The Room: Bally Hotel - Part Two

The room where Dave had an experience in 2009 was on the 21st Floor. It is important to note that my husband is uncomfortable with the whole situation and will not look at anything about the fire. It's too upsetting for him. I'm on the other end of the spectrum... I feel compelled to keep digging. Every day I find a new nugget that brings the tragedy into focus and why he was chosen into a clearer understanding.

Here's what it looked like on the outside the day of the fire. Our room did not have a balcony, so the occupant smashed the window out. I was able to verify this by watching many videos on you tube and taking stills when paused, counting floors. "The Chemistry of Fire" is the one that confirmed beyond a doubt (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EOVMysDM0I).

It was likely this decision that cost our room's occupant his life, as smoke was invading the hotel not only from the inside vents in the rooms but back in through the windows. The occupants that blocked doors and windows with wet towels and stayed inside are the ones who survived.

From the Fire Investigation Report - A list of fatalities by floor:

Here's the faceplate to room 2068, where two people died. Note the embossed brass room plate that was normal for the time. Room 2068 contained cases 1941 and 1942, a married couple, Vincent James McKinney and Ethel Dorothey McKinney. They were ID'd from their California Driver's Licenses. They were in body bags 56 and 57. Our room was case 1940 and had the remains removed in body bag 55, so these photos are as close as we can get inside.

So about our 21st Floor room. From the Fire Report:

Our faceplate in 2009:

1980 photograph - actual room number unknown, but this is the general style of room that 2115 was back in 1980:

And again, room 2115 in 2009. The light anomalies become more interesting when you realize they are in the general vicinity of where the yellow couches in 1980 were also located.

The Fire Report breaks down the list of fatalities from the Medical Examiner. Occupant of 2115 was found "Inside Room 2115- extended position on couch covered with blanket" per page VIII-9 of the Fire Report. Our occupant in room 2115 is Case # 1490 throughout the investigation. His name is John Frederick Ashton. He was 36 years old. He was an employee of the MGM who was delivering room service when the fire broke out. He was ID'd by his MGM ID card in room 2115. He was one of 7 employees that died in the blaze. You can see he died from smoke inhalation and CO2 poisoning, his levels of CO2 are unbelievably high.

So, was my celebrating a vacation by sitting on that blue couch with my giant daiquiri a trigger for John? Was I accidentally mocking what happened to him on the couch in that room? Is that why the next day he reached out to us? Was his personality similar to my kind, laid back husband?

Hallways outside rooms in 1980:

Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of hallway in 2009. Here's an interior shot of the deli area in 1980 where the fire started, near we had high weirdness looking for the steakhouse in 2009:

The rest of the deli shots are basically just ashes, but this one you can see some color and what it generally looked like. The reason the fire went up so fast is basically all of the fabrics and decorations in the casino were flammable. Lots of cellulose. The tiles literally melted and dropped on fire fighters' heads as they tried to put out the flames.

Here's some hallway shots from the fire report of the Casino that I found particularly haunting. The parts that survived were protected by a few sprinklers. It shows how effective they would have been in they had been in the entire hotel.

The halls used to be lined with MGM movie stars.

Through the Fire Investigative report and other sources, I have researched what restaurants were open at the time of the first fire call at 7:17am on 11/21/80. John Ashton had to have been delivering Room Service from the Orleans Room Coffee Shop as it was the only restaurant open at the time. His path would have been a short and direct one in the opposite direction where we were headed when we experienced our high strangeness incident and were lost in the hallway. Essentially we just reversed his path on our way down.

Here's the map from the Fire Investigation showing location of Elevators to North tower and up to Room 2115 from the Orleans Room. it also shows fatalities on the Casino floor.

One thing I haven't mentioned until now is that The reason I asked about blue uniforms at the MGM in the 1980s. When I tried to connect to his energy before going back to Las Vegas, I kept feeling two things - as absurd as it is, I kept hearing "I'm not even supposed to be here today!" - from Clerks, one of my favorite movies, and something is important about him wearing blue or navy. This is one of the reasons I want to know what the room service uniforms looked like - the hotel interior is red, so I'm not understanding where blue comes from, unless its from the blue couch I was sitting on.

But why did John F. Ashton choose David to connect with? Thousands of people stay in this room every year and no one on the internet has mentioned anything other than the 16th-23rd being haunted in general. Was it actually John, or was it residual energy of the hotel? Was is something else entirely that Dave tapped into? Did it tap into Dave because I was shut down and refusing to pay attention?