Posted on 02/21/2003 4:59:30 AM PST by kattracks
WEST WARWICK, R.I. (Reuters) - At least 39 people died and some 150 others were injured in a fire that swept through a Rhode Island nightclub during a rock band's pyrotechnics display, authorities said on Friday.
West Warwick Fire Chief Charles Hall told reporters at the scene that up to 200 people had been in the Station nightclub when the blaze started on Thursday night in this town 15 miles southwest of Providence.
He said the death toll could continue to rise.
Town manager Wolfgang Bauer said earlier it would take "a good amount of time before the building can be thoroughly searched and we will come up with some definitive number."
Witnesses told television stations a flash fire erupted about 11 p.m. on Thursday at the Station nightclub during a pyrotechnics display at the start of a concert by the heavy metal band Great White.
Hall said the club had no license for pyrotechnic displays. He said there were no sprinklers in the building, but a building of the club's size was not required to have them.
The Station had passed its fire code compliance as of Dec. 31, 2002, and its fire exits were working, the fire chief said. He said there had been some minor violations, but they had been taken care of.
Great White's lead singer, Jack Russell, told reporters the place "went up like the Fourth of July." He was quoted by television reports as saying one of the band's members was missing.
Fire officials said victims had been burned to death or died of smoke inhalation. Hall said most of the victims had been trampled and that investigators were trying to determine why the club had burned so quickly.
FIRE AND CHAOS
Dozens and dozens of victims were taken to hospitals, some as far away as Boston. One victim said she had suffered minor burns, which she suspected were caused by hot tar that fell onto her from the ceiling in the chaos.
"Everything was OK until somebody tried to dive over my head," she told local television from her hospital bed.
Kent Hospital, about 3 miles from the club, said it received 52 patients with injuries ranging from lacerations to first-, second- and third-degree burns. Local authorities said no patients had died after being taken to hospitals.
A spokesman said the hospital had airlifted four patients to burn treatment centers in neighboring Massachusetts.
Rhode Island Hospital in Providence received about 60 patients, said Dr. Selim Suner.
"There were many patients who are in critical condition with severe injuries. Most injuries are burns, burns to the face, the body. A lot of people have burns to the hands. We suspect they were trying to crawl out on their hands and knees," Suner said.
"A lot of these patients are on ventilators. Some of them did have injuries consistent with trampling," he added.
Bauer declined to speculate on the cause of the fire, but cited television footage "that evidently showed the pyrotechnics going off and the fire starting."
Hundreds of firefighters gathered at the scene from across the region. Some described the blaze as the worst they had ever seen. Television footage showed scenes of pandemonium as flames shot out of the building.
Great White, which dates back to the early 1980s, was once nominated for a Grammy Award for its song "Once Bitten, Twice Shy."
The Rhode Island blaze occurred less than a week after 21 people were killed in a stampede at a Chicago nightclub when they tried to escape pepper spray used to break up a fight and were crushed behind blocked doors, officials said. (Additional reporting by Greg Frost, Av Harris)
(CNSNews.com) - Less than a week after a deadly nightclub stampede in Chicago, a nightclub fire in West Warwick, R.I., killed as many as 39 people late Thursday night. More than 100 people were injured, reports from the scene said. A television news photographer, who was at the club on another assignment, captured the moment on video, as a pyrotechnic display ignited the stage props. Witnesses said the fire moved so fast, many people didn't have time to get out. Some reportedly thought the fire was part of the show. One fire official said some of the dead were found near the front door. About than 300 people were at the nightclub to hear a concert by Great White, a 1980s heavy metal band. The nightclub was not filled to capacity, according to reports. Witnesses said the one-story building was engulfed in flames within two minutes. Ironically, the WPRI-TV photographer who captured the start of the fire was at the nightclub to shoot footage for a "could-it-happen-here" story about the nightclub scene -- a story prompted by Sunday's deadly nightclub stampede in Chicago. Twenty-one people died in the Chicago club, after panicked club-goers stampeded the exit when a security guard used pepper spray to break up a fight on the nightclub floor.
"Nero fiddled..."?
If the LEAD SINGER of the group....who was on the stage where the FIRE STARTED...can get himself to safety, why are this many people dead?
Amazing!!!
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