Use of Portable Fire Extinguishers in Nightclubs.
Use of Portable Fire Extinguishers in Nightclubs.
(119 K)
Grosshandler, W. L.
NISTIR 7419; April 2007.
Use of Portable Fire Extinguishers in Nightclubs:
Workshop Summary. Proceedings. January 17, 2007,
Gaithersburg, MD, Grosshandler, W. L., Editor(s), 1-8
pp, 2007.
Keywords:
fire extinguishers; fire investigations; building fires;
NFPA 10; building codes; fire codes; standards;
training; fire protection; effectiveness; fire spread;
technology utilization; maintenance; fire departments;
NFPA 13; egress; evacuation; nightclubs; nightclubs
Abstract:
A fire occurred on the night of Feb. 20, 2003, in The
Station nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island, when
the band, during its performance, used pyrotechnics that
ignited polyurethane foam insulation lining a portion of
the walls and ceiling. The fire spread quickly over the
dance floor and smoke was visible in the exit doorways
in a little more than one minute. Egress from the
nightclub, which was not equipped with sprinklers, was
hampered by crowding at the main entrance to the
building. One hundred people lost their lives in the
fire. The National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) conducted an investigation to determine the
likely technical causes of the building failure that led
to the high number of casualties. The investigation
concluded that strict adherence to 2003 model codes
available at the time of the fire would go a long way to
preventing similar tragedies in the future. Ten
recommendations to improve model building and fire
codes, standards and practices (as they existed in
February 2003) resulted from the investigation: (1)
urging state and local jurisdictions to (a) adopt and
update building and fire codes covering nightclubs based
on one of the model codes and (b) enforce those codes
aggressively; (2) strengthening the requirements for the
installation of NFPA 132 compliant automatic fire
sprinklers; (3) increasing the factor of safety on the
time for occupants to evacuate; (4) tightening the
restriction on the use of materials that ignite as
easily and propagate flames as rapidly as non-fire
retarded foam as an interior finish product; (5) further
limiting the use of pyrotechnics; (6) urging state and
local authorities to adopt and adhere to existing model
standards on communications, mutual aid, command
structure and staffing; (7) conducting research to
understand better human behavior in emergency
situations; (8) conducting research to understand fire
spread and suppression better; (9) conducting research
to refine computer-aided decision tools for resource
allocation, and (10) performing a study to determine the
minimum number and appropriate placement (based upon the
time required for access and application in a fully
occupied building) of portable fire extinguishers for
use in new and existing nightclubs, and the level of
staff training required to ensure their proper use.
