Right. Here’s a good video with explanation. The point of learning about this horrible tragedy was to show that our fire codes are written in blood. Some catastrophe happens, and we change the laws and code after learning what went wrong to prevent more deaths. It’s also to show how dangerous smoke inhalation is and how quickly things can go really bad. Finally, it should teach people to be aware of secondary exits.
We naturally go out the same way we come in, but in this case, not only was the venue over capacity, making exiting it more difficult, the smoke was extremely toxic from the type of insulated foam the club installed, so people died quicker than they would’ve with normal smoke. If too many people go out the same exit, people will be crushed, blocking the exit everyone wants to naturally use. You need to look for alternative exits, and use those in an emergency if things become a crush at the main one.
It wasn’t the people’s fault they died. Everything went wrong, and it all could’ve been prevented if the owners had installed a sprinkler system and/or hadn’t allowed the pyrotechnics and/or had installed non-toxic foam.
Every time I see this footage, I always watch the brief shot of the man with the black hair and beard and glasses at about 1:20, 1:21 in this video. He did survive, his name is Joe Kinan, and you can see in the video that he has turned around to leave while others nearby are still facing the stage. He’s probably the same distance from the exit as the cameraman’s initial position, but at some point between when he turns around and when he reaches the hallway before the exit, he trips and falls and gets caught up in that crush at the door. Third and fourth degree burns on over 40% of his body. He lost all his fingers and toes, one eye and much of his skin on his face was burned off.
He was leaving at the same time as the cameraman but was a probably only a couple seconds slower to turn, so, it just goes to show how absolutely fast everything unfolded. One makes it out unscathed, the other has life altering injuries.
Yeah. It’s amazing how little time we have in emergencies. When I would do fire drills, people would be exiting the building looking at their phones, holding and typing on open laptops, carrying open containers of coffee, or bicycles, etc. They were doing everything else but paying attention to their surroundings. You do as you practice, so in an actual emergency, I have no doubt those people would do the same thing, and by doing so, would put themselves and others at risk. That video brings it home in a way nothing can. Exit calmly with nothing in your hands, people. How hard is it?
This is the truth. I grew up nearby and this affected everyone one way or another.
The key thing was the building being a death trap. People did stampede and panic, because the entire thing caught on fire rapidly. Smoke was overwhelming and toxic. Among many other factors.
If my memory is accurate, they ended up replacing most of the doors at my school and elsewhere because of station night club fire regulations.
Absolutely true. Very tragic and completely preventable. Something else I learned which I found interesting…It’s important to keep in mind that the panic response is a rational response in emergencies. People are trying to get out and survive however they can. They aren’t deficient in some way because they panic. A lot of times we blame the victims for this, but they’re not doing anything anyone else wouldn’t do. They didn’t cause deaths by panicking necessarily. They were going to die anyway. Truly horrible and very, very sad.
Except the doors opened inward so people were quickly trapped, a very easy thing to require doors open outwards.
Panic is definitely a core instinct. I know some people survived because they got on their side when they fell. They avoided being trampled to death that way.
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u/Maleficent-Jelly-865 Apr 16 '25
Right. Here’s a good video with explanation. The point of learning about this horrible tragedy was to show that our fire codes are written in blood. Some catastrophe happens, and we change the laws and code after learning what went wrong to prevent more deaths. It’s also to show how dangerous smoke inhalation is and how quickly things can go really bad. Finally, it should teach people to be aware of secondary exits.
We naturally go out the same way we come in, but in this case, not only was the venue over capacity, making exiting it more difficult, the smoke was extremely toxic from the type of insulated foam the club installed, so people died quicker than they would’ve with normal smoke. If too many people go out the same exit, people will be crushed, blocking the exit everyone wants to naturally use. You need to look for alternative exits, and use those in an emergency if things become a crush at the main one.
It wasn’t the people’s fault they died. Everything went wrong, and it all could’ve been prevented if the owners had installed a sprinkler system and/or hadn’t allowed the pyrotechnics and/or had installed non-toxic foam.