Feb. 20, 2023 Fireworks ignited the ceiling, sparking a blaze that claimed the lives of 100 patrons.
By Susan Nicol Source firehouse.com News
Twenty years ago today, people crowded into a Rhode Island night club enjoying a rock band with friends when things went terribly wrong.
Fireworks ignited the sound-proofing foam on the walls, causing the Station Night Club to erupt into an inferno. Panic set in as the crowd scrambled in the dark, choking from the thick toxic smoke to find a way out.
Although there were other exits, many headed toward the door they entered. It was a deadly mistake for many.
In the end, 100 didn’t make it out. More than 200 others were hurt in the fourth deadliest night club blaze in U.S. history.
Before the ashes cooled, NFPA called an emergency meeting for authorities to review life and safety codes including ones dealing with sprinklers and occupancy, Gregory Harrington, principal engineer, told Firehouse.com.
Just days before the Station Night Club tragedy, a stampede at an overcrowded nightclub in Chicago claimed 21 lives.
In that incident, 1,100 people had crowded in nightclub, which was only capable of holding 240. The exit leading from the second floor to the outside was too narrow, authorities said.
The Chicago incident was overshadowed by the Station Nightclub fire, officials say.
Studies show that the majority of people who enter a building will use the same exit to leave even though there are others, Harrington said.
Among the codes developed or modified after the nightclub tragedies require oversized doors at entrances and exits.
Harrington said trained crowd managers also are required to be on duty to direct people to exits in the event of an emergency. “The number of staff increases with the occupancy level,” he explained.
Survivors and families of the victims will never forget and have worked over the past two decades for changes.
NFPA officials also established guidelines for automatic sprinklers in nightclubs. They are required in new venues with a capacity of 50 or more as well as in existing establishments with 100 or more.
The biggest change was the elimination of ‘grandfathering’ buildings to allow existing nightclubs to forgo the sprinkler requirement.
Individual jurisdictions have to adopt NFPA life safety codes.
On the night of the fire, a local TV station crew was filming inside the club and captured the fireworks igniting the foam ceiling as well as the panic that ensued.
Arriving firefighters encountered throngs of injured people.
In 13 seconds, the video shows flames extending eight to 10 feet out the entryway as a line is stretched — through fleeing occupants, over injured persons on the ground and around parked cars and the tour bus. Nine seconds later, flames were out all front windows.
NIST fire engineers conducted an extensive investigation into the Station Nightclub fire.
“Measurements in a fire test conducted on a mockup of a portion of The Station nightclub platform and dance floor produced—within 90 seconds—temperatures, heat fluxes and combustion gases well in excess of accepted survivability limits.
A computer simulation of the full nightclub fire suggests that conditions around the dance floor, sunroom and dart room would have led to severe incapacitation or death within about 90 seconds after ignition of the foam for anyone remaining standing in those areas – and not much longer even for those close to the nightclub floor,” according to their investigative report.