Monday, November 26, 2012
Documentary
Paul Lonardo and David Bettencourt, both directors, have been recruiting people who played a role that fateful evening in 2003. Families, survivors, nurses, doctors, even a member of the band Great White have been interviewed to help to create the documentary film called “The Station.” The documentary is scheduled for release in February 2013, coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the tragedy. The directors also wish to create a website called "Kickstarter", allowing people to contribute to the project, which will defray the cost of paying for the rights to original songs from the band, Great White, to be used in the film.
Memorial to Open For the Victims
Residents of Rhode Island wanted to honor the survivors and the one hundred people who were killed in 2003 nightclub
fire. As a result, a permanent memorial came to fruition. Judy King, whose brother died in
the fire, calls the Warwick memorial a “neutral place” , serving as a secondary
place for relatives to visit. On the lot where the fire occurred, homemade
crosses, photographs, flowers, and personal items have served as a memorial over
the years.
Judy King was the driving force to build a permanent memorial; she found volunteers, both relatives and survivors, that donated time and materials to create the tablet
project in less than thirty days. Among the donations, The Warwick memorial received
twenty pounds of asphalt and thirteen yards of concrete. Volunteers worked for hours, and raised eleven thousand dollars in cash.
The tablet is a brick circle, with the names of the people who died on the top, while the
names of the survivors are on the bottom.
In
West Warwick, Gina Russo, who is the president of the Station Fire Memorial
Foundation, suffered burns on 40 percent of her body in the blaze. She also lost her fiancé in the fire. She co-authored the book “From the Ashes”
with Paul Lonardo. She is planning to build a
permanent memorial on the land donated by the owner. Russo hopes to collect
five million dollars and break ground shortly after the 10th
anniversary of the fire.
Positive Change as a Result of The Station Nightclub Fire
The Station Nightclub fire was a horrible tragedy with a
large loss of life. But out of the terrible event, positive changes have
erupted. Texas was looking like it may have been next in line for a catastrophe like The Station. The year
after the fire, the Texas State Fire Marshal's Office conducted
inspections of dance halls, bars and nightclubs in eight Texas counties. Of the
189 establishments inspected, 182 had violations. The “Have an Exit Strategy” was
born.
This campaign includes posters
like the one below to hit hard and make people realize that they hold the power
to escape in such an event. The campaign was created by ThinkStreet, Inc. for the Texas
State Fire Marshal's Office in conjunction with the University of Texas at
Austin and a list of others, all with the same goal of never seeing another
club disaster along the magnitudes of the Station Nightclub fire. This is a campaign that reminds individuals
to look for exit signs as soon as they enter a venue, if they can’t find them,
they should leave. If the club looks
overcrowded, patrons should leave and call the fire department to report the
violation. This is a campaign that
empowers people to safely survive a catastrophe.
Regulations
A study of fire protection systems at The Station Nightclub fire was done and included a report filed by The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) . It was known that The Station did not have a sprinkler system. According to the 2003 edition of model codes, sprinklers would have been required if the structure had been constructed recently. Sprinklers were not required for an existing structure like The Station.
Extinguishers were located in the structure; however, they were not
located close to where the fire started. There is doubt that extinguishers
would have made a significant difference in this case.
NFPA is the Life Safety Code, providing strategies to keep people safe based on building construction and occupancy features that minimize the effects of fire and related hazards.
There are several different types of occupancies including fire protection, sprinkler systems, alarms, emergency lighting, smoke barriers and special hazard protection.
Since the fire, there have been meetings with Station survivors, families of the Victims, and members of the fire safety community to discuss the fire with the intent to prevent future incidents.
On July 2003, the Standard Council reviewed and issued the technical committee’s recommended Tentative Interim Amendments (TIAs) for NFPA 101 Life Safety Code. The TIAs made some changes to the Safety Code required of all buildings. Now they must have the following:
- Fire sprinklers in new nightclubs
- Building owners must now inspect exits to make sure they are free of obstructions and they must maintain records of each inspection
- For larger gatherings, additional crowd managers are required at a ratio of 3:250
- No festival seating for crowds of more than 250 unless a life safety evaluation has been approved by the authorities.
Other Historical Fires
Another scene of a horrifying fire in a nightclub
occurred on April 23, 1940 at an African-American club known as the Rhythm
Night Club in Natchez, Mississippi. Ironically, this wooden one-floor structure
previously served as a church, then a blacksmith’s forge before finally the
nightclub in question. The club was rocking to the sounds of Walter Barnes and
His Royal Criolians, an orchestra out of Chicago, that night. The windows of the club had been boarded over
for two reasons, both of which were designed at discouraging freeloaders; the
first was to prevent anyone who didn’t pay from catching glimpses of the show
and the second was so that anyone hanging around outside the club wouldn’t be
able to hear the music emanating from within without paying admittance. The
club was decorated with Spanish moss, making for a material that would light-up
and spread quickly.
When a fire broke
out in front of the only door outside of the club, the Spanish moss carried the
flames across the venue and quickly sealed the fate of the 209 individuals that
lost their lives that night. The moss
also produced a flammable methane gas, furthering the fire and leaving the
building burnt to the ground within an hour’s time. The majority of the victims
expired due to smoke inhalation as well as the accumulation of body traffic
trying desperately to make it through the flames at the one exit. Included in
the fatalities was the Orchestra leader, Barnes as well as nine other members
of his band. There was great speculation
over the cause of the fire. At first it
was believed to have been intentionally set with suspects arrested and later
released when the remnants of the fire began to point to a cigarette that
wasn’t properly disposed as its cause.
The scene of the fire is now home to a museum commemorating
the disaster.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Historical Fires
The most fatal single-building fire in U.S. history was the Iroquois Theatre Fire. The fire occurred during a musical in Chicago, Illinois, December 30, 1903. The fire began when a hot stage light ignited a velvet curtain. The fire quickly spread to the scenery that was decorated with oil paint. The stage did not have automatic sprinklers, and the stage fire curtain failed to close properly to contain the fire. The theatre also neglected to have emergency lighting, the stage smoke and heat vents were not operational, and many of the exits were either locked or opened into the theatre, impeding the audience from exiting the building. Tragically, 602 people died as a result of the fire.
The deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history was the Cocoanut Grove Nightclub Fire. The fire occurred in Boston, Massachusetts in 1942. Cocoanut Grove had paper palm tree decorations covering it's walls and ceilings that caught fire when someone lit a match. On that fateful night, there were approximately 1,000 people inside the nightclub, which was more than twice its 460 person capacity. The fire spread rapidly because the nightclub failed to have an automatic sprinkler system. The blaze closed off the stairway that connected to the basement and ground floor. Exit doors opening in the flow of traffic, doors and windows that were sealed shut, and the main exit having a revolving door made escape almost impossible. 492 people died at the Cocoanut Grove Nightclub Fire.
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