The Alpine Motel Apartments occupied just 0.16 acres in downtown Las Vegas, a modest footprint for the 41 units that housed some of the city's most vulnerable residents. Constructed in 1972, the building had changed hands multiple times before Adolfo Orozco, a former second-grade teacher from California, purchased it for $805,000 in 2013. He resigned his teaching position that year and moved to Las Vegas to manage his growing real estate empire. The Alpine lacked central heating. Each apartment had its own unit, but at the time of the fire, at least 15 residents had no working heaters. They resorted to running their kitchen stoves for warmth. The building had no sprinkler system, and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department had repeatedly tried to shut it down over drug activity and violence, logging more than 150 police calls since 2016.

When flames and smoke began filling hallways, residents discovered their escape routes had been compromised. The rear exit door had been bolted shut because of repeated break-ins by homeless people. Orozco knew about the faulty door for months but declined to replace it because of the cost. A door leading to the rooftop had also been bolted shut, trapping upper-floor residents who were trying to flee the smoke. Old refrigerators and a vending machine partially blocked the first-floor hallway. The first 911 call came at 4:13 a.m., and firefighters arrived four minutes later, but the damage was already done. The fire remained largely contained to the unit where it started, causing an estimated $475,000 in damage. The victims, ranging in age from 46 to 72, died not from flames but from smoke inhalation in a building whose safety systems had failed at every level.

In the days following the fire, inspectors found 42 fire code violations at the Alpine. An engineer from the National Fire Protection Association who participated in the inspection called the list among the worst he had seen in his career, saying it was fortunate that only six people died. The building's fire alarm had been activated on November 28, 2019, for unknown reasons, then silenced shortly afterward. When a monitoring company tried to reach an emergency contact, they could not get through. A guard was dispatched, found no fire, and the silenced alarm remained that way until the fatal night three weeks later. Criminal charges were filed against Orozco in July 2020, including six counts of involuntary manslaughter. After years of legal proceedings complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic, he agreed to an Alford plea in January 2025, just weeks before his scheduled trial.

The Alpine fire forced Las Vegas to confront a systemic problem: approximately 78 percent of the city's 64,000 multifamily residential units had been built before 1993, when fire sprinklers became mandatory. Prior to the tragedy, inspections were usually only conducted in response to complaints. Within months, Clark County began inventorying apartment complexes lacking sprinklers and smoke alarms. By April 2021, the city passed a program requiring annual inspections of apartment properties built before 1981, focusing especially on buildings that had been converted from motels and hotels. By the end of 2022, more than 1,000 units across 33 properties had been inspected under the new program.

In August 2021, the Alpine and its parking lot sold for $1.9 million to a partnership of investment companies. The new owners announced plans to transform the building into modern studio apartments under the name DLUX Lofts. The renovation required complete gutting of the structure, removal of asbestos contamination discovered during the fire investigation, and installation of a fire sprinkler system. The $3 million project included new flooring, roofing, and windows. A facade mural was planned as a memorial to the six victims. Renovations were completed by May 2023, and the building reopened with 42 units. The original structure still stands at 213 North Ninth Street, just two blocks from Fremont Street. Its new residents live in a building that now meets the safety standards its previous tenants were denied.