JerseyMatt
Member
When someone buys a building, there is no plan review and inspection, like for a new building. I don't think this is ahj oversight, as the ahj had no responsibility to inspect upon purchase.
The NFPA Assembly Occupancy committee, of which I am a member and simply by longevity the senior member having joined in 1987, had a special meeting as a result of this, and heard a lot of experts. I had also visited the site since I lived not too far from it.
Prior to the changes made at that meeting, sprinklers were not required in that building.
I believe the pyro is the biggest culprit, and that indoor pyro should not be allowed. The great age of theatre fires ended promptly with the development of the electric light bulb and passing of open flame and arc lighting. Indoor pyro has just reintroduced the ignition source. Take away the pyro away and we never hear if the Station.
It's really hard to find info on anything prior to the fire anymore, because the search engine crawlers are swamped with 12 years of references to the fire and the laws/regulations stemming from it. It has since been purged but there used to be an article in the Providence Journal archive that had an inspector go on the record saying all nightclubs in RI with a capacity over 300 were required to have sprinkler systems since 1976. The building was turned into a club in the 80's (voiding the grandfather clause), and had an OL of 406, so they would have been required to install a sprinkler system. Even if they weren't required to have an inspection before opening, it's a glaring omission that a fire marshal should have caught at some point over the years. Just like the tinderbox foam, lack of fire extingushers, yadda yadda. The place "passed" a fire inspection like two weeks before the fire.
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