Online News-NIST Urges Improvements in Nightclub Fire Safety
A new NIST report urges changes in nightclubs, including requiring sprinklers, tighter restrictions on the use of flammable materials in finish products, and improved means of egress in emergencies.
Organizations that develop building and fire safety codes, standards and practices-and the state and local agencies that adopt them-can improve the fire safety of nightclubs by making specific changes in those codes, according to a draft report released March 3, 2005, by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The report was released at a news conference in Providence, RI, the result of the agency's investifation of the Feb. 20, 2003, fire that killed 100 people at The Station nightclub in W. Warwick, RI.
Recommendations for changes in nightclubs include requiring sprinklers, tighter restrictions on the use of flammable materials in finish products, and improved means of egress in emergencies. Other recommendations address emergency response practices, as well as a call for more research to better understand the way people behave in emergency situations such as fires.