Las Vegas sky rise hotel fire

Flames fanned out across the top level of the Monte Carlo Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip Friday.

You could see black smoke rising, as the fire burned the upper portion of two of the hotel's three wings. People were evacuated and no one was seriously injured.

It took firefighters a little more than an hour to put it out.

"High rise fires are never easy to fight," said Clark County Fire Chief Steven Smith. "As you can see with it being outside, our firefighters actually had to hang out the windows to try and cut the fire off. We directed our fire streams at an angle so we could make contact with the fire. It wasn't an easy fire at all."

Welders had been working on the roof of the 3,000 room hotel. Authorities still aren't sure what caused the blaze.

Traffic was gridlocked on the Vegas strip while the fire burned. Guests of the Monte Carlo are staying in other Las Vegas hotels.