On November 21, 1980 an event took place that changed Las Vegas and the way the nation thinks about hotel safety forever. Fire broke out on the second floor of the then MGM Grand Hotel that trapped over a 1,000 people on the upper levels of the hotel necessitating rescue by helicopters from all the Fire Departments and helicopters from nearby Nellis Air Force Base. Unfortunately the fire also resulted in the deaths of 87 guests, hotel employees and fire department personnel. As a result of the MGM Grand fire (and the often forgotten Las Vegas Hilton fire that occurred just 90 days later) major reforms in hotel fire guidelines and codes were implemented nationwide, making hotels much safer for future hotel guests. One of the myths and legends of Nevada are stories of witness seeing loyal employees carrying out cases of chips or hotel guests fleeing with armfuls of chips. Although there is rarely direct evidence of this actually happening it is true, that chips like anything else, will be damaged or destroyed in fires. For the collector and history buffs alike that has opened up an interesting area of collecting; the fire damaged chips.
Here at Spinettis we have of chips damaged in structure fire, some that partially melted the chips into their racks and some that were fused together in stacks.
These chips are from casinos such as the "Harolds Club," "Nevada Lodge" in Lake Tahoe and others. This is a unique opportunity to own a piece of Nevada history.
