Digital Extra: The Station Fire

Common sense and creativity helped rescuers, firefighters and the police overcome communications obstacles the night of the fire.

09:35 AM EDT on Wednesday, July 14, 2004

BY MICHAEL CORKERY
Journal Staff Writer

Journal photo / Glenn Osmundson The state consultant's report says rescue efforts were complicated by communications problems. Still, rescuers were cited for improvisation and decision making.

In the chaos of the nightclub fire, Leo Kennedy was in charge of evaluating burn victims and sending them in ambulances to hospitals around the state.

With dozens of badly injured people waiting for transport, the Cranston fire captain needed to know which hospitals could handle new patients.

But when Kennedy called one hospital, he was put on hold. Other hospitals did not answer at all, according to The Station club fire report released yesterday.

So Kennedy did what first responders often do in heat of an emergency: He improvised.

Kennedy started dividing up the patients, sending a few to the smaller hospitals and more to Rhode Island Hospital. Knowing that nearby Kent Hospital had been quickly inundated with victims, Kennedy stopped any additional transports there. Other workers used a fax machine at the Cowesett Inn to communicate with hospitals.

"When you are making decisions in the field, you have to make the best decisions based on information you have," Kennedy said yesterday when asked about the consultant's report, prepared by the Titan Corp., of San Diego.

The flow of information, as the report details, was deeply troubled that night. Rescue workers from different departments had no common radio system allowing them to speak with each other. The "intercity" fire frequency, which local dispatchers used to contact other communities for assistance, was overloaded.

According to the report, several rescuers on the scene said they were not familiar with the Rhode Island Mass Casualty Disaster Plan. Others said it was not detailed enough to be helpful.

Yet, as the report states: "The rapid manner in which the large numbers of injured patients were assessed and transported to area hospitals should serve as a national example to other EMS [emergency medical services] communities."

Only 4 of the more than 200 people treated for injuries died after reaching the hospital.

"Given the knowledge I have, I would probably do it the exact same way I did," said Kennedy, who was interviewed by the consultants but had not seen a copy of the report yesterday. Kennedy is now a deputy fire chief.

With so many logistical and equipment problems, why were rescuers so successful in transporting and treating patients?

One reason, according to several accounts in the report and interviews with incident commanders, was that rescuers, firefighters, police and dispatchers used common sense and creativity to overcome the obstacles.

While Cranston Fire Chief Robert Warren said disaster and triage plans are critical, "in this business you can't write a plan for everything that you will face."

Dispatchers had no list of phone numbers for private ambulance companies and turned to the phone book. By the end of the night, 23 private ambulances contributed to the rescue effort.

Dispatchers arranged for buses from the Warwick Police Department and the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority to transport stable patients to hospitals.

Nightclub patrons used pickup trucks to ferry some of the wounded. Police officers drove ambulances to allow emergency medical technicians to ride in the back and treat critical patients.

Although the departments had trouble communicating with each other, Warwick Fire Chief Jack Chartier said the key departments were able to convey vital information to their own people.

Chartier stood near Cranston Fire Chief Warren and West Warwick Chief Charles Hall, who commanded the effort.

The men would communicate with each other face to face and then relay information to their respective personnel on scene.

"We could get the message out to everybody that we needed to get it out to," said Chartier. "It's probably not the way it is supposed to work, but it did work."

The consultant, hired by the state, says that Rhode Island emergency management structure has a "certain homespun character." In interviews yesterday, firefighters said the familiarity among their departments helped in coordinating the massive triage and treatment effort.

The report also praises many individual rescue personnel for taking charge. It singles out the leadership of Kennedy and Warwick Rescue Capt. Peter Ginaitt, "as major reasons why the triage and treatment activities were so successful."

But Grant C. Peterson, the author of the Titan report, said the state cannot assume individuals will go above and beyond. While Peterson said the problems raised in the report did not result in any additional deaths, the state still needs a better disaster plan in place.

Some successes that night were by chance. When the fire broke out, the shifts were about to change at Rhode Island Hospital, which created a large pool of available workers at the state's trauma center.

Governor Carcieri said the same set of circumstances might not converge during another disaster.

"Fortunately we covered up for some deficiencies, but let's say this were a terrorist attack," Carcieri said. "Suppose somebody at the same time had hit Rhode Island Hospital. What do you do? You need plans for all of these different contingencies."

But, he said, "at the end of the day, a plan relies on people to do it."