Digital Extra: The Station Fire

Legislators worry that extending the deadline beyond July 1, 2005, would give owners of large nightclubs a reason to delay installation.

01:00 AM EDT on Monday, May 17, 2004

BY MARK ARSENAULT
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- The deadlines for Rhode Island nightclubs and other places of assembly to install fire sprinklers appear to be holding firm this legislative session, according to key legislators who helped to overhaul the state's fire code last year after The Station nightclub fire.

A proposed update to the fire laws, developed with the state fire marshal's office and the Fire Safety Code Board of Appeal and Review, would have guidelines under which fire inspectors can write tickets and issue fines, but would not change the sprinkler deadlines, a pressing issue for many businesses, said state Rep. Peter Ginaitt, D-Warwick.

"I worry very much when you just extend a phase-in," Ginaitt said. "I don't want to see that happen."

Ginaitt was cochairman of a special legislative study commission that last year recommended more mandatory sprinklers and other changes to the fire laws after the February 2003 fire at The Station. One hundred people died and some 200 were hurt when the West Warwick club burned. It did not have sprinklers.

State fire codes approved last summer eliminated the grandfather clause that had exempted older buildings from modern fire codes. In place of the exemption, Rhode Island last year adopted the National Fire Protection Association's standards for new and existing buildings.

The new law also broadened the power of fire inspectors, banned indoor pyrotechnics in all but the largest venues, and set a schedule for mandatory sprinklers in many nightclubs.

Nightclubs with a maximum occupancy of more than 300 people must install sprinklers by July 1, 2005. Nightclubs with occupancies of 150 to 300 have until July 1, 2006.

Ginaitt said it's possible that the demand for sprinklers could overburden the sprinkler industry, leaving some nightclubs unable to make the deadlines. The state needs to make allowances for business owners who make good faith efforts, he said.

"But if we just extend the deadline now, people are going to just put it right back on the back burner and they're not going to address the issue," he said. "They're going to wait another 11 months and then come back up here and say, 'Oh my god, we can't find any companies to put in sprinklers.' "

State Rep. Joseph Trillo, R-Warwick, also a member of the panel that recommended the overhaul to the fire laws, said the business community has been relentless in its pleas for more time. Companies worried about the deadlines can apply individually for more time to the Fire Safety Code Board of Appeal and Review, he said.

And if the deadlines prove to be too aggressive, the legislature can review the requirements at the beginning of its next session, in early 2005, Trillo said. "The time to do it, if it needed to be done, probably would be in January and February," he said.

THE CURRENT proposal to update the fire code would provide guidelines for fire inspectors to issue tickets for violations. The ticket system would complete an effort to give inspectors more enforcement authority; that effort began with last year's overhaul of the state fire code.

The legislature last year gave the fire marshal's office the authority to develop a ticketing system, similar to traffic tickets, to broaden the enforcement powers of inspectors.

William Howe, inspections chief for the state fire marshal's office, prepared the guidelines, he said in an interview on Friday. He divided the types of violations that would be covered by the ticketing system into categories:

Impediments to egress, which include locked or blocked exits, blocked exit corridors, improperly marked exit routes, and lighting that doesn't work.

Maintenance, which includes regular upkeep and testing of fire systems.

Fire department access and water supply, which covers impediments in fire lanes or fire hydrants.

Fire-protection systems, which covers obstructions placed near fire department inlet connections, and the upkeep of fire extinguishers.

Admissions, which covers violations of occupancy limits.

Howe deliberately left structural issues out of the ticketing guidelines, and concentrated on day-to-day maintenance, he said.

"It's not a matter of a door being too small where you have to correct the door. My concept was: here are things somebody should have done and didn't do, or should not have done, but did," he said. "It's something that was under somebody's control. They could have fixed it before an inspection, but didn't for one reason or another. That was the basic concept."

Under the penalty guidelines in the bill, first-time violations within any five-year period can carry a $250 fine. Second violations are $500, and third, $1,000.

The bill also proposes an exemption from the sprinkler requirement for assembly areas inside existing school buildings, and the bill would eliminate some 100 pages of code and legal language that have become redundant with the adoption of the NFPA standards, Ginaitt said.