{"id":210343,"date":"2022-04-22T06:50:20","date_gmt":"2022-04-22T13:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=210343"},"modified":"2022-04-22T11:35:16","modified_gmt":"2022-04-22T18:35:16","slug":"montana-casino-deadly-fire-closes-venue-arson-ruled-out-as-cause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/montana-casino-deadly-fire-closes-venue-arson-ruled-out-as-cause\/","title":{"rendered":"Montana Casino Deadly Fire Closes Venue, Arson Ruled Out as Cause"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Montana gaming site blaze that left two people dead on Wednesday forced the venue, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/montana-casino-fire-leads-to-two-deaths-cause-under-investigation\/\">Honest Toms Saloon &amp; Casino<\/a>, to close. It appears the fire was not intentionally set.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_210346\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-210346\" data-style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-210346\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/sheriff-KTVQ-142x80.jpg\" alt=\"Carbon County Sheriff Josh McQuillan\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" \/><figcaption  id=\"caption-attachment-210346\"class=\"text-description\">Carbon County Sheriff Josh McQuillan, pictured above. He said a deadly casino fire in Montana was not believed to have been set. (Image: <em>KTVQ<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As of Friday, investigators continued to search for the cause of the blaze.<\/p>\n<p>Carbon County Sheriff Josh McQuillan identified the victims as Marla Murray, 71, and John Ahles, 33,<em> the Associated Press<\/em> reported. Murray was a casino employee. Ahles was a customer.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The two victims were alone in the building during the fire. They died at the scene. The victims will undergo autopsies. Both resided in Bridger, the same community in which the casino is located.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The small building was described by McQuillan as a \u201ctotal loss\u201d because of smoke damage,<em> the AP<\/em> added. According to an online listing, Honest Toms was permanently closed by its owners following the fire.<\/p>\n<h2>Under Investigation<\/h2>\n<p>Police were initially notified about the fire at about 9:30 am Wednesday, <em>KTVQ<\/em>, a local TV station, reported. Bridger Police Chief Mike Buechler found smoke billowing out of the front door upon his arrival.<\/p>\n<p>He yelled out to see if anyone was inside, but no one answered. He was able to open a screen door. He could only see a couple of feet inside due to the smoke.<\/p>\n<p>Multiple fire departments responded to the fire. They were able to bring the fire under control in about a half-hour. The State Fire Marshal\u2019s office, the Carbon County Sheriff\u2019s Office, the Montana Department of Criminal Investigations, and Bridger Police are jointly investigating the fire.<\/p>\n<p>The casino is located on the main thoroughfare through the southern Montana town. Bridger is a small community located about 47 miles south of Billings, Montana.<\/p>\n<h2>Earlier Casino Fires<\/h2>\n<p>Last month, a slot machine at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ballys-twin-river-lincoln-slot-machine-catches-fire\/\">Bally\u2019s Twin River Lincoln Casino Resort<\/a> in Rhode Island caught fire. The March 8 fire was caused by a machine malfunction. It was quickly contained to the casino floor. The blaze did not cause any significant damage, nor was anyone injured.<\/p>\n<p>In an earlier incident, Resorts World Las Vegas on the Las Vegas Strip was the site of a fire last June. It took place before the property\u2019s grand reopening. The blaze broke out in a storage area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Montana gaming site blaze that left two people dead on Wednesday forced the venue, Honest Toms Saloon &amp; Casino, to close. It appears the fire was not intentionally set. As of Friday, investigators continued to search for the cause of the blaze. Carbon County Sheriff Josh McQuillan identified the victims as Marla Murray, 71, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":210346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Montana Casino Deadly Fire Closes Venue, Arson Ruled Out<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Montana casino blaze which left two people dead was not believed to have been started by arson. The venue, Honest Toms Casino, has closed.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/montana-casino-deadly-fire-closes-venue-arson-ruled-out-as-cause\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Montana Casino Deadly Fire Closes Venue, Arson Ruled Out\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Montana casino blaze which left two people dead was not believed to have been started by arson. The venue, Honest Toms Casino, has closed.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/montana-casino-deadly-fire-closes-venue-arson-ruled-out-as-cause\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-04-22T13:50:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-22T18:35:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/sheriff-KTVQ.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ed Silverstein\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgedsilv\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ed Silverstein\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/montana-casino-deadly-fire-closes-venue-arson-ruled-out-as-cause\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/montana-casino-deadly-fire-closes-venue-arson-ruled-out-as-cause\/\",\"name\":\"Montana Casino Deadly Fire Closes Venue, Arson Ruled Out\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/montana-casino-deadly-fire-closes-venue-arson-ruled-out-as-cause\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/montana-casino-deadly-fire-closes-venue-arson-ruled-out-as-cause\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/sheriff-KTVQ.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-22T13:50:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-22T18:35:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/b3771b02527bcbda9af984b9b1ff098e\"},\"description\":\"A Montana casino blaze which left two people dead was not believed to have been started by arson. 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