20 Years Ago Today: The Station Night Club Fire

20 years ago today (February 20, 2003) there occurred one of the worst nightclub fires in American history. It’s relatively recent history for me to be covering on this blog, but it’s always had personal meaning for me. I come from Rhode Island. That drum and bugle corps I wrote about just a few days ago was based in West Warwick, the town where this disaster happened. The people affected by this were my people; my metal-head nephews could easily have been in The Station night club that night. I’ve covered about ten similar fire disasters on this blog, most of them related in some way to theatres and show business, because it used to be a major hazard back in the day. It’s rarer now, but as we say, it still happens, through non-compliance with codes, and by people simply not using good sense.

There had been about 465 people in The Station that night to see the band Great White. The interior of the space was lined with polyurethane soundproofing foam. The show opened with the use of pyrotechnic effects. The foam ignited within seconds, then everything in the club began to burn. As often happens, there was a stampede to the front entrance. 100 people died, another 230 were injured, basically adding up to 2/3 of the people in attendance, and naturally all the rest will live forever with a traumatic memory.

There is a seven minute video on Youtube, captured by a local newsman who happened to be in attendance at the concert. It will be too upsetting for some to watch, but I’m sure that it was a valuable record for investigators, and it’s also educational I think for everyone else, because its useful to experience in real time how rapidly such disasters unfold. The band starts playing, the fireworks start, the fire catches within about 15 seconds, people become concerned, and then panic. The camera man makes it out in a minute and a half, but the remaining five and a half minutes are no less harrowing from the outside. The audio of people screaming is almost unbearable, as is the sight of people jammed up trying to come out the door, smoke pouring out around them. The cameraman walks back to the back entrance behind the stage and calls in to see if anyone is back there. No one answers. By the time he walks back to the front, the entire club is a giant mass of flames; you can’t even see the building any more. Watching it, you think it’s a miracle anyone survived.

Knowing how such events play out, I’m always kind of freaked out in any audience situation. People snicker at the apparent alarmism about the possibility of such a rare thing happening during theatre curtain speeches, but honestly — don’t scoff. Pay attention to where the exits are. I usually look for them all, and try to suss out which one I could get to quickest and is least likely to be stormed by everyone else. You can’t believe how quickly things can turn South and how important your split second decisions may be. For example, the guitarist for Great White had escaped, thought it was okay for him to go back for his guitar, did so, and never made it back out. When the event first happened, some people knew to get immediately out, others stuck around to watch and thought it was kind of cool. The band even kept playing for a little while after the fire started. You’ll see in the video, the first evacuees left almost casually, as you would upon leaving the concert at the end of the night. The photo above speaks volumes; they’re still in “Maybe we should do something” mode. But then, with the snap of a finger, it was a nightmare.