 450 firefighters from twenty-three different stations ultimately arrived on the scene to combat the fire.  Firefighters ascending the stairwells to the upper floors encountered a hellish scene, describing thick “plastic” smoke and an intense heat as they neared the point of origin for the fire.  Screams for help echoed from behind sealed hotel room doors as first responders worked their way through the building, with the fire flaring outside of occupied rooms as it radiated outward from the elevator lobbies into the corridors of the floors on the East Tower.  The fire eventually engulfed much of the upper portion of the Hilton’s East Tower, leading to the surreal scene of flames licking upward nearly 100 feet into the clear Vegas night sky as the iconic Hilton sign glowed in the background.

Helicopters circled the Hilton, navigating through unending thick clouds of smoke, as aerial crews worked in concert with their colleagues on the ground to airlift guests from the hotel’s rooftop.  Meanwhile, firefighters provided assistance at the hotel switchboard where they directed operators as they talked guests through steps to improve their chances of survival, like stuffing wet towels beneath their doors and waiting in their rooms until help arrived.  An intercom system cautioned guests not to break the windows of their rooms to avoid providing additional fuel for the fire.   

Firefighters fought the fire floor by floor. And after several grueling hours, firefighting teams managed to finally extinguish the last remnants of the blaze.

lost in the fire

The full scope of the carnage at the Hilton only came into view once the last flames died out.  Eight guests at the hotel perished in the fire. 

The first victims of the fire were three hotel guests found in an eighth-floor elevator lobby. At least two of these fatalities were the result of misdirection from a hotel employee - Gerald Ingram, a guest on the ninth-floor, asked a hotel employee where he should go to escape the smoke filling the floor. The employee initially appeared confused, but then told the guest to use the elevator to get to the ground floor. Ingram and two other hotel guests crammed into an elevator and immediately realized the mistake they had made. The elevator opened on the eighth floor where they were instantly met with a thick mass of black smoke. Ingram threw himself to the ground where he was able to breathe fresh air, but his two companions were not so lucky, collapsing to the ground unconscious within seconds. Ingram crawled along the dark hallway until he saw a light under a door, which he entered and where he was able to safely wait out the fire until help arrived.

Four other guests died on upper floors as the fire ascended the building by leaping from elevator lobby to elevator lobby.  Later investigations showed that each of the four guests that died in their rooms on the upper floors had opened the doors to their rooms, allowing suffocating smoke to billow inside. 

And the last fatality was a guest that tragically fell to his death just as firefighters were bringing the blaze under control.  Later, the county coroner could not definitively determine whether the guest had jumped to his death or if someone had pushed him, a mystery that was never followed up on during the arson investigation, leaving open the slim possibility someone took advantage of the fire to settle a score.

Over 300 others in the hotel, including 48 firefighters, suffered injuries, largely from smoke inhalation.  More than 100 guests sustained injuries serious enough they were admitted to local hospitals for treatment, including singer Natalie Cole, who had been scheduled to perform at the Hilton the night of the fire.  Guests at the Hilton uninjured in the blaze were relocated to other Las Vegas properties while repairs were made to the destroyed hotel. After suffering $10 million in fire damage, the Hilton reopened a few weeks after the blaze.      

Barron Hilton, head of the famed hotel chain, issued a statement of condolence and promised to pay for the best medical care for any guests injured in the fire.  Perhaps this offer was an effort to stave off litigation, but nevertheless the inevitable lawsuits against the Hilton followed. Attorneys for survivors of the blaze pointed to the hotel’s failure to maintain consistent fire safety measures on the property, which resulted in the company paying $16.5 million to victims of the catastrophe.

failing to learn from the mgm fire

The sting to the local community caused by the tragedy at the Hilton was compounded by the fact Las Vegas had suffered another devastating hotel fire only three months before when an electrical fire in a ground-floor kitchen at the MGM Grand (now Bally’s) spread throughout the gaming area. The flames and smoke killed 87 people, and images of MGM guests falling to their deaths as they attempted to escape the flames by climbing down bedsheets were televised across the nation.

The sight of the Hilton being transformed into a towering inferno so soon after the ghastly MGM blaze reinforced a panic among local officials that Vegas was developing a reputation for fire-prone hotels that would ultimately harm the lifeblood of the city’s economy – tourism. This concern was reinforced by anecdotes such as a Hilton guest commenting to a reporter immediately after escaping the fire that Las Vegas “was a firetrap.” 

After the MGM fire, local fire safety officials in Clark County prepared recommendations for updating the fire code that would have led to implementation of the most rigorous standards in the country.  But when this proposal was submitted to legislators in Carson City, the regulations failed to gain traction.  Many legislators were of the belief that the MGM fire was a one-off, rare occurrence - it was apparently unfathomable to them that in a city of high-rise hotels a future fire could be a concern. Plus developers - with their campaign contributions - lobbied hard against regulations that they believed would slow down business.

But the opposition to those pushing drastic reforms of the fire codes melted away after the Hilton blaze.  Nevada enacted the toughest fire code regulatory and inspection protocol in the nation, and there have been no fatalities in a Las Vegas high-rise hotel fire since February 10, 1981. 

a hero gets a second look

Philip Cline, the busboy that first spotted a fire at the Hilton, was initially hailed as a hero for his efforts to squelch the flames in their early stages and for warning guests of the danger.  But within hours of the blaze being extinguished, police investigators had questions about the young man’s version of events leading up to the deadly conflagration, especially after arson investigators determined three other minor blazes had broken out in the Hilton near the same time as the fire in the eighth-floor elevator lobby – one in a ninth-floor firehose cabinet; one in a third-floor elevator lobby; and one in a second-floor linen closet housing uniforms for room service staff.

Cline fell into an unforeseen trap when he gave three written statements in the immediate aftermath of the fire – one to the Hilton, one to investigators with the fire department, and one to police detectives.  The first two statements were consistent, but the one to the police piqued investigators’ interest.  Cline wrote in his statement to the police: “I grabbed a trashcan and filled it up with fire, and I put the couch out and then I went to get some more water (the word “fire” was crossed out) to put the curtain out.”  Investigators considered this to be a Freudian slip warranting a closer look at the hero busboy. 

The day after the fire, detectives arrived at Cline’s house and asked if he would mind coming down to the police station for an interview.  Once at the station, Cline agreed to take a polygraph exam to clear his name.  Cline performed poorly on the polygraph, and after two hours of intensive questioning, detectives decided to call the suspect’s bluff regarding his story, telling him they knew he started the fire, and the best thing for him now was to just come clean.  The young busboy crumbled – he started crying and admitted that his initial story had been a lie.

Cline told investigators that earlier during his shift on the night of the fire he met a well-dressed man on the seventh floor of the hotel who introduced himself only as “Joe.”  The two men struck up a conversation and hit it off.  The two agreed to meet each other later on the eighth-floor around 7:30 p.m. 

Later that night, while on a break from work, Cline decided to relax on a couch located in one of the elevator lobbies on the eighth floor of the hotel.  The busboy explained to the police that Joe arrived as previously planned and joined Cline on the couch. The stranger then pulled out a joint.  The two passed the marijuana back and forth as they cuddled and fooled around.  But then Joe accidentally dropped the lit joint onto some nearby curtains, instantly igniting a small fire.  Joe bolted from the scene at the sight of the flames, while Cline tried to put out the fire and alert those nearby to the danger.

With that admission, Cline was placed under arrest and charged with eight counts of murder and one count of arson.

the making of an arsonist

Philip Cline was originally from the Bay Area in California, the wayward son of an Air Force officer - the arsonist’s father later described his son as the black sheep of the family. Cline, a former altar boy, routinely ran into trouble in his youth, which then led to him being subjected to routine beatings by his disciplinarian father. The young man even briefly attempted to escape his chaotic home life by running away to Las Vegas as a teenager. 

Cline’s dislike of the routine imposed by school led to him dropping out in the 9th grade. The directionless youth took jobs in the service industry to support himself after dropping out, but he quickly fell into a criminal lifestyle, committing a series of petty crimes, including stealing cars, transporting stolen property, embezzlement, and possessing burglary tools.  He finally left the Bay Area for good in 1980, traveling first to Michigan for a period of time before settling – as best he could – in Las Vegas, the same city, with its offers of quick success, that attracted the lost soul in his teen years. 

Upon moving to Vegas, Cline continued to work in the service sector, though he persisted with his pattern of only holding jobs for a short period of time. He was first hired as a change cashier at the El Cortez, but was promptly fired from that job for embezzling about $200 from the casino. Cline then worked briefly as a busboy at the MGM Grand before landing his fateful job at the Hilton. 

After the Hilton arson, there were rumors – never proven – that Cline had a role in the deadly blaze at the MGM only a few months earlier.

trial for murder: cline pins the blame on hilton

Philip Cline’s trial for murder and arson occurred over six weeks starting in the last months of 1981.  The defense’s argument was that Cline had accidentally started the fire with no intent of causing harm, and the eight deaths were the result of the Hilton’s failure to maintain proper fire safety measures.  Cline’s attorney had to hire expert witnesses familiar with fire mechanics from California and Pennsylvania because none in Las Vegas would assist the defense.  Cline’s lawyers also argued that their client could not possibly have been in multiple places at the same time to start the four fires at the Hilton the night of February 10th  - in fairness to the defense, police in the days right after the fire confidently proclaimed they had strong suspects for a second arsonist the night of the fire, though no other suspects were ever arrested. 

The prosecution had a different take.  Fire investigators attempted to replicate Cline’s story under controlled conditions.  But curtains of the type used in the Hilton elevator lobbies failed to ignite when a lit joint or cigarette was held to the material.  Investigators determined through repeated experiments that the only way to ignite the curtains was with an open flame – video of the tests played for the jury demonstrated it took only six seconds to obtain ignition of the curtains with the flame from a cigarette lighter.

Then there was the parade of incriminating eyewitnesses.  A waitress that worked in the room service area on the second floor of the Hilton reported that Cline seemed obsessed with getting as many people as possible out of the hotel the night the fire.  Other witnesses testified that Cline boasted about wanting to be a hero and that he desired the limelight.  The prosecution painted a picture of a young man obsessed with obtaining celebrity by any means necessary. 

A cellmate of Cline’s at the county jail offered what was perhaps the most damning testimony against the youthful alleged firebug.  He testified Cline told him that after starting the fire on the eighth floor, he stopped and used a phone on the third floor to call a friend.  Cline asked his friend to phone in a threat to the Hilton so the fire would be pinned on organized crime elements.  The friend suggested that Cline instead start some diversionary fires so the police would have a harder time pinning the blaze on him.  The prosecution then presented the jury with Cline’s own videotaped confession from his interrogation by police the day after the fire. 

The prosecution continued to hammer home its case by presenting a fire investigator to poke holes in Cline’s initial story about using a trashcan to throw water at the blaze.  The investigator had tried to replicate filling the type of trashcan allegedly used by Cline in the same sink at the Hilton but was only able to fill the can with about an inch of water.  A juror was later disqualified when, while touring the Hilton during the trial to gain a better understanding of how the fire started and spread, he snuck away from his fellow jurors and tried to replicate the fire investigator’s testimony with a trashcan.

the verdict

After the defense called only one witness, the case went to the jury.  The jury quickly found Cline guilty on all counts. Several jurors were strongly persuaded by the testimony of a hotel guest that said she witnessed Cline on the phone reporting the fire before any sign of fire was present, indicating the busboy raised the alarm before setting the curtains alight.  This was strong evidence that Cline sparked the blaze in an effort to become a hero and gain “a bit of stardom,” as one juror later explained her understanding of the motive.

In subsequent deliberations, the jurors promptly ruled out prosecutor Mel Harmon’s request for the death penalty since they agreed Cline had not intended to kill anyone when he started the fire. The only question was whether or not Cline would die in prison or have a chance of again being a free man.   

The jury decided to return a sentence for Cline of life without parole, with some jurors later explaining their reasoning by noting they didn’t think Cline intended to harm anyone, but that he should have known the risks of starting a fire in a hotel due to the tragic result of the MGM blaze.

a jailhouse interview and (maybe) the truth

Cline granted a jailhouse interview to a local Vegas newspaper over two decades after his conviction, where he finally came clean about what really happened the night of the fire.

Earlier in the day on February 10, 1981, a friend gave Cline a joint laced with cocaine and PCP, warning him not to smoke the whole thing at once. Cline ignored this advice when he sat down on a couch in an eighth-floor elevator lobby of the East Tower while on break - there never was any mysterious man named “Joe” that met the busboy for a rendezvous. As the powerful narcotics took hold, Cline lazily flicked the cigarette lighter in his hand. Then, for no reason other than being in a PCP-induced stupor, he used his lighter to set fire to some nearby curtains.

After the fire got out of control and he evacuated the eighth-floor, Cline hoped police would not tie him to the blaze.  But after he broke down under police questioning, he felt the fire and punishment resulting from it were karmic repayment for the string of petty crimes he had committed but for which he had never been prosecuted.  Cline said, “You don’t get away with nothing.  It just comes back and gets you.”

Cline stressed he had no intention of hurting anyone when he set the fire, blaming his murderous actions on the PCP-laced joint: “Messing with the drugs.  I couldn’t handle it.  I was weak-minded.”  A police investigator that had worked the Hilton arson case responded to Cline’s statements, “Only he knows his intentions.  You set a fire in a crowded hotel…what do you expect to happen?”

There is no certainty as to the veracity of what Cline said in this interview given this is at least his third version of the events that transpired on the night of February 10, 1981.  But Cline did have this to say about his actions: “I can’t bring back them eight people.  And that’s what messes with me the most, is I can’t undo what I did…” 

Philip Cline is expected to serve out the rest of his days at the Nevada State Prison.