When and where did that happen?
December 2002. Only two months ago.
**Full Bore Linear Panic (that’s where you run in a straight line in a random direction until you bounce off an obstacle, run off in a different random direction until you bouce off something else, and repeat until you either escape danger or danger kills you)
**
Is this an actual phrase? If not, it should be.
We may be talking about more than lawsuits here. I heard on the news that the tragedy is now undergoing a criminal investigation.
It seems to me, especially from what I’ve been hearing here, that there may be charges of criminal negligence. The pyro guys and management are no doubt sweating bullets right now. I don’t know what the law is like in RI, but 96 counts of criminal negligence causing death could put a person away from a long time, I’ll bet.
I admit I may be a bit biased since I am a fan of the band.
I also have been through several classes on fire prevention and investigation.
Grandfathering a building like this as a concert/club venue is bad but. This is seems to mainly be a case of everything that could go wrong did…
I tend to think club owners should be held primarily responsible. IF the fire had been from a bad amplifier or peice of lighting equipment the results would have been the same.
This leads me to believe:
Inadequately marked/lighted exits
Inappropriately fire rated materials used in the stage area
Club staff unable to cope with situation, firefighting and or directing people to exits properly.
In my amusement park days we used to drill on stuff like this.
Ace of Swords, I’ve taken a moment to complement you on your razor-sharp perception and lightning-fast ability to react.
I was in the band for a rock musical (Love, Janis in San Diego–anybody see it?) and in one scene there was incense burning and cigarette smoking. During that scene, ths assistant stage manager–who normally is running around frantically making sure everything is in place for whatever’s coming up–stood in the wings with a fire extinguisher, staring at the incense. During that time, you couldn’t even speak to her, she was obliged to focus full-time on the fire hazard until it was extinguished.
They took it very seriously.
Its actually quite common. Also there are ways of getting around some fire code items by exceededing other requirements.
Example might be additional exiting or using better than required rated materials to slow fire spread.
The rate of the fire spread in the video is typical. Fires move quick. Sprinklers probably would have slowed and or contained the fire but I am not up on typical stage fire supression systems. Having sprinklers open up on all of that energized electrical equipment might have been another nightmare to contend with, circut breakers or not.
One of my LiveJournal friends has an aunt who was at the show. She is in the ICU now with severe burns and throat and lung damage. Her boyfriend (the aunt’s) has severe burns on his face and arms… my friend said that the hospital that she is at is a nightmare, like a war zone.
I guess the explosives they used - tubes filled with powdered aluminum and ignited by spark (remote controlled) - were considered something less than pyrotechnics and considered more like light-show pop-guns. They look to have been back aside the drumkit and easily deployed.
Collossal stupidity on part of the band. As they were playing smaller (and smaller, and smaller) venues - they had to keep bringing such stuff with them.
I’d like to see where the four fire exits - three of which were unused - exactly were. By the cigarette machine and pay phone? Next to the drumkit? If small “one story wooden clubs” have some acoustic ambience - then why the egg-carton-foam as sound-proofing?
The last venue GW played was the Stone Poney in NJ - which is huge compared to the dimensions of the RI club. And they didn’t allow “pyro” (and maybe even smoking).
An easy thing to say from the safety of you seat. A callous one, too.
That’s not panic - that’s PONG.
“Full-bore panic” (as if panic needed colour-coded levels) is the survival instinct in all of us taking control. In that video I saw a hand raise up and point to the entrance to the club. Fire smoke getthefuckouttahere is the predominant thought and maybe your brain is cognizant of family… or duty,
Where are the fire-exits in this tiny shoebox shaped one story wooden club?
I first heard it from my husband, and it has since spread among his buddies, students, and acquaintances. I thought it was an exceedingly useful phrase, and quite appropriate for such circumstances as happened in Chicago and West Warwick.
Hmm… no, I disagree. If you’re able to think at all you may be crotch-sliding down the razor-edged margin between fear and panic, but if you’re really in a panic you aren’t thinking. Yes, real panic does resemble Pong. And you’re showing your age if you remember that game.
I agree with Shirley U (excepting the turn-around and try another way part) and Broomstick - “Full bore linear” - that’s the way out that’s the way to go.
It’s been a long time since I was in the “Stone Poney” (I think they spell it that way) and I can’t recall where the fire exits are. I’ve been in bars (call them clubs if you like) for concerts with way over 300 people and basically the “fire-exit” would be straight back from the entrance.
Are there four emergency-exits in CBGB? The Bottom Line? The Blue Note?
Presumably, no band is going to use pyro there (and soon nobody will be allowed to smoke).
There was a similar disaster in Dublin in the 1981, in a club called the Stardust, in which 48 people died.
I have to say, I was in a basement dive club a few months ago (For DubDopers - it was Legg’s in Leeson St. :rolleyes: ) and the first thing I did, despite my intoxication, was to check where the emergency exits were. The club was very long and thin, and there were exits only at the front and back, so I made my party take a table right by the door. They all though I was being lame. At the time I agreed with them. Now I’m not so sure I was.
:sigh: Stupid me.
The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ is a great place to see a concert.
I saw the owner on MSNBC - and that was the last (or one of the last) venues GW played. They in fact stopped the pyro ASAP. The place holds 800+ and had around 250 that night.
sorries out to Broom and Shirley.
Thanks for the floorplan jjimm
Three emergency exits - two behind the bar and one behind the stage. And the restrooms are furthest from all.
dammit.
People said the same thing about the CEO of Canter, Fitzgerald. Oh, he’s not REALLY sorry that all his employees were burnt to crisps. He’s just faking. He’s enjoying the publicity.
Honestly, I hope you never are involved in a tragedy because there are some people so cynical that they’ll believe the absolute worst about you without ever having met you and with no evidence at all to support their view.
And to compare ANYONE to Susan Smith is pretty damn low. She deliberately murdered her own children. If nothing else, at least give the guy some freaking points for not DELIBERATELY catching the club on fire.
Geesh.
Last night, my husband found a site with a copy of the written contract on it. He’s still sleeping, so when he wakes up, I’ll have him get it for me and I’ll post a link. It was in the wee hours when he found it, but IIRC, there’s no mention of pyrotechnics.