QUINCY, Mass. -- A national fire protection group, continuing to respond to the tragedy of The Station nightclub fire, recommended yesterday one more safety measure for nightclubs and concert halls around the country: Every day they open to the public, the owners will be responsible for ensuring exits and stairways are clear.
In theory, schools already are required to do daily exit reviews. Mandating similar inspections for concert halls was approved yesterday during the second day of talks by a special committee of fire experts seeking to make nightclubs safer.
The National Fire Protection Association's Technical Committee on Assembly Occupancies took its strongest steps Tuesday when it voted to recommend mandatory sprinklers for every new nightclub serving 50 or more patrons and every existing club serving 100 or more people.
The committee on Tuesday also mandated more safety inspections and trained crowd managers for most clubs.
Yesterday the committee focused on writing supporting memos for its recommendations, which will be passed on to the NFPA's Standards Council. The council meets next week in Portland, Ore. The recommended code changes can only be put into effect by a vote of the council.
In one memo, the technical committee wrote that a so-called Life Safety Evaluation (a detailed safety inspection) "could have prevented or reduced the loss of life and devastation that occurred at The Station and E2 Club [in Chicago]. Life Safety Evaluations are crucial in assuring public safety."
The technical committee also agreed yesterday to do more research into two areas: determining how many people can safely evacuate a building without sprinklers, and how many exits are necessary and where they should be located.
The committee used a computerized simulation to determine that roughly 100 people could escape a fast-moving fire if there were two exits. But many questions were raised about the simulation. Did it account for a fire that moved as fast as The Station fire? Did it properly estimate the number of people who can get through an exit door?
The committee also spent a lot of time talking about exit requirements, and decided it needs to know more.
For typical buildings, the fire code requires that 50 percent of the building's capacity must be able to exit through the front doors within 200 seconds.
The Station fire made many experts question whether the 50-percent threshold is sufficient because -- while no precise numbers are available -- it looks like many more than half of the patrons tried to get out through the door they used when they arrived -- the front door.
"I looked at some nightclubs in my jurisdiction, and almost every person I talked to said they would go to the front doors, even if they were sitting next to exit signs by other doors," said one committee member, Chief John Lake, of the Marion County Fire Rescue in Ocala, Fla.
"People in a high-stress environment are relying on basic instincts," Lake said. "I don't know if 50 percent [accessiblity at the front door] is enough. I don't know if 75 percent is enough. I do think a lot more people would have gotten out of that building [The Station] if there was a bigger exit. They all headed for that front door."
Exits and fire sprinklers are related, according to Ralph Gerdes, the committee chairman. By requiring more sprinklers, the NFPA may find that not as many exits are needed, he said.
Gerdes said he was pleased that the committee came out with such strong recommendations during the last two days.
"We did cover a lot of ground," he said. "We got a lot more done by getting together and working out code changes that made sense."
Several committee members pointed out that generally they do their work in anonymity. Rarely do news reporters attend their meetings.
But with The Station and E2 incidents putting the spotlight on nightclub safety across the country, the committee's deliberations were covered by several reporters. The public expects a response, committee members said, and the committee acted.
