On Feb. 20, 2003, a devastating fire broke out in a Rhode Island rock club, The Station, killing 100 people and injuring 230.
Ten years on, YouTube is releasing a series of films commemorating the dreadful sequence of events that night. The first film was made available Wednesday — on the 10th anniversary of the blaze.
The first film shows Gina Russo telling her harrowing story of the blaze and her recovery. Russo suffered third- and fourth-degree burns and was in a medically induced coma for 11 weeks.
In the film, she says someone kept her and her partner from escaping the fire in its early stages.
Fred just grabbed my hand, and we went over to the fire exit. We got to the fire exit, and there was a bouncer standing in front of the door. Fred was screaming, “There’s a fire. Open the door.” And the bouncer just stood there and said no, the door was for the band only, and that it was club policy.
The majority of those who tried to leave the club tried to use the same door they had used to enter. That night, the club held 462 people (though it was licensed to hold only 404), and a stampede prevented many people from escaping, including Russo and her partner.
Fred’s hand was on my back at one point, and all I remember is him pushing me and screaming, “Go.” And when I tried to turn around to find him, all I [saw] were a sea of people, and their heads were on fire. It was melting black rain.
The Station fire was caused by pyrotechnics that ignited flammable foam behind the stage. The National Institute of Standards and Technology concluded that sprinklers would have controlled the initial stages of the fire.
Experiments conducted at NIST in a reconstruction of the platform area fire demonstrated that a water sprinkler system installed in the test room… was able to control the fire initiated in non-fire retarded polyurethane foam panels and to maintain survivable conditions at head height in the test room for the duration (over five minutes) of the experiment.
This video shows the NIST’s computer simulation of what would have happened if sprinklers had been installed.
Some reports say that sprinklers should have been installed, because the building was reclassified after the enactment of regulations requiring them, but the NIST report disputes this.
More films to be released
New episodes of The Station will be released every week, with interviews with sound engineers, news reporters, NFPA fire investigators, and Rhode Island’s former attorney general.
The tagline of the series is “Learn. Remember. Heal.”
This is particularly poignant in the aftermath of last month’s fire at the Kiss Nightclub in Brazil that killed more than 230 people.
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Its so unfortunate that we become victims of such disasters that could be avoided by introducing better safety systems. Not having adequate fire safety system installed in nightclubs is tantamount to criminal negligence. With modern fire fighting equipment such catastophes can be countered. These public places should be having emergency exits , fire extinguishing appliances, fire alarm and sprinkler systems. The management is to keep in mind that human life costs much more than a meagre investment in fire fighting equipment required for such places. Films made on ‘Nightclub Fire’ is a good effort to spread awarness amongst masses and… Read more »
I don’t think that this is a forgotten element of fire safety, I mean obviously it was in this case, but it happened a decade ago and many lessons were learnt. There was criminal negligence of course — in this case the band’s tour manager and two of the nightclub owners were charged with 200 counts of involuntary manslaughter, 2 for each death as there were charges of criminal negligence manslaughter and misdemeanor manslaughter. They pled guilty and ‘no contest’ respectively.
Well Rob…you are right . But my point was that …something concrete should have been done to minimize the damage. Like we know that the fire was caused due to pyrotechnics that ignited flammable foam behind the stage. And National Institute of Standards and Technology concluded that the sprinklers would have controlled the initial stages of fire…..which unfortunately did not happen. As we understand in every fire accident there is an element of neglect on the part of humans or somehow the eventualities were not envisaged before the mishap took place. A consolidated and robust fire safety system in terms… Read more »
I like to think we learn well from our fires within the UK but it is important that lessons from fire are learnt all across the world.
Fire doesn’t have a language.
@Tom Welland. This movie is good effort to spread the message across the world. Atleast , a lot of people would come to know about the devastation caused by the infero by simply watching the movie…. As they say “Fire is good servant but bad master”.