The Station Nightclub Fire West Warwick, Rhode Island.

The come out social club run off atomic number 74 Warwick, Rhode Island. The create of the rate floor show was constructed in approximately 1946. Many restorations and repairs were come to to the building since the time of construction by different owners to fulfill their railway line needs. The building was a wood-frame construction with wooden shingles on the exterior walls that also included a flat roof, scarcely the interior walls environ the stage were staffed with run proof polyurethane insulating foam. Windows were located on the conjugation side of the building and on the east side of the front entrance.All of the windows had warrantor bars on them (this could be an issue ). The building had only cardinal doors a front main(prenominal)(prenominal) door, a bar side breathing forth door, a platform emergence door, and a kitchen exit door. The building was provide with a harass alarm however it was non connected to a nearby fire de expoundment alarm offi ce. At the time of the incident, the building wasnt protected by any sprinkler or extinguishment systems. The fire began at 1107 PM, on Thursday, February 20, 2003. The band Great White was the main type of the night. afterwards only half a minute into their performance, the pyrotechny ignited the sound insulation (polyurethane foam) that was some the stage. The ignition of the polyurethane foam built up enough heat to ignite the wooden panels above the stage bed covering the fire throughout the building. At prototypic, the audience thought that the flare ups were a part of the show. Seconds after the audience realized that the fire was unplanned, they headed toward the main entrance hard to escape, not knowing that three other exits in the building existed. cardinal deoxycytidine monophosphate people lost their lives that day. Serving a population of 30,000 residents, the West Warwick Fire plane prick is first callable on all fire/ present and EMS calls for the 8 sq. mil e district of West Warwick. West Warwick Fire segment operates out of four stations with a total of four engines, mavin ladder truck, two ambulances, and one special hazards unit. When West Warwick Fire part was dispatched to the address, a multiple casualty incident was put into effect due to the seriousness of events.They had to request for mutual aid from the encompassing jurisdictions for any tool and ambulances uncommitted. The end result was a combination of 583 fire, EMS, and police personnel including 57 ambulances (BLS & ALS) and two buses for transportation and shelter. The Local, State and Federal agencies were called to investigate the Station Nightclub fire incident and they rear many issues. The polyurethane foam that was on the interior walls was the major factor in the Station Nightclub fire. It was slow ignited and also contri exactlyed to a faster fire spread at bottom the building.According to NFPA 101, Life Safety Code, the interior finish is indispensab le to be relegate A or B for general conclave areas with occupant laden of more than 300. It has been calculated that the number of occupants at the Station Nightclub was around 440-458 people, obviously well over this limit. The ignition of polyurethane foam gave out a magnitude of smoke and heat in such a short period of time and created mass chaos, thus resulting in a crowd-wide panic towards the initial entry point. Also NFPA 101, Life Safety Code, section 13. 2. 3. 6. states that the main entrance/exit shall be of a width that accommodates one-half of the total occupant load and shall be at the level of exit discharge or shall connect to a stairway or slope leading to a street. If the owner of The Station Nightclub would founder inspected the main point of egress and made sure it complied with the code, many lives would have been spared that night. The pyrotechnics was the main ignition source. The building owner should have had the approval and potence for use of pyrotec hnics. The NFPA 1126, Standard for the Use of Pyrotechnics onwards a immediate Audience, section 13. . 2 Open Flame Devices and Pyrotechnics, states that no open flame devices or pyrotechnic devices shall be used in any assembly occupancy unless otherwise permitted. The owner of the Station Nightclub failed to comply with the regulations, which resulted in such dramatic incident in the history of U. S. Since the building of Station Night club was constructed approximately in 1946 and under different owners it was renovated into a restaurant and nightclub. At that time sprinklers would not have been required to be installed.Back in that period of time, sprinkler systems were not cost effective and technology was evolving. subsequently in the buildings life-span, fire damaged the building before this incident. The owner at the time of the fire damage reconstructed the building and no sprinkler systems were installed. At the time of the Station Nightclub incident in 2003, the buildi ng didnt have any sprinkler system whatsoever. In the 2003 fluctuation of the model codes, sprinklers would have been required if the building was a new construction. The Nightclub owner wasnt aware of codes and regulations on the sprinkler systems.The National Institute of Standards and technology engineers arrived at scene to develop a insure on the Station Nightclub incident. Experiments and studies by the NIST team have shown that if the building was equipped with a sprinkler system, they would be able to control the fire, thus minimizing the number or incident of casualties. The NIST report also states that at the time of the incident, the nightclub had fire extinguishers, but they were not strategically placed throughout the building. So the building had the equipment, but no one knew where it was.NIST report also determines that even with fire departments first arriving unit at seen (less than five minutes), they could not have saved the structure in that situation. Afte r all this being said, I think that the main reason that contributed to fire deaths was the occupant load and the point of egress. Most of the people rushed toward the main door resulting in serious chaos. People were crashing on top of each other and jamming the main entrance, limiting their escape. NIST report studies showed that one third of the people escaped through the windows and the sun room.From looking at at the map of the building, it shows that the occupancy had only four exits including the main entrance. One of the exists was in the kitchen area, probably only known to the employees. This makes only three exits available for many people to escape, although the crowd probably only knew of the main entrance. After such a tragic incident, the NFPA developed a series of required codes and standards for public assembly occupancies. The reinforcing of the codes and regulations also came with them being easily accessible online not only for the fire personnel, but also to th e public.If the West Warwick Fire Department did their inspection they would have noticed that the owner is not up to codes and regulations on the sprinkler systems in a public occupancy. Not only would they have found a lack in sprinkler systems, but they would have found a few other problems concerning the preventative of the building. It was fire departments antecedency to make the owner aware of the problems and provide accurate information to make him conscious that the building was not safe. Also, the West Warwick Fire Department should have done the follow up on the items that they were the most concerned about.The fire department should have stated the risks of not having the sprinkler systems installed given the history of that building. I find it crucial to have thorough and solid preplans of your district. Knowing your solution area will jockstrap you prevent fires, period. From all of the investigations made by NIST and NFPA reports, they concluded that by adapting t o the additional changes to model codes and regulations, most importantly qualification them known and strictly enforcing them, the safety of the public occupancies can be strengthened.It was dingy to see the deaths of 100 people that day, but the only way regulations and safety can be updated is when people get hurt. Hopefully, this tragedy will help fire departments learn a lesson and put emphasis on preplanning. regulate cited http//fire. nist. gov/bfrlpubs/fire08/PDF/f08033. pdf http//www. nist. gov/el/disasterstudies/ncst/upload/StationNightclubEmergencyResponse. pdf http//www. nfpa. org/assets/files/pdf/research/case_study_nightclub_fires. pdf