Posted on 12/12/2005 3:30:30 PM PST by BigSkyFreeper
PROVIDENCE, R.I. --A judge set a May 1 trial date for one of three men charged in the 2003 nightclub fire that killed 100 people, eight of whom lived or worked in Connecticut.
Daniel Biechele, the former tour manager for the rock band Great White, faces 200 counts of involuntary manslaughter. He lit the pyrotechnics display that ignited flammable foam lining the ceiling and walls of The Station nightclub in West Warwick.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Watching the film of that fire should be mandatory for anybody considering owning a night club.
Proof,IMO,that there are scores of greedy lawyers,set to get 33% of any settlement/award,looking for the deepest pockets they can find.
At the time when I saw the video, and the sparks and flames were dousing the low ceiling, I was thinking to myself "What the hell were they thinking?"
I'll never forget that photo of all those people jammed in a pile by the front door screaming for help.
That had to have been pretty damned scary being crammed into a little nightclub like that, and everyone trying to go out the door at the same time.
What's really scary is that I (and probably many on this site) can recall dozens of times I was in a similar crowded place, be it club, frathouse basements, etc. etc. This is literally a "there but for the grace of God go I" situation. I'm much more conscious of my surroundings since that fire although my days of visiting small, smokey rock clubs are long, long past.
I haven't been inside of a nightclub in about 15 years, and the last time I was in one was during "open mic comedy nights" when I was in college.
I am a pro-musician, and have done the same low-level pyro at shows.
It is SUPPOSED to look cool..but at the can source the temp of the sparks is about 200 degrees...at chest/head height it's down to about 80 degrees...which is why papers on the floor did not ignite, nor did the lyric/songlist taped to the mic stand! It's also how a musician loaded with hair-spray can stand in the stream and not do a "Michael Jackson"!
My Father-In-Law is a Deputy Fire Chief, and he and I both agree...those walls had one of two things...
1) They might have just been installed/re-installed, and therefore the adhesive was still outgassing volatile/flammables...
2) The walls may have been doused with an accellerant. Vodka comes to mind, as it's odorless.
That foam went up faster than newsprint, or Michael Jackson!
I don't understand why these people are being charged with two counts for every person who was killed. Not that I think they are not at fault, but I don't understand why it is (I'm assuming) two counts for each victim.
This was a very awful thing, I hope some lesson about it sunk into my kid's head. She was and is at the age of going to places like this. And like the other poster said, I've been there, done that too. I was actually at a Patti Smith New Years Eve concert that the NYC Fire Dept. had threatened to shut down, I think it was being held in some recently re-opened theatre, so the inspections were not up to date, something like that. The place WAS a dump, but it was also a theatre, not a night club, safer than a night club, clear aisles, more exits, etc. The show did go on, but there were dozens of firemen, including some big boss types, there. They got to see Patti for free, but I'm not sure how much they enjoyed it. I'm sure some of the younger guys did.
RI ping
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