NIST Station Nightclub Fire Investigation: Physical Simulation of the Fire.
NIST Station Nightclub Fire Investigation: Physical
Simulation of the Fire.
(2722 K)
Madrzykowski, D.; Bryner, N. P.; Kerber, S. I.
Careers in Fire Protection Engineering, 22-25, 2006.
Keywords:
fire investigations; building fires; computer models;
fire growth; impact; large scale fire tests; simulation;
fire spread; sprinklers; experiments; fuels;
polyurethane foams; cone calorimeters; heat release;
interior finishes; pyrotechnics; scale models;
instruments; tenability limits; computer simulation;
vents; smoke spread; temperature; oxygen; nightclubs
Abstract:
A fire occurred on the night of February 20, 2003, at
The Station Nightclub located in West Warwick, Rhode
Island. A band that was performing that night, during
its performance, used pyrotechnics that ignited foam
insulation lining the walls and part of the ceiling of
the platform being used as a stage. Based on a video
from a news camera operator who was present at the time
of the fire, the fire spread quickly along the 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 was
hampered by crowding at the main entrance to the
building. One hundred people lost their lives in the
fire, and hundreds were injured. Engineers from the
National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST)
Building and Fire Research Laboratory arrived at the
fire scene within 48 hours to provide a reconnaissance
report to the NIST director. Based on that report, NIST,
under the authority of the National Construction Safety
Team (NCST) Act, established an NCST to determine the
likely technical cause or causes of the building failure
that led to the high number of casualties in that fire.
The complete NCST report that documents the procedures,
experiments, studies, findings, and recommendations of
the investigative team can be downloaded from
www.nist.gov/public affairs/ncst.htm#Rhode Island
Nightclub . The focus of
this article is an overview of the physical testing and
computational modeling that was conducted to develop an
understanding of the fire growth and spread in the
nightclub, the development of untenable conditions, and
the potential impact of fire sprinklers on both the fire
and conditions inside the night club. This part of the
article will provide an overview of the incident, the
investigation, and the full-scale fire testing. This
article will also address the computer modeling that was
used in the investigation and the effect that
sprinklers, if they were installed, would have had.
