[8] MGM security was immediately advised of the situation, and alerted the Clark County Fire Department (CCFD) which was the first agency to respond.

[12][13] The fire spread to the lobby, fed by wallpaper, PVC piping, glue, and plastic mirrors, racing west through the casino floor at a speed of 15–19 ft/s (4.6–5.8 m/s; 10–13 mph; 16–21 km/h) until a massive fireball blew out the main entrance, facing the Las Vegas Strip.

[16] The fire was limited to the first floor,[17] but the burning material created toxic fumes and smoke, which ascended throughout the hotel tower via vertical shafts (elevators and stairwells) and seismic joints, causing the majority of the deaths.

[25][26][27] An expansion of the MGM was underway at the time of the fire, and a construction worker used a scaffolding platform to lower guests to the ground, after they had escaped through their hotel room windows.

[25] The Barbary Coast casino across the street was set up as an evacuation center for MGM guests.

[34] Two refrigerated semi-trailers were set up as temporary morgues to hold the bodies of victims until they could be identified.

[1] Approximately 35 firefighters sought medical care, and 15 of them were hospitalized for periods ranging from one day to two weeks.

Between 200 and 300 firefighters also experienced dizziness, headaches, and rhinitis in the days after the fire, but did not seek medical attention.

As of June 1980, only 20 percent of fire safety violations – discovered two months earlier by inspectors – had been corrected.

[39][40] A refrigerated pastry display case was added, after original construction of the hotel, to one of its restaurants (known as The Deli).

[36] Unlike a modern display case, which would be totally self-contained (compressor installed in bottom of display case), this unit functioned like a walk-in cooler or central air conditioning system, with a pair of copper refrigerant lines connecting its evaporator to a condensing unit located outside the building.

[1] These now-bare electrical conductors inside the un-grounded metal conduit glowed red-hot [clarification needed] and began arcing, which ignited the fire.

[1] The fire reportedly smoldered for hours until it found fresh oxygen and burst into a fireball that spread into the casino, and was fed by other combustibles.

[41] Due to faulty smoke dampers within the ventilation duct network, the toxic fumes circulated throughout the hotel's air conditioning system, accelerating the spread of the poisonous gases.

[26][43] Smoke rapidly filled the resort's telephone switchboard room, and operators there only had enough time to warn people on the casino floor.

Guests, who earlier had found that the fire doors in some stairwells locked automatically, had propped them open for convenience.

[47] Because of the cost, MGM installed only the minimum number of sprinklers required by the building code at the time of the resort's construction.

[55] A two-unit computer – one of them a backup – was provided by Johnson Controls to monitor hundreds of locations throughout the MGM, helping to prevent another fire.

[58] A five-minute fire safety program, hosted by Gene Kelly in both English and Spanish, was played on televisions in hotel rooms.

[67] More than 1,350 legal claims were filed as a result of the fire, and most law firms in the Las Vegas Valley were occupied with these cases.

[52][56] One attorney, representing three local couples against MGM, expressed concern about the reopening, saying that the resort still had defects which could prove harmful in the event of another fire.