In Response To Susan…
“The fire inspectors STILL aren’t doing their jobs, many public places have exits locked, blocked, unlit, doors that open the wrong way etc and nothing gets done.”

It’s not the fire inspectors fault nightclub owners choose to disobey the law. Fire inspectors DO their job. However with all the business owners who blatantly violate fire code to save a buck, they have much to keep up with. How about you learn a thing or two and put the blame on the people who break the law. Your statement is the equivalent of blaming traffic cops for people who speed.

Six years after the horrors of the Station Nightclub fire, and we have another hauntingly similar horror in Thailand: initial spark from pyrotechnics, ignites sound proofing materials in the walls and ceiling, sealed windows and emergency exit doors LOCKED. It doesn’t matter who is to blame, dozens of mostly young adults are gone.

Dave’s comments (Dec.14) are exactly right. I live in Hoxsie, R.I. a few miles from the scene, and I have three acquaintances who had family in the fire. A neighbor who lives two houses up the road has a son who was near the exit and managed to escape unscathed. My favorite waitress’s niece was burned beyond recognition and couldn’t be ID’d for three days. The daughter of a business acquaintance was pulled out and survived — she has had eight surgeries to repair damage, so far.

Today, there are a hundred wooden crosses and makeshift memorials stuck in the gravel surface of the lot where the hundred died. Many Rhode Islanders have never seen them. They go out of their way to avoid the site. It is just too painful.

You know the poor girl couldn’t see with all the smoke, and a simple yell out could be a matter of life and death.

People forget to note not just the violations in the insulation but much more attributed to this catastrophe. The club was a former restaurant that was turned into a club, its layout was not really the right type for a club with small cramped areas and winding hallways. The two side doors were locked, except for the kitchen door, and the side door by the stage had a bouncer on it, and the exit sign was intentionally turned off. Everyone was made to enter through the small funneled hallway entrance we see the people piled up on mid video (of which about 6 were pulled out successfully, those most of them at the bottom of the pile, the majority of those you see in the video in the doorway bottleneck died). Several windows in the pool table area (the long alcove on the right during the beginning of the song) were reinforced and thus nearly impossible to crash through, the pool tables were moved against the wall to make room for concert patrons, meaning one had to climb onto them to reach a window. The bathrooms (two wooden doors at the end of a hallway behind and left of the cameraman) were a long wooden tunnel with no exits, not even a window in the restroom, and only accessible from the dance floor meaning there was no way out of the hallway, both restrooms were total death traps, and all 3 people in the bathrooms at the start of the fire died.

When the fire started, the bouncer next to the stage, unaware of the fire, turned 5 people away from the door, 2 of which burned to death, before one man pushed him aside in anger and pointed out the fire, 20 people managed to exit through this exit, including the band, (this is the exit seen in the video right after the cameraman heads to the rear). Later estimates stated that nearly 60 people could’ve exited through the side stage entrance if the EXIT sign above the door had not been turned off to discourage people from going through it, and a bouncer was also place there for the same reason, many survivors later stated they were unaware such an exit even existed. The majority of patrons headed the way they came in, and bottlenecked, 31 people died in the bottleneck, most crushed. In the pool table area, one man was able to crash open a window at the last minute, and only 19 people made it out that open window, over 20 others died in that area, including the band’s guitarist, most survivors here sustained major burns as the fire closed in on them and the window was only finally crashed through.

In the main bar area (opposite the bottleneck hallway from stage), the locked side door was unable to be opened immediately as over 100 people ran across from the stage to exit at the only other obvious exit. After almost a minute, a few people banded together to get it open, others crashed through a side window and many exited there, most survivors (90) exited through this area, only 3 didn’t make it out in time, being 50 feet away from the fire, this area was the furthest from the stage and would have given survivors the longest time to escape if choosing this path.

In the back hallway leading to the kitchen and offices, the back exit was out of the way through a door; no signs pointed towards it in case of emergency; at least 20 people went down this hallway and into the office area or inside the freezer only to find they were trapped, 15 employees and 3 patrons made it out the back kitchen door, the least of any exit. Persons in the back offices all died due to them being withdrawn from the action, unfortunately for them, one would have had to have started leaving the building within 35 seconds (around the time the fire alarm first went off) to survive, if you had not yet started to run, you most likely did not make it out. Flashover (when the air reaches a temperature where solid objects can combust spontaneously) occurred at 5 1/2 minutes, meaning the entire building set ablaze if you had not yet exited by this time, you were dead.

For the comment on the cameraman not helping screaming people, this was near the pool table area, most people there were enveloped in thick smoke, and he would not have been able to see them if he tried even following their voices. Blinding dark smoke filled the entire club within 1 minute, disorienting everyone, yet at least 50 people still found a way out through the smoke.

100 died, 120 were burned or injured, and another 102 were uninjured, 322 people were in the club, 96 over capacity, had the club been at capacity, even with the violations, it would’ve not been so deadly. Four people who made it out of the club died of their burns.

I am also a fireman and I saw a video from a class I went to about a year after it happened.It was shot at the stage area and then the person backs out after the fire starts.It also is graffic and disturbing at times.I have tried to find a copy of this.Anyone know where to find it?

If the girl with the tray wants her picture off this site it is your duty (who ever is in charge of this site) to verify it’s her and do as she ask’s !!!! GET HER PICTURE OFF HERE , ASSHOLE !!!!

those poor people. so sad.

And I can’t believe Great White is touring again.

that’s a disgrace.

I added up how much was paid in settlements from all the lawsuits over the first. It looks like over $100MM was paid including money from Home Depot, a beer company, the company that made soundproofing foam, the city, etc.

The numbers are all in Wikipedia.

thats well and good that the companies involved have come forward, and offered that much, but thats just all it is, Offers of Settlement. 100% of the victims have to agree or there is none.

Unfortunately, all that needed to happen that night is for no Pyrotechnics to be set off and all would still be here.

My heart goes out to all the families.

Another year is coming, seven to be exact, and there is still no memorial at the Station site. Why? This is unbeleivable. Something will be said this year at the anniversary. If there’s not going to be a memorial site made, then DON’T BULLSHIT EVERYONE AND SAY THERE WILL BE !!!!!

I have analyzed this video over and over and discovered something startling. At about 1:20 before the cameraman even got out the door, if look to the left, or hold a piece of paper up on the right side of your screen, you will see a guy in a black zip up jacket. His arm bursts into flame and the girl to the right, her hair catches on fire. There is more to this than meets the eye, and more to the story than what they want us to believe. Another poster form the RH area said the ENITRE building had some sort of roofing tar substance on it with reflective speckles for the blacklights. This is utter bullshit.

There is only ONE party responsible for this: THE STATE for allowing this to happen. Try building a shed on your property and see what happens if you dont have a permit.

We watched this video at a safety training class at work recently. It is disturbingly haunting. I had seen the very first part of the video previously but the unimaginable speed of the events along with the later images of the people packed in the doorway and their desperate screams were new to me and are very profound. My thoughts and prayers to all the victims, their friends and families.

Eight years later and still its shocking and sad. I don’t think anyone in R.I., Boston, CT will forget this. My job was directly related to this tragedy and I had to investigate and compile information. I don’t know if they’ve done anything with the site by now but I sure hope so. Even if family members came together to have something put there, something should have been done by now.

It’s also unfortunate there are people who are capatilziing on this story. Although YouTube took down the vids they had from the news station, I’ve been able to find the actual footage on a site meant to make fun of tragedies. Nothing funny about this, but its where the information is.