A Summary of The Station Fire

THE STATION FIRE

The Station Fire

The Station fire happens to be one of the worst fire disasters in the country’s history. From the onset, it is important to note that there are a number of hazards that the building’s design did present to revelers and/or its occupants. To begin with, the building lacked exits that were usable in case of an emergency of this nature. This is despite having four doors that exited the venue. Giesler (2018) points out that the venue had a narrow main entry hallway that effectively contributed towards the blockage of the exit. This was the only exit most thought of as it is the very same hallway they had come in through. When fire broke out, this particular hallway quickly filled up in the revelers’ haste to exit. Dozens of people became trapped. As a consequence, many were trampled upon as others inhaled smoke that was quickly spreading. Scores of others suffered severe burns as a consequence of delayed exit caused by this blockage. The second door was a in the kitchen and could not be considered an exit owing to the fact that revelers had no access to it (Giesler, 2018). The two other doors on the side, as Giesler (2018) indicates, were the platform exit door and the main bar side exit door. Most revelers, as has been indicated above, were only aware of the front entrance doors they had come right through. Yet another design flaw in this case was an inward swinging platform exit door (Giesler, 2018). It should be noted that an outward swinging door makes for an easy exit in an event such as the one recounted in this write-up. Thus, it functions as some sort of a pressure release valve. This is more so the case given that as people seek to escape, they are likely to pile at the exit – in which case an inward swinging door would not open due to the pressure exerted upon it by those trying to get to safety. Further, in the words of ......, in the event that “debris or objects fall in front of the door during a fire, an inward swinging door may become blocked, making it difficult to open and escape” (Barylick, 2012, p.217). Lastly, it would be prudent to note that the material used for soundproofing in this particular venue, i.e. polyurethane foam, was inappropriate as it was flammable. It was this acoustic foam that was ignited by the pyrotechnics deployed at the venue. The foam had in this case been installed the venue’s ceilings as well as walls. A different insulation foam, such as a flame retardant sound foam, should have been used.

An assessment of the events surrounding The Station fire indicates that there were no adequate fire protection systems in place at the time. Indeed, save for the fire alarm, the venue had no other effective fire protection system. The fire alarm was in this case activated soon after the pyrotechnic ignition. This helped people react sooner – effectively averting further delay that could have possibly increased the number of casualties. This is more so the case given that as Backhouse (2024) points out, when the flames first became visible, “most of the audience thought this was part of the act and carried on enjoying the show.” The fire alarm must have alerted most of those in attendance of the seriousness of the situation.

The response by the fire services were swift – with the response time in this case being within standard [5] of the NFPA (Grosshandler, Byner, Madrzykowski, and Kuntz, 2005). The West Warwick Fire Department’s fire engine was on the scene less than 5 minutes after fire was reported (Grosshandler, Byner, Madrzykowski, and Kuntz, 2005). However, the number of firefighters dispatched to the scene was inadequate. This essentially means that minimum staffing levels were not achieved as per the NFPA standard [5] (Grosshandler, Byner, Madrzykowski, and Kuntz, 2005). In the final analysis, and going by the findings of the Report of the Technical Investigation of The Station Nightclub Fire (NIST NCSTAR 2), Volume 1, various factors made this particular situation difficult to deal with. More specifically, as has been pointed out in the said report, “given the hazardous mix of materials in The Station and the lack of installed sprinklers, nothing that the fire department could have done that night would have saved the building from the fast growing fire” (Grosshandler, Byner, Madrzykowski, and Kuntz, 2005, p. 8-5).

The result of the fire would have in this case been altered by a modern fire protection system. To begin with, an automatic fire sprinkler system would have come in handy in this scenario. As Giesler (2018) indicates, modern sprinkler systems are equipped with the capability to not only detect fire, but also pinpoint the location of the fire and suppress the same. Thus, in effect, such a system would have helped in the containment of the fire, at the onset. Yet another modern fire protection approach that could have been of relevance on this front is fireproofing. The progress and spread of the fire could have, for instance, been prevented via the utilization of structural floors, walls as well as barriers that are fire-rated.