From CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/02/21/nightclub.fire/index.html
At least 26 dead as fire consumes nightclub
Concert's pyrotechnics eyed as cause
Friday, February 21, 2003 Posted: 6:41 AM EST (1141 GMT)
Concertgoers struggle to get out of a doorway as deadly smoke swirls around them.
WEST WARWICK, Rhode Island (CNN) -- At least 26 people are dead after a concert's pyrotechnics apparently ignited a massive fire that destroyed a Providence-area nightclub late Thursday, officials said.
Many of the victims apparently perished after they frantically rushed the club's exits but were unable to escape the fast-moving inferno.
At least 164 people were injured in the blaze and taken to nearby hospitals. Several were life-flighted to the nearest burn centers in Massachusetts.
Many bodies were still inside The Station nightclub, West Warwick Town Manager Wolfgang Bauer said early Friday. Fire investigators were carefully searching the nightclub's remains to determine how the blaze spread so quickly.
The fire broke out about 11 p.m. ET at a concert featuring the 1980s metal group, Great White. As the band began to play, pyrotechnics went off. But after the display, which lasted for several seconds, flames began to crawl up the club's wall in back of the band.
At first, witnesses said, patrons thought the flames were a part of the show and continued to cheer. As the fire spread, some fans casually made their way toward the exit. Then, panic broke out, according to videographer Brian Butler, who was taping part of the concert while on assignment for CNN affiliate WPRI.
"It was that fast. As soon as the pyrotechnics stopped, the flame had started on the egg-crate [foam] backing behind the stage and it just went up the ceiling and people stood and watched it," said Butler, said.
"Some people were already trying to leave and others were just sitting there going 'Yeah that's great!' and I remember that statement because I was like, 'This is not great, this is time to leave.'"
As the flames spread inside the one-story club, band members jumped off the stage and joined the crowd, heading toward the exit. At least one of the musicians may not have made it.
"It went up like a Christmas tree," Jack Russell, Great White's lead singer, told The Providence Journal. "I was trying to put it out with a bottle of water. I turned around and the building was engulfed. My sound man is injured. I'm on my way to the hospital. I'm missing my guitar player."
Mark Kendall is listed as the band's lead guitarist, according to Great White's Web site.
Russell told the newspaper he had received permission from the club for the pyrotechnics, but The Station's stage technician, Paul Vanner,said he was not aware that the band planned to use fireworks.
Vanner said the club has had onstage pyrotechnics at past concerts, but there has always been a licensed expert to supervise the fireworks. He said no one was onstage to supervise Thursday night's show.
People on the videotape shot by Butler were screaming "I can't move!" as they tried to flee. Others were stacked on top of each other in the door frame, as they tried to exit the nightclub.
One woman who escaped the fire told WPRI that she lived because she fled as soon as the fire began creeping up the wall in back of the stage. She said she was in the front of the crowd and thus was able to see the flames.
She speculated that others, further back in the crowd, apparently were unaware of the fire's seriousness until it was too late.
At least 52 people were taken to nearby Kent Hospital, most in serious to critical condition with first-, second- and third-degree burns, a hospital spokesman said. Four patients were then life-flighted to Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts.
Rhode Island Hospital in Providence had at least 60 patients, 16 in critical condition, according to a hospital statement. At least three were transferred to Boston.
South County Hospital in Wakefield accepted 16 patients; Miriam Hospital in Providence, 12; Our Lady of Fatima Hospital in North Providence, 15; and Roger Williams Hospital in Providence, 10.
Three days ago, 21 people died and more than 50 were injured in a stampede at a Chicago nightclub, after a security guard used pepper spray to break up a fight.
Ironically, videographer Butler was at The Station nightclub to cover local perspective on that deadly stampede.
The worst nightclub fire in U.S. history occurred November 28, 1942, at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston, Massachusetts. That inferno, fed by decorations in the ritzy nightspot, left 492 people dead.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/02/21/nightclub.fire/index.html
At least 26 dead as fire consumes nightclub
Concert's pyrotechnics eyed as cause
Friday, February 21, 2003 Posted: 6:41 AM EST (1141 GMT)
Concertgoers struggle to get out of a doorway as deadly smoke swirls around them.
WEST WARWICK, Rhode Island (CNN) -- At least 26 people are dead after a concert's pyrotechnics apparently ignited a massive fire that destroyed a Providence-area nightclub late Thursday, officials said.
Many of the victims apparently perished after they frantically rushed the club's exits but were unable to escape the fast-moving inferno.
At least 164 people were injured in the blaze and taken to nearby hospitals. Several were life-flighted to the nearest burn centers in Massachusetts.
Many bodies were still inside The Station nightclub, West Warwick Town Manager Wolfgang Bauer said early Friday. Fire investigators were carefully searching the nightclub's remains to determine how the blaze spread so quickly.
The fire broke out about 11 p.m. ET at a concert featuring the 1980s metal group, Great White. As the band began to play, pyrotechnics went off. But after the display, which lasted for several seconds, flames began to crawl up the club's wall in back of the band.
At first, witnesses said, patrons thought the flames were a part of the show and continued to cheer. As the fire spread, some fans casually made their way toward the exit. Then, panic broke out, according to videographer Brian Butler, who was taping part of the concert while on assignment for CNN affiliate WPRI.
"It was that fast. As soon as the pyrotechnics stopped, the flame had started on the egg-crate [foam] backing behind the stage and it just went up the ceiling and people stood and watched it," said Butler, said.
"Some people were already trying to leave and others were just sitting there going 'Yeah that's great!' and I remember that statement because I was like, 'This is not great, this is time to leave.'"
As the flames spread inside the one-story club, band members jumped off the stage and joined the crowd, heading toward the exit. At least one of the musicians may not have made it.
"It went up like a Christmas tree," Jack Russell, Great White's lead singer, told The Providence Journal. "I was trying to put it out with a bottle of water. I turned around and the building was engulfed. My sound man is injured. I'm on my way to the hospital. I'm missing my guitar player."
Mark Kendall is listed as the band's lead guitarist, according to Great White's Web site.
Russell told the newspaper he had received permission from the club for the pyrotechnics, but The Station's stage technician, Paul Vanner,said he was not aware that the band planned to use fireworks.
Vanner said the club has had onstage pyrotechnics at past concerts, but there has always been a licensed expert to supervise the fireworks. He said no one was onstage to supervise Thursday night's show.
People on the videotape shot by Butler were screaming "I can't move!" as they tried to flee. Others were stacked on top of each other in the door frame, as they tried to exit the nightclub.
One woman who escaped the fire told WPRI that she lived because she fled as soon as the fire began creeping up the wall in back of the stage. She said she was in the front of the crowd and thus was able to see the flames.
She speculated that others, further back in the crowd, apparently were unaware of the fire's seriousness until it was too late.
At least 52 people were taken to nearby Kent Hospital, most in serious to critical condition with first-, second- and third-degree burns, a hospital spokesman said. Four patients were then life-flighted to Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts.
Rhode Island Hospital in Providence had at least 60 patients, 16 in critical condition, according to a hospital statement. At least three were transferred to Boston.
South County Hospital in Wakefield accepted 16 patients; Miriam Hospital in Providence, 12; Our Lady of Fatima Hospital in North Providence, 15; and Roger Williams Hospital in Providence, 10.
Three days ago, 21 people died and more than 50 were injured in a stampede at a Chicago nightclub, after a security guard used pepper spray to break up a fight.
Ironically, videographer Butler was at The Station nightclub to cover local perspective on that deadly stampede.
The worst nightclub fire in U.S. history occurred November 28, 1942, at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston, Massachusetts. That inferno, fed by decorations in the ritzy nightspot, left 492 people dead.
