Digital Extra: The Station Fire

05:46 PM EDT on Wednesday, June 29, 2005

By PAUL EDWARD PARKER
Journal staff writer

The key to preventing tragedies such as The Station nightclub fire is to aggressively enforce existing fire and building codes, according to the federal agency that investigated the fire.

The National Institue of Standards and Technology today issued its final report on the 2003 fire that killed 100 and injured more than 200 others at the West Warwick nightclub after pyrotechnics used by a band ignited soundproofing foam around the stage.

NIST recommended that communities nationwide adopt model codes, such as the fire code developed by the National Fire Protection Association, and enforce them strictly.

A preliminary NIST report, released in March, did not focus as much on enforcement issues. Instead, it pushed a wide variety of changes to the model codes. But NIST rethought its priorities.

``What good does it do to clamp down on a code if it really is an enforcement issue?'' said lead investigator William Grosshandler.

In today's final report, adopting and enforcing the model codes is the top recommendation.

``The first one is the key. That's why we moved it up front,'' said Grosshandler. ``It was not explicit in our draft report. It needed to be emphasized.''

The report still suggests code changes among its 10 recommendations, but as secondary priorities.

Although NIST found several areas where the model fire and building codes should be improved, Grosshandler said they were not bad at the time of The Station fire.

"The 2003 version of the codes were in very good shape.'' Even without changes, ``they will be able to prevent a tragedy such as this.''

Grosshandler would not go as far as blaming West Warwick Fire Marshal Denis P. Larocque or state Fire Marshal Irvin Owens in the enforcement of fire codes at the Station nightclub.

Larocque inspected The Station several times before the fire, but did not require removal of flammable packing foam that had been glued to the walls as soundproofing. Owens is responsible for training local fire marshals statewide.

Grosshandler would only say that adherence to the model code as it existed in 2003 would prevent similar tragedies in the future.

Among the 10 recommendations in the report are ones dealing with fire sprinklers in nightclubs, flammable foam as a wall covering, how emergency exits are evaluated and the use of indoor fireworks.