Coconut Grove Fire

The Station had recently received an inspection by West Warwick Fire Marshal Dennis Laroque. The owners were cited for several violations including expired fire extinguishers and some that needed to be hung along with gasoline stored inside the building. In his statements to police, Laroque says that the critical violation that he was concerned about was the exit door near the stage. It had a second inner door that did not have panic hardware attached and opened into the showroom. They had been previously cited and had removed the door to pass follow-up inspections only to replace it shortly after.

     The fire spread from the O’Learys’ barn to the yards nearby. Soon it was spreading throughout the neighborhood. William Lee, a neighbor a block away, saw the fire and ran to Bruno Goll’s drugstore to turn in the fire alarm. Bruno Goll refused to turn in the alarm because he said the fire truck had already gone past. So instead of arguing, Lee went home to his family. At the courthouse the lookout on duty saw smoke, but thought nothing of it, thinking it was just Saturday's fire and there was no reason to be alarmed. Then he looked up and noticed it was a different fire and had his assistant strike the Box 342 for the fire department. Soon fire trucks were at the scene and attempted to put out the fire. The fire department’s Chief Marshal, Robert A. Williams got the engines to circle the fire to contain it. They got as close to the fire as they could until their arm hair was being burned and their

Smoke and flames were spewing out of gaping holes bored by American Airlines’ Boeing 767 that crashed between the 93 and 99 floors on the North face of the 110- story building. Each of the North Tower floors were roughly an acre. The top 20 floors engulfed in flames, he was staring at a 20- acre fire raging 90 stories above. He thought in his head that, This is the most unbelievable sight I’ve ever seen. Meldrum parked the fire truck on the West Street in front of the

The Local, State and Federal agencies were called to investigate the Station Nightclub fire incident and they found many issues. The polyurethane foam that was on the interior walls was the major factor in the Station Nightclub fire. It was easily ignited and also contributed to a faster fire spread within the building. According to NFPA 101, Life Safety Code, the interior finish is required to be Class A or B for general assembly areas with occupant loads of more than 300. It has been calculated that the number of occupants at the Station Nightclub was around 440-458 people, obviously well over this limit. The ignition of polyurethane foam gave out a magnitude of smoke and heat in such a short period of time and created mass chaos, thus resulting in a crowd-wide panic towards the initial entry point. Also NFPA 101, Life Safety Code, section 13.2.3.6.1 states that the main entrance/exit shall be of a width that accommodates one-half of the total occupant load and shall be at the level of exit discharge or shall connect to a stairway or ramp leading to a street. If the owner of The Station Nightclub would have

The fire first started on the eighth floor and climbed up the building. Ninth floor workers were trapped because they were not alerted about the fire and had little time to escape. They tried to use the elevator as many times as they possibly could, but the elevators stopped operating. Clotilde Terranova had no idea that she could have survived the fire. They say she ran from window to window, and before anyone could stop her, she jumped out. She saw the fire blazing up from the ninth floor and was so frightened and acted in the

In the second-class structure (no. 4-6 Shawmut Street), adjoining the first class structure (located between the main dining room and the Broadway Lounge) on the second and third floors, were located the dressing rooms used by entertainers employed at the Cocoanut Grove Club.

There is some dispute to the cause of the fire, but most believe it was set by three inmates who intended to cause a distraction during dinner time, so as to make an escape in the commotion. Instead, they mistimed the ignition device which didn’t ignite until they were all locked up for the night (Latta). This idea was later cemented as the cause when two of the three men hung themselves from grief. There are still some, however, that believe the fire was a tragic accident and the prison officials used the three inmates as an excuse to avoid blame

The smoke from the now roaring fire could be seen seeping out the windows where girls stood at the ledge, just waiting to jump; screams could be heard while the young women were looking down at the

In the Asch building, on the eighth, ninth, and tenth floor there were around 500 workers present. To avoid theft all the doors on the floors was locked, except one.The door that was unlocked happened to be surrounded by fire so there was no escape.

“Ouch,” Surena jumped. She grabbed a piece of clothing to put over her hand so she could open the door. The door swung open and Surena picked up Belle and ran out the door. There was fire everywhere, she could barely see anything. She heard police cars out side the house with fire trucks. They were spraying the house. Surena felt very dizzy because of the smoke and her dog didn’t look so

For this paper I was asked to read a death scenario provided and to explain the way I felt whilst reading and immediately following. The scenario was that of a being trapped in a burning building. I was told to imagine that I was visiting a friend on the twentieth floor of an apartment building. While sleeping I was awoken in the middle of the night to the sounds of frantic screams and the intense smell of smoke. The first thing the scenario describes is that you run to the door and immediately burn yourself on the door knob, you then grab a blanket and manage to open the door only to find that flames and smoke come pouring in. The only window in the room is

The building was constructed in 1946, designed to be a nightclub. The same building had changed ownership and names numerous times, and had been incarnated as not just a nightclub but also a restaurant and pub. Exact numbers of occupants at the time of the fire is unknown, estimated to be between 440 to 458 persons. When the fire started at the Station Nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island, the venue was 100 people over capacity, but "even the legal number was based on a bogus standing-room formula," (Seligson, 2013). An estimated 450 people were inside when the fire occurred (FEMA, 2011).

The greatest lesson learned from this tragedy was the need for planned fire drills and accessible fire escapes. If the employers would have made it mandatory that all employees become familiar with the buildings layout, practice fire drills and know their closest fire escape, it would have aided the employees in the hour of despair. The biggest cause for death in this fire was a result of poor pre-fire planning. The building may be fire proof, but the people and contents inside are not.

After a couple of minutes of just talking about what might happen next we heard a large BOOM there was a tremble of shaking up at the top of the tower. That was when we all knew that we had to evacuate immediately from the building. This insane action resulted in us acting like a bunch of children sprinting for dinner as their moms say it’s macaroni and cheese tonight. A lot of people who couldn’t run as fast were in trouble since little did we know, the worst thing possible was about to happen. We were all

that burned 55 homes at the mouth of the San Gabriel Canyon. The total damage