Rhode Island Nightclub Fire Sparked Debate, But Few Big Safety Changes

Fire marshals across the nation scurried to review inspections of nightclubs after sparks from a rock band’s pyrotechnics set fire to a Rhode Island club, killing 100 people and injuring scores of others a year ago.

At least 15 states debated tougher laws, mostly dealing with pyrotechnics. A national association of fire safety professionals approved more stringent safety recommendations.

But one year after the tragedy at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, only Rhode Island has enacted sweeping new fire safety measures dealing with everything from fire sprinklers to upgrading older buildings. Experts say it could take years for many states to follow suit.

“It’s not my sense that (the Rhode Island) fire is poised to make profound change,” said David Lucht, director of the Center for Firesafety Studies at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. “We don’t as a society take fire safety that seriously. It is possible to change cultural attitudes but I don’t think we are close enough yet. I don’t know if we ever will be.”

Since the nation’s fourth-deadliest nightclub fire, seven other states—Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, New York and North Carolina—approved tighter regulations for indoor fireworks. Cities also debated changes, with Boston banning indoor pyrotechnics.

“The fire absolutely put the issue on the radar screen,'” said Julie Heckman, executive director of the Maryland-based American Pyrotechnics Association. “What we saw in Rhode Island was the blatant misuse of indoor pyrotechnics.”

The association, which includes 260 companies, wants all states to adopt uniform standards and licensing requirements for fireworks use.

The Rhode Island blaze was the impetus for new standards approved last summer by the National Fire Protection Association. The Quincy, Mass.-based organization adopted recommendations that would require sprinklers in every new club serving at least 50 patrons, and in every existing club serving at least 100 patrons.

Thirty-four states, including Rhode Island, voluntarily adopted the group’s previous recommendations. It could be another decade before the association knows if its new standards will be adopted nationwide, said NFPA Assistant Vice President Robert Solomon.

“It will be a more drawn-out process,” he said. “We’ve seen good things come from these types of tragedies.”

Rhode Island was quick to act in the wake of The Station fire. Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri said he hoped his state’s new regulations “would set the stage for what happens nationwide, to make sure this never happens again.”

Rhode Island banned pyrotechnics in all but its largest public venues. Most nightclubs must have sprinklers by July 2005. Local fire marshals can order immediate repairs and fine violators. The new Ocean State code eliminates the so-called grandfathering statutes that allowed older buildings to ignore new safety standards. It also mandates fire alarms be municipally connected in all nightclubs with occupancies of at least 150, and it requires smoke and carbon-monoxide detectors in three-family apartment buildings. Many of the changes went into effect on Feb. 20, the first anniversary of the fire.

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