Smoldering sentiments

Rhode Island nightclub has sparked little change nationally

By Michael Mello ~ The Associated Press

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- When a rock band's pyrotechnics set a Rhode Island nightclub ablaze, killing 100 people and injuring scores of others, fire marshals across the nation scurried to review their safety inspections.

At least 15 states debated tougher laws, mostly dealing with pyrotechnics, and a national fire safety association approved more stringent safety recommendations.

But one year after the tragedy at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, only Rhode Island has enacted sweeping new fire safety measures dealing with everything from fire sprinklers to upgrading older buildings.

National fire safety experts say it could take years for many other states to follow suit.

"It's not my sense that the Rhode Island fire is poised to make profound change," said David Lucht, director of the Center for Firesafety Studies at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. "We don't as a society take fire safety that seriously."

Since the nation's fourth-deadliest nightclub fire, eight other states -- Alabama, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, New York and North Carolina -- approved tighter rules for indoor fireworks. Cities also debated changes, with Boston banning indoor pyrotechnics.

"The fire absolutely put the issue on the radar screen," said Julie Heckman, executive director of the Maryland-based American Pyrotechnics Association. "What we saw in Rhode Island was the blatant misuse of indoor pyrotechnics."

The association, which includes 260 companies, wants all states to adopt uniform standards and licensing requirements for fireworks use.

The Rhode Island blaze -- sparked by a pyrotechnic show by the band Great White -- was the impetus for standards approved last summer by the Quincy, Mass.-based National Fire Protection Association. The group now recommends requiring sprinklers in every new club serving at least 50, and in every existing club serving at least 100.

Thirty-four states, including Rhode Island, voluntarily adopted the group's previous recommendations. It could be another decade before the association knows how broadly its new standards will be adopted, said NFPA assistant vice president Robert Solomon.

State Rep. Peter Ginaitt, a Warwick firefighter who was among the first responders to the nightclub fire, said Rhode Island won't consider the new NFPA standards until the state evaluates the effect of its new regulations.

New code words

The state's new code prohibits pyrotechnics in all but its largest public venues, and most nightclubs must have sprinklers by July 2005. The code also gets rid of the "grandfathering" statutes that allowed older buildings to ignore new safety standards.

Many of the changes go into effect on Feb. 20, the first anniversary of the fire.

But even in Rhode Island, lawmakers faced resistance from businesses concerned about the cost of sprinklers. Some officials also doubted the state's ability to enforce the phased-in requirements.

"It hurt to make those changes because we knew we were hurting the people who would ultimately pay" for sprinklers and other improvements, said Ginaitt, who was co-chairman of a state commission that recommended many of the new safety regulations.

While the legacy of The Station fire outside Rhode Island may be uncertain, it's clearly changed attitudes in the nation's smallest state.

"There's a greater awareness, not only on the part of owners but their patrons," said Bill Howe, chief of inspections for the state fire marshal. "We get more complaints ... people who might have accepted things in the past no longer do."