Report of the Technical Investigation of The Station Nightclub Fire: Appendices. Volume 2.
Report of the Technical Investigation of The Station
Nightclub Fire: Appendices. Volume 2.
(18702 K)
Grosshandler, W. L.; Bryner, N. P.; Madrzykowski, D.;
Kuntz, K.
NIST NCSTAR 2: Volume 2; 414 p. June 2005.
Keywords:
building fires; fire investigations; sprinklers; egress;
fire spread; fire models; polyurethane foams;
pyrotechnics; evacuation; tests; walls; panels;
experiments; pyrolysis; hydrogen cyanide; costs;
computer simulation
Abstract:
A fire occurred on the night of Feb. 20, 2003, in The
Station nightclub at 211 Cowesett Avenue, West Warwick,
Rhode Island. A band that was on the platform that
night, during its performance, used pyrotechnics that
ignited polyurethane foam insulation lining the walls
and ceiling of the platform. The fire spread quickly
along the walls and ceiling area over the dance floor.
Smoke was visible in the exit doorways in a little more
than one minute, and flames were observed breaking
through a portion of the roof in less than five minutes.
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. On Feb. 27, 2003, under the authority
of the National Construction Safety Team (NCST) Act, the
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
established a National Construction Safety Team to
determine the likely technical cause or causes of the
building failure that led to the high number of
casualties in that fire. This report documents the
procedures, findings, and issues that were raised by the
investigation. Volume I contains the main report and
Volume II contains appendix material. 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. Changes to
the codes subsequent to the fire made them stronger. By
making some additional changes - and state and local
agencies adopting and enforcing them - we can
strengthen occupant safety even further. Ten
recommendations to improve model building and fire
codes, standards and practices (as they existed in
February 2003) resulted from the investigation,
including (i) 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; (ii) strengthening the
requirements for the installation of automatic fire
sprinklers; (iii) increasing the factor of safety on the
time for occupants to egress; (iv) tightening the
restriction on the use of flexible polyurethane foam --
and other materials that ignite as easily and propagate
flames as rapidly as non-fire retarded foam -- as an
interior finish product; (v) further limiting the use of
pyrotechnics; and (vi) conducting research in specific
areas to underpin the recommended changes.
