A Las Vegas house fire claimed 4 lives. Now, the home is mostly demolished
All that’s left of the home where the close-knit Adem family lived are a pile of charred debris, a portion of the ground floor’s walls and steps that lead to nowhere.
On Tuesday afternoon, a temporary fence guarded the front of the house and red signs stated the obvious: that it was an unsafe structure and could not be occupied.
The house, at 8332 Langhorne Creek St. in southwest Las Vegas, was largely demolished Monday in the wake of an early morning Thursday fire that killed four people. The victims have been identified by the Clark County coroner’s office as 48-year-old Ibrahim Adem, 43-year-old Abdusalem Adem, 7-year-old Anaya Adem and 6-year-old Aaliyah Adem.
Awet Adem previously provided different spellings for some of the victims’ names. He said Monday that his brothers Abdul and Ibrahim Adem died in the fire, along with Abdul Adem’s children Anaya and Aaliayh.
Abdul Adem’s wife Senait Adem and her young son, Amani, survived by jumping out of a third-floor window. As the rest of the family got ready to follow, the roof and floor collapsed, according to a GoFundMe page for the family.
Clark County spokesperson Stacey Welling said the house was “declared an imminent danger” by the county’s building department.
“Our fire and building officials had concerns about further structural collapse and the need to protect nearby properties,” she said. “The walls were taken down to reduce the hazard of further collapse.”
She added that it will take “some time” to demolish everything. Authorities are still investigating the cause of the fire, she said.
Greg Barstow, who owns demolition company CGI Development of Nevada, said the demolition was ordered by the county, which was concerned the remains of the home might fall on neighboring houses. The fire burned so hot the interior floors collapsed and the side walls were left “like paper flopping in the wind,” he said.
He said crews brought the house down to the first story in about two and a half hours and left the rubble on site, with three walls holding the debris.
Fire officials wanted a stove and dryer pulled out of the debris, Barstow said, who didn’t think investigators discovered anything from those items.
“It’s just tragic and sad and unfortunate when we have to see this kind of thing,” Barstow said.
Next-door neighbor Jerome Candate said he was told to leave his house yesterday for the demolition. The wind was making one of the walls blow and “they were scared it might fall into my house,” he said.
The Adems were good neighbors, Candate said, and a “beautiful family.”
He said he thinks their home should be rebuilt.
“Move on so that healing can start,” Candate said.
Across the street from the Adems’ home, a makeshift memorial took shape Tuesday. There were flowers, stuffed toys and memorial candles.
People stopped to add to the memorial or say a prayer.
A little girl and her father paid their respects in the afternoon.
“Anaya was a sweet girl,” said Shawn Prisco.
Seven-year-old Brooklyn Prisco said Anaya was one of her classmates. She wanted to leave a picture for her, of a cake, “because I was sad that she died,” she said.
Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.