(I know it's been discussed here a few times, but I don't think it's ever been given the attention it deserves, especially since it's been a few years and people are beginning to forget about it or were too young to remember.)
A lot of people get upset at fire marshals for making the decisions that they do, and they'd prefer to happily continue doing things the way that they've always done them, be it safe or not.
The Station Nightclub fire is the case that I always revert back to. Anytime someone is upset with me for contacting a fire marshal to inspect a set, I bring this up. Part of it's out of the goodness of my heart and respect for what I do. I really don't want anyone to get hurt. Then there's the part where I'm selfish and don't want to ever be brought up on manslaughter charges or sued into bankruptcy.
"But that's a little extreme, don't you think?"
No, it's not. As soon as there's any kind of injury or casualty, all bets are off for what might happen next. If you look at the list of companies who were sued after the fire, the cameraman who shot the video (ironically there to report on nightclub safety) was accused of impeding exits and his news station sued for $30 million (while the night club owners for only $1 million). JBL had to fork over $815,000 in a settlement for the foam in their speakers.** I don't know the last time anyone tried to set their speakers on fire, but I bet the entire building was in flames before the foam inside the speakers caught fire. Anheuser-Busch was sued for $21 million just for promoting the event. Even the town was sued for AHJ not shutting down the building prior to the event.
Another problem in this SNAFU is that people don't respect fire enough. They don't understand it, they've never first-hand experienced it in a building. Bonfires in your backyard are not comparable. You can spend a good 30 minutes building up a strong flame in a bonfire, but in just 10 minutes, a structure fire can level the building. What people also forget is that not only do people need time to escape in the event of an emergency, but firefighters need to be able to get into the building for rescue efforts. In The Station, people were blinded and passing out from the smoke within just under a minute and a half from ignition, and by the time EMS arrived (about 4:30 after ignition), the building was so far ablaze that the fire department was unable to even consider rescue efforts. Though people may still have been alive at this point, passed out inside, there was no way a firefighter was going to be able to get to them until much later in the fire once the blaze was under control and the structure was safe(-r) to enter.
I encourage everyone to watch this video, known as the Butler video. It was recorded by Brian Butler of WPRI-TV. It is the first 10 minutes of the blaze, uncut, unedited. It's the closest many of us will ever come to witnessing and hearing people die in a catastrophic disaster. For those who haven't seen it, it's very graphic, but I think after watching it, it is a lot easier for everyone to understand how careful we need to be when we're working. I know I learned a lot from this video, and just a few days ago showed it to a student tech crew as part of a safety seminar. I don't think those students will ever question a fire marshal or risk breaking a fire code now.
"The Butler Video"
Here is a timeline of events I put together from the video that it's worth taking note of:
-Ignition: ~0:18
-People realizing they should leave: ~:35
-People making progress to the door ~1:00
-Smoke billowing out of the building (people inside begin to pass out and are blinded) ~1:45
-People trampled and stuck at entrance (literally piled on each other in doorway, 4' high: ~1:50
-Smoke has consumed the building: ~2:30
-Emergency services arrive: ~4:45
-EMS unable to reach building because of high volume of vehicles and people near structure: ~5:35
-Flames have spread to exterior: ~5:40
-Building is an inferno, inside and out (by now, anyone still inside might as well be dead): ~6:00
-A man can be spotted, writhing in pain on the ground, no EMS available to help him as they are all rolling out fire hoses: ~6:10
Some of us work in unsprinklered spaces. While legal, that doesn't make it necessarily safe. An experiment shows how sprinklers would have altered the events that night at The Station. Mind you, The Station, which broke fire code in many ways, was not required to have fire suppression systems in place.
There is also this map, put together by the local police department, detailing how many people died and where. It's important to note that most people either died in the panic trying to get out the front door, were so lost in the confusion and smoke they couldn't even find a door, or were in an area of the building that was too far from a fire exit for them to be able to escape once the smoke had reached them.
This is, by far, one of the worst tragedies in the history of the entertainment industry and there are many important lessons to be learned from it. The only good that can come of this tragedy now is the result of watching the videos, looking through the facts, and learning how to avoid situations like this in the future. Fire departments can train for this, but it never comes close to simulating the real thing. Tech directors can think they've got everything covered, and then the band lights pyro on stage that the venue was not made aware of. I hate to say that anything "good" actually happened that night, but the coincidence that this should happen on a night where the entire process of events was being filmed is amazing. Unfortunately, most people can't even begin to comprehend how flames and smoke propagate and large crowds of people evacuate in emergencies until they've witnessed it for themselves.
**An actual quote: Anthony DeMarco, a Providence lawyer for the Derderians, said that even though his clients are contributing a modest amount compared with sums pledged by corporations, it represents all of their assets. "Whatever JBL's paying, it's not everything JBL has, is it?" he said.
If you ask me, JBL had zero fault in this tragedy. If anything, by the time the foam inside their speakers caught fire, anyone who was going to die was already dead, and yet the lawyer is suggesting that JBL should be paying out far more relative to what the nightclub owners had paid.
A lot of people get upset at fire marshals for making the decisions that they do, and they'd prefer to happily continue doing things the way that they've always done them, be it safe or not.
The Station Nightclub fire is the case that I always revert back to. Anytime someone is upset with me for contacting a fire marshal to inspect a set, I bring this up. Part of it's out of the goodness of my heart and respect for what I do. I really don't want anyone to get hurt. Then there's the part where I'm selfish and don't want to ever be brought up on manslaughter charges or sued into bankruptcy.
"But that's a little extreme, don't you think?"
No, it's not. As soon as there's any kind of injury or casualty, all bets are off for what might happen next. If you look at the list of companies who were sued after the fire, the cameraman who shot the video (ironically there to report on nightclub safety) was accused of impeding exits and his news station sued for $30 million (while the night club owners for only $1 million). JBL had to fork over $815,000 in a settlement for the foam in their speakers.** I don't know the last time anyone tried to set their speakers on fire, but I bet the entire building was in flames before the foam inside the speakers caught fire. Anheuser-Busch was sued for $21 million just for promoting the event. Even the town was sued for AHJ not shutting down the building prior to the event.
Another problem in this SNAFU is that people don't respect fire enough. They don't understand it, they've never first-hand experienced it in a building. Bonfires in your backyard are not comparable. You can spend a good 30 minutes building up a strong flame in a bonfire, but in just 10 minutes, a structure fire can level the building. What people also forget is that not only do people need time to escape in the event of an emergency, but firefighters need to be able to get into the building for rescue efforts. In The Station, people were blinded and passing out from the smoke within just under a minute and a half from ignition, and by the time EMS arrived (about 4:30 after ignition), the building was so far ablaze that the fire department was unable to even consider rescue efforts. Though people may still have been alive at this point, passed out inside, there was no way a firefighter was going to be able to get to them until much later in the fire once the blaze was under control and the structure was safe(-r) to enter.
I encourage everyone to watch this video, known as the Butler video. It was recorded by Brian Butler of WPRI-TV. It is the first 10 minutes of the blaze, uncut, unedited. It's the closest many of us will ever come to witnessing and hearing people die in a catastrophic disaster. For those who haven't seen it, it's very graphic, but I think after watching it, it is a lot easier for everyone to understand how careful we need to be when we're working. I know I learned a lot from this video, and just a few days ago showed it to a student tech crew as part of a safety seminar. I don't think those students will ever question a fire marshal or risk breaking a fire code now.
"The Butler Video"
Here is a timeline of events I put together from the video that it's worth taking note of:
-Ignition: ~0:18
-People realizing they should leave: ~:35
-People making progress to the door ~1:00
-Smoke billowing out of the building (people inside begin to pass out and are blinded) ~1:45
-People trampled and stuck at entrance (literally piled on each other in doorway, 4' high: ~1:50
-Smoke has consumed the building: ~2:30
-Emergency services arrive: ~4:45
-EMS unable to reach building because of high volume of vehicles and people near structure: ~5:35
-Flames have spread to exterior: ~5:40
-Building is an inferno, inside and out (by now, anyone still inside might as well be dead): ~6:00
-A man can be spotted, writhing in pain on the ground, no EMS available to help him as they are all rolling out fire hoses: ~6:10
Some of us work in unsprinklered spaces. While legal, that doesn't make it necessarily safe. An experiment shows how sprinklers would have altered the events that night at The Station. Mind you, The Station, which broke fire code in many ways, was not required to have fire suppression systems in place.
There is also this map, put together by the local police department, detailing how many people died and where. It's important to note that most people either died in the panic trying to get out the front door, were so lost in the confusion and smoke they couldn't even find a door, or were in an area of the building that was too far from a fire exit for them to be able to escape once the smoke had reached them.
This is, by far, one of the worst tragedies in the history of the entertainment industry and there are many important lessons to be learned from it. The only good that can come of this tragedy now is the result of watching the videos, looking through the facts, and learning how to avoid situations like this in the future. Fire departments can train for this, but it never comes close to simulating the real thing. Tech directors can think they've got everything covered, and then the band lights pyro on stage that the venue was not made aware of. I hate to say that anything "good" actually happened that night, but the coincidence that this should happen on a night where the entire process of events was being filmed is amazing. Unfortunately, most people can't even begin to comprehend how flames and smoke propagate and large crowds of people evacuate in emergencies until they've witnessed it for themselves.
**An actual quote: Anthony DeMarco, a Providence lawyer for the Derderians, said that even though his clients are contributing a modest amount compared with sums pledged by corporations, it represents all of their assets. "Whatever JBL's paying, it's not everything JBL has, is it?" he said.
If you ask me, JBL had zero fault in this tragedy. If anything, by the time the foam inside their speakers caught fire, anyone who was going to die was already dead, and yet the lawyer is suggesting that JBL should be paying out far more relative to what the nightclub owners had paid.
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