Our society faces similar dangerous circumstances. We must remain vigilant and observant or, like the poor souls in this very real, very horrific event, we as a whole will be burned, terribly disfigured and possibly destroyed. We cannot remain dead and unobservant of what goes on around us in these times ... we cannot fail to act sensibly and quickly when we see danger ... either as individuals or as a society. The Mid-East and the Far-East represent terrible danger right now to us all here in 2003, as surely as those initial flames climbing the walls represented great and emminent danger to those people in the Night Club in RHode Island.
Will we remain unobservant? Will we laugh at the danger somehow thinking it is a "part of the show"? Will we continue to allow the danger to grow both there abroad and right here at home through pourous borders, allowing most of production to be unwisely shipped off-shore and either remaining ignorant to what we face or ignoring it?
If we do, we will be in grave danger of being terribly hurt, maimed or destroyed by the threat that quickly grows around us.
Let us learn the lesson illustrated by this senseless and horrific tragedy before an even greater one engulfs us all. As the individual who was eye-witness to the carnage, but escaped alive ... let us be observant, let us act sensibly but quickly ... and let's try and help as many others as we can to escape the looming flames.
Jeff Head
February 21, 2003, Emmett, Idaho
Engineering Consultant and Author
The Dragon's Fury Series
A Tale of the potentially emminent World War III
Pardon me if it is too graphic, or too soon ... but I had to relate it and get it down on "paper".
The structure was rapidly building toward flashover the moment the flames were spotted on the back wall. There was no time to spare at that point.
Good post Jeff and very much agree with your observations.
For someone who supposedly is still trembling as he types, he manages to write an entire account with no spelling errors and only one slight grammatical error.
Considering how many posters on a typical bbs make obvious spelling and grammatical errors, this person must either be a person of incredible focus to detail or he is somebody who runs everything through a spell-checker. Otherwise, I'm a bit suspicious that this might be one of those "me too" syncophants wanting their 15 minutes of fame.
This is not, in any way, meant to disrepect the dead, their survivors or the other victims. Just the eye of critical analysis that FReepers tend to bring out in each other.
Your point is well taken, even as you watch the video, that some were moving immediately to the exit while others were oblivious to the imminent danger. Anyone who witnessed ther horror of 9/11 and now says that we have Saddam "contained" is guilty of the same dangerous ignorance.
We had better deal with this panic stampede issue, or we will surely face the tragic consequences of ignoring it. HOW A STADIUM OR SPORTS ARENA CAN BE TURNED INTO A MASS DEATH TRAP
In the case I fictionally describe the precipitating immediate cause of the panic is a sniper firing into the crowd, but it could just as easily be accomplished by setting off pepper spray or dumping a few gallons of ammonia and yelling "poison gas!"
This guy is a little too 'stilted' in his writing I would say - for writing an *article* BARELY hours old and into into the next day!
IMO THIS was written for release at some *future* date!
Which leads me to my point - THERE ARE a number of us who pointed out that this looks fake.
AND yeah, it's been *posted* before here on FR Jeff ..
You've been sucked-in royal, pal.
AND it would HELP a great deal if fire-retardant materials were used rather than the plastic-based material that *was* used ... did you see the thick black smoke that literally poured out the front door?
THAT'S why people perished (smoke inhalation) along with being trapped at the main entrance ...
CHICAGO -- Authorities said 21 people were killed and dozens of others were seriously injured at a south side night club, when they were crushed while trying to exit through a single door.
In various clubs and concerts, projectors, be they banks of Kodak Carousels with synchronizers, or overheads with Petri dishes of dyed gel, strobes, or 16mm animations, there was no open flame.
I've seen the video by the WPRI reporter from the floor several times--as soon as the pyrotechnics went off, the backdrop went up in flames--and the dancers were too stoned to do anything but wave their arms.
In the 'seventies' concerts had light effects (the semis worth for Steve Miller or Grand Funk) but the pyrotechnics I saw ('69) were limited to Jimi Hendrix pissing some lighter fluid onstage in a huge building (State Fairgrounds Coliseum).
Apparently (per owner of Stone Pony) Great White had done this effect without asking earlier--and where were their extinguishers?
I do the "check the exits" thing on planes.
Anyone who hasn't been in a fire needs to understand:
1) It's black--you can't see sh!t;
2) You take a breath and it's like getting a sledge hammer in your chest.
As for the saving someone from a fire--we were headed back to college on a rainy night and got passed by Speedball Tucker who then hit the bridge abutment.
We got him out of his burning car but he never regained consciousness and I watched his last bloody bubble form on his lips.
But even though his car was hot and flaming we opened the door and got him out.
I've seen enough of friends burning down cabins and teepees with candles--it's worse than tragic--it's outrageous.
Look for the exits; look for the extinguishers--have one in your home and car.
And don't go into a freakin' death trap and be so stoned you can't get out.
I never expected to be so old and serious--the second leads to the first.
Jeff, while I agree with your analogy, I fear the real prognosis for our country as a whole, is not much better than it was for that nightclub as a whole. We can try to help those around us, but when it comes to making the masses believe, it's just not working. The masses aren't going to believe until it's too late. Sad but that's the way I see it. Someone in another thread likened us to the old frogs in the pot of water that's gradually heating up and I see absolutely nothing to make me think he's wrong. We can keep trying, though.
MM