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One puff of that black smoke you see lowering about 1:20 is super heated air and instant death. Lung tissue does not do well being baked at 1,000 deg F.
NIST Recreation of "The Station Nightclub Fire" with Sprinklers
Being a two story warehouse it has to be one of the older warehouses in town dating back 60 years or better building of wood with a masonry or brick structure. When these older buildings catch on fire the fire moves so fast you can not outrun it.
Someone (owner of the building) is going to go to jail for this.
Savagely burned in the fire that incinerated the Station nightclub here five years ago next Wednesday, Linda Fisher has endured a dozen surgeries to salvage her arms, her hands, her face.
Ms. Fisher inhaled so much smoke that anguishing night that even now, she gets winded carrying a basket of laundry. Her thick scars keep her from sweating normally, and she has trouble distinguishing hot from cold.
A young and promising life changed in an evening.
For over 40 years I've designed fire sprinkler systems for a living so I follow these sorts of fires closely.
What is the life safety record for fully sprinklered buildings?
Aside from fire fighting and explosion fatalities, there has never been a multiple loss of life in a fully sprinklered building due to fire or smoke. Individual lives have been lost when the victim or his clothing or immediate surroundings became the source of the fire.
That is the sad part. In this fire and The Station fire of 20 years ago nobody needed to die.
I know that Rhode Island attempted to push through legislation requiring fire sprinkler systems in all nightclubs prior to the fire but the push back from owners was tremendous to say the least. They didn't do it because of costs. Money was the issue so the measure died but a short time later 100 people died too.
Costs? Taking away permit fees I think a typical nightclub might cost anywhere from $1.25 to $5.00 per square foot. Most likely The Station (it was only 4,500 sq ft or twice the size of a typical house) could have been retrofitted for less than $25,000 with most of that money not for the sprinklers but getting water to the building and the permit process. Inside the building itself you could probably install a sprinkler system for $10,000 at the high end.
$25,000 to save 100 lives and save an additional 200 people from lifetime debilitating injuries that they would NEVER recover from.
The ironic thing is for the cost of The Station fire every last nightclub, restaurant and bar in the entire state of Rhode Island could have been retrofitted for less.
And don't kid yourself you're paying for it too. Most of the injured will rightfully receive social security disability checks for the rest of their lives and that is your money.
I will get off my soap box now, my apologies to the moderator, but this sort of thing REALLY ticks me off because they is no reason for it whatsoever.
That is the sad part. In this fire and The Station fire of 20 years ago nobody needed to die.
I know that Rhode Island attempted to push through legislation requiring fire sprinkler systems in all nightclubs prior to the fire but the push back from owners was tremendous to say the least. They didn't do it because of costs. Money was the issue so the measure died but a short time later 100 people died too.
Costs? Taking away permit fees I think a typical nightclub might cost anywhere from $1.25 to $5.00 per square foot. Most likely The Station (it was only 4,500 sq ft or twice the size of a typical house) could have been retrofitted for less than $25,000 with most of that money not for the sprinklers but getting water to the building and the permit process. Inside the building itself you could probably install a sprinkler system for $10,000 at the high end.
$25,000 to save 100 lives and save an additional 200 people from lifetime debilitating injuries that they would NEVER recover from.
The ironic thing is for the cost of The Station fire every last nightclub, restaurant and bar in the entire state of Rhode Island could have been retrofitted for less.
And don't kid yourself you're paying for it too. Most of the injured will rightfully receive social security disability checks for the rest of their lives and that is your money.
I will get off my soap box now, my apologies to the moderator, but this sort of thing REALLY ticks me off because they is no reason for it whatsoever.
If you look through the overhead door it's dark but you can just make out wood studs forming a wall in the darkness. Tells me it's combustible construction.
The party was taking place on the second floor and looking at the building 1)all the windows have bars or grates and 2)exit doors are far and few between.
Where are the doors???
With wood stud walls the stairs were wood as well... when they get 70 years old, no doubt that building is 70 years old or older the wood gets really dry but it doesn't burn so much as it explodes into flame.
People got trapped on that second floor and they knew they were going to die a horrible death.
It is the business I am in but I always look around when I enter a building. Of course the first thing I will look for is the fire sprinklers and in this building if I had entered on the second floor, and not seen any I would have left immediately. Second thing I look for is means of egress or getting the heck out of the building. I want to see several ways out and I do keep track of them.
I tell everyone I love if you are ever in a building when a fire starts you leave immediately and I mean immediately. I want you to be the first one out the door and if that means leaving your purse on the table that is what I want you to do.
Do not fight the fire but leave that up to the professional fire fighters that are paid and trained to do it. Remember years ago when once in a while you would see a "hose rack" in a building containing a small 1 1/2" fire hose with nozzle? 40 years ago I put in a good number of them but over the last 15 years I haven't because most states prohibit them... the fire professionals do not want you to stay in the building in fight a fire but just get out.. leave right now.
A fire that swept through the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Kentucky, on May 28, 1977, killed 162 and injured more than 100, including several firefighters. Employees discovered the fire at 8:45 p.m.
I know there is no reason to ever see that.
Before building codes required sprinklers I would watch developers and builders do all they could not to have to spend $50,000 on a fire sprinkler for their $5,000,000.00 project. Poor babies. For what it is worth in a new commercial building you will spend more money on the carpet than a complete fire sprinkler system.
And the way California is with regulation and their building codes, I really am amazed anything gets built in California, I am amazed this was allowed.
Here is an article with pictures of the inside of the warehouse, pre-fire. High fuel load, limited access/egress, no fire protection (sprinklers or functioning alarm system), and being misused for other than a warehouse all added up to a prescription of impending disaster. This wasn't a permitted use of the space of the building; it was permitted as a warehouse only.
Oh gosh, when you look through those pictures, it is a wonder that anyone escaped alive. It must have been horrific in there.
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