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The Station nightclub fire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 2 of 7 <br /> Biechele was fond of using 15 by 15's, which spray sparks 15 feet for 15 seconds. Three of that same <br /> caliber, at 45-degree angles, with the middle one pointing straight up, were the kind used that night. <br /> Gerbs are considered appropriate for indoor use before a nearby audience when proper precautions are <br /> observed. <br /> An NIST investigation of the fire, using computer simulations and a mock-up of the stage area and dance <br /> floor, concluded that a sprinkler system would have successfully contained the fire enough to give <br /> everyone time to get out safely. However, due to its age (built in the late 1930s) and size (4,484 square <br /> feet (404 m'-)), the Station was believed by many to be exempt from sprinkler system requirements. In <br /> actuality, it had undergone an occupancy change when it was converted from a restaurant to a nightclub. <br /> This change dissolved its exemption from the law, a fact that West Warwick fire inspectors never noticed. <br /> On the night in question, the Station was legally required to have a sprinkler system, but did not. <br /> The events that occurred during the fire were caught on videotape by cameraman Brian Butler for WPRI- <br /> TV of Providence, and the beginning of it was released to national news stations. He was there, <br /> ironically, for a planned piece on nightclub safety being reported by Jeffrey Derderian, a WPRI news <br /> reporter who is also a part-owner of The Station. WPRI-TV would be cited for an ethics violation for <br /> having a reporter do a report concerning his own property. The report had been inspired by the Chicago <br /> nightclub stampede that had claimed 21 lives only four days earlier. At the scene of the fire, Butler gave <br /> this understandably-agitated account of the tragedy:[(] <br /> " ...It was that fast. As soon as the pyrotechnics <br /> stopped, the flame had started on the egg-crate <br /> backing behind the stage, and it just went up the <br /> ceiling. And people stood and watched it, and some <br /> people backed off. When I turned around, some <br /> people were already trying to leave,and others <br /> were just sitting there going,'Yeah,that's great!' <br /> And I remember that statement, because I was, like, i. <br /> this is not great. This is the time to leave. <br /> At first, there was no panic. Everybody just kind of <br /> turned. Most people still just stood there. In the Brian Butler recounting the <br /> other rooms, the smoke hadn't gotten to them, the rapidity of the fire <br /> flame wasn't that bad, they didn't think anything of <br /> it. Well, I guess once we all started to turn toward <br /> the door, and we got bottle-necked into the front <br /> door, people just kept pushing,and eventually <br /> everyone popped out of the door, including myself. <br /> That's when I turned back. I went around back. <br /> There was no one coming out the back door <br /> anymore. I kicked out a side window to try to get <br /> people out of there. One guy did crawl out. I went <br /> back around the front again, and that's when you <br /> saw people stacked on top of each other, trying to <br /> get out of the front door. And by then, the black <br /> smoke was pouring out over their heads. <br /> I noticed when the pyro stopped,the flame had kept <br /> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Station—fire 10/26/2007 <br />