At least 95 people died and more than 180 were injured when a heavy metal band’s pyrotechnics display on a US nightclub stage went horrifically wrong.
A raging fire broke out in the Station club in West Warwick, Rhode Island, shortly after the veteran Californian band Great White had taken the stage. Giant cone-shaped sparklers used by the band as part of their show ignited foam soundproofing in the ceiling and the fire spread swiftly throughout the building.
The fire spread through the building within three minutes.
At first some members of the audience thought the flames were part of the show; pyrotechnics are common in live performances in the US.
Video footage of the concert shows flames around the band and members of the audience continuing to watch the show, apparently unconcerned.
Brian Butler, who was video-taping the show for a story on nightclub safety for a local television station, said: ”Some people were already trying to leave and others were just sitting there going, ‘Yeah that’s great!’ and I remember that, because I was like, ‘This is not great, this is time to leave’.”
Within seconds smoke obscured the room as people fled for the doors of the old single-storey wooden building.
Although all the emergency exits were open, many of the audience headed for the front door. In the panic many were trampled.
”People were trying to help others and people were smashing out windows, and people were pulling on people and cared how many cuts they got, nobody cared about the bruises or the burns,” Butler said. ”They just wanted out of the building.”
The West Warwick fire chief, Charles Hall, said at the scene: ”Human nature being what it is and many of these being there for the first time, it seems they were trying to leave the same way they came in. That was the problem, they didn’t use the other three exits.”
Most of the bodies were found in a pile near the main entrance. Some had died from smoke inhalation and others had apparently been crushed.
Officials feared the death toll would rise.
The governor, Don Carcieri, said the death toll had reached 95 and rescue crews had identified ”pockets” in the rubble where they expected to find more bodies.
”We believe that number is going to go higher,” he said. ”This building went up fast — nobody had a chance. It defies words. This didn’t need to happen.” It made no sense to use pyrotechnics in such a building, he said.
Hall said the club, which can hold 300 people, had passed a fire inspection in December and there was no indication that any of the exits were blocked. According to club officials the display was a surprise, and no permit had been obtained for it. But members of the band said they had received permission. The club had no sprinkler system.
”All of a sudden I felt a lot of heat,” Jack Russell, the band’s lead singer, told CNN. ”I see the foam’s on fire … The next thing you know, the whole place is in flames. There are no words to express how I feel right now. I’m devastated.”
Russell made a vain attempt to douse the flames with a bottle of water before the lights in the building failed, causing greater panic.
A member of the band, the guitarist Ty Longley, was one of those listed missing. In the early hours of yesterday hundreds of friends and relatives of the audience gathered outside the club as emergency workers searched the burned-out shell.
The local hospitals were unable to cope with the number injured and some were taken to Boston for treatment. Doctors at Providence hospital, where most of them were being treated, said 12 were in a critical condition.
Great White, from Los Angeles, have been playing for 20 years and had their greatest successes in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Their hits include Once Bitten, Twice Shy, and Rock Me. They have sold more than six million albums and won a Grammy nomination. Although their album sales have dwindled, they have continued a successful touring career.
The fire happened as the investigation of the stampede in a Chicago club on Monday, which killed 21 people, continued. The panic began when security guards used pepper spray to break up a fight.
Yesterday eight cases were brought against the club and the city of Chicago by relatives of victims.
The city authorities began an action to jail the club owner, Dwain Kyles, for violating a court order which should have closed the dance area. – Guardian Unlimited Â