Paris Las Vegas Power Outage Leaves Guests in Dark, Video Shows Visitors Struggling

Posted on: October 23, 2020, 02:52h. 

Last updated on: October 23, 2020, 10:23h.

Ed Silverstein @casinoorgedsilv Read More
Expertise: Legal, Tribal Gaming.

A Paris Las Vegas power outage that lasted about two hours forced hotel and casino guests to grapple in the dark Thursday, Oct. 22 at the iconic Las Vegas Strip property.

Some guests were trapped in elevators
The Paris Las Vegas was in the dark for about two hours Thursday night. Lights were on at other nearby buildings. (Image: KLAS)

Casino players were among the first evacuated, according to news and social media accounts. Then some guests in hotel rooms were guided out of their rooms.

An unknown number of passengers were trapped in six elevators, KTNV, a local TV station, also reported. No injuries were reported. But one person was transported to a local hospital after the individual complained of difficulty breathing.

One guest told the station the hotel tower was totally dark. Her room did not have air conditioning or water for close to two hours.

Other guests had flashlights as they found their way in the dark to a staircase, while alarms and sirens were heard in a hallway. A public address system managed to broadcast a message that the source of the alarm was being investigated.

The cause of the blackout was still under investigation as of 1 am PT Friday. Las Vegas Metro police officers, local firefighters, and casino security officers assisted in rescuing or guiding stranded or trapped guests.

Like ‘Blair Witch Project’ Film, Guest Says

A video posted on YouTube showed it took several minutes for some guests to find their way to public areas of the casino or make their way outside.

The poster of the video, who identified himself as Bob Dingo, reported someone smelled what may have been an “electrical fire” on the seventh floor. The report was not confirmed.




At one point, he compared the situation to the “Blair Witch Project … Las Vegas edition,” in reference to the horror film. Later, he said it was more like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, an adventure film.

“It feels like Halloween,” he concluded as he made his way downstairs and onto the ground floor.

As the blackout continued, Metro police officers apparently blocked entrances to the hotel and parking garages, the Las Vegas Review-Journal said. That way, guests could drive away from the property in their cars.

In total, it is believed that hundreds of guests were evacuated from the hotel, the Review-Journal said. At about 9:30 pm, lights came back on, the report said. The evacuated guests cheered.

Some hotel guests apparently chose to stay in their rooms during the chaos, based on initial reports.

Shon Burton, a Phoenix, Arizona resident, told the Review-Journal he was having dinner with his family at Paris’ Tower Restaurant when the power went off at 7:15 pm. It came back on. Then it went off again at 7:30 pm.

Wait staff continued to serve drinks and a piano could be heard until power was out for good, the report said.

“All of the tables had fake candles so nobody panicked,” Burton said in a tweet to the newspaper. “We stayed in the restaurant and looked around. The Bellagio fountain kept the power on and off and we could see that all of Paris was dark.”

Bellagio Fountain Lights Darken

Burton explained in a tweet, the Bellagio Fountains were “powering up and down randomly. Has been down for the last 10 minutes. All fountain lights … out.”

The Paris power outage was officially reported to emergency officials at 8:02 pm, KLAS, a local TV station said.

By 10:30 pm, roughly an hour after the power returned, hotel guests were assembled in the valet area still waiting to get back in their rooms, the newspaper report said. Some had health or other reasons they needed to get back upstairs relatively quickly.

One guest, Chelsea Gallagher, who is from California, had left the hotel to get dinner, and when she returned the building was dark. Her dogs were waiting for her in the hotel room.

They have police telling us we can’t get to our rooms or our cars. People are sitting on the floor,” Gallagher told the Review-Journal. “I just want my dogs. An officer told me he would have someone go to my room and call me but that was over an hour ago.”

As of 10:30 pm, Gallagher said she was still outside after three hours. Some 60 other guests were nearby between Bally’s and Paris, the Review-Journal said.

“My mother-in-law is diabetic and they won’t let her get to her medication,” Gallagher further explained as to why they needed to get back upstairs.

Caesars Entertainment, which operates the property, confirmed the outage in a statement.

In total, the Clark County Fire Department sent 41 firefighters or supervisors to the Paris Thursday night.

This is not the first outage for the Paris Las Vegas. In November 2016, an outage forced the hotel-casino to evacuate its employees and guests.