The Station Nightclub Fire Case Study

On February 20th 2003, The Station nightclub in caught on fire. Four hundred people had come in the club to hear the band Great White play, when fireworks set off by the band’s manager caught fire to the foam board on the stage. (NFPA, 2006). In the end 100 people lay dead. That makes it the fourth most deadly nightclub fire in the history of the US. The massive amount of deaths can be blamed mostly to the fireworks being to close to the soundboard, the facility being over packed, and the lack of a sprinkler system (Reese 2004). The high number of deaths prompted a number of alterations to life safety codes. A couple of investigations looked into the cause and reason for the rapid spread of the fire. There were local, state, and national teams involved. Also, NIST recreated the situation to better understand the life safety threats and firefighter safety hazards posed by the building (NFPA 2006). …show more content…
One the fuel load in the building was incredibly volatile. The foam board behind the stage burned very hot and fast. This lead to the room reaching flash over temperatures within ninety seconds. Number two is the over packing of the club with people. This lead to far to many people piling up and exits and getting wedged into them. Third was the lack of fire protection hardware. The only forethought was the minimum number of fire extinguishers dispersed onto locations around the wall. A sprinkler system, as shown by NIST in their recreations, would have kept damage to the building and its occupant to a very small