Today’s Molten Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
The Station Nightclub fire was the fourth-deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history, killing 100 people. The fire began at 11:07 PM EST, on Thursday, February 20, 2003, at The Station, a glam metal and rock and roll themed nightclub located at 211 Cowesett Avenue in West Warwick, Rhode Island. The fire was caused by pyrotechnics set off by the tour manager of the evening’s headlining band, Jack Russell’s Great White, which ignited flammable sound insulation foam in the walls and ceilings surrounding the stage. A fast-moving fire engulfed the club in five and a half minutes. In addition to the 100 fatalities, some 230 people were injured and another 132 escaped uninjured. Video footage of the fire shows its ignition, rapid growth, the billowing smoke that quickly made escape impossible, and the exit blockage that further hindered evacuation.
The following is an excerpt from the book Killer Show by John Barylick detailing what happened that night to Rob Feeney and his fiancée, Donna Mitchell, who were directed away from a band door exit by a bouncer, and forced to try and make their way back to the front exit.
Rob and Donna made it only a short distance toward the front door when searing heat knocked them to the floor. As flames roiled across the ceiling, they heard glass breaking, lightbulbs popping, and nonstop screaming. Rob picked Donna up and told her to cover her face with her hands. Again, they were knocked down by smoke so thick that the only light penetrating it was from flame itself. As they struggled to get up, a man, engulfed in flames, ran into them, knocking both flat. Feeney dragged himself to Donna’s legs, laid his head on her feet, and prepared to die.
As Rob rested his head on Donna’s motionless legs in the choking blackness and volcanic heat, he felt someone tap him on the left shoulder. He reached around but felt no one. When he felt the tapping again, he started kicking his feet. Realizing that he was not dead, Feeney started to crawl out over lumps he later realized were bodies. The ceiling above him glowed, dripping molten plastic onto the floor, when it consumed the flesh of his hands and fingers. He came upon a wall and followed it to an opening, which he pulled himself through, tumbling onto the concrete outside the atrium. Rob dragged himself to Great White’s tour bus and leaned up against it. Firefighters told him he was seriously hurt and doused him with snow. While awaiting transport to the hospital, Feeney noticed a shadow to his right, which he perceived to be his fiancée, Donna. Two firefighters picked him up and carried him away from the burning building. As Feeney was being moved, he saw the atrium roof collapse.
It wasn’t until Rob Feeney left the intensive care unit of Rhode Island Hospital that he learned Donna Mitchell had died inside.
Culled from: Killer Show
I highly recommend this book, Killer Show. I read it when I was visiting family in Australia and I must have seemed quite rude because I kept stealing away to read more at every opportunity. I have a thing for fire tragedies, and this is an excellent book of the genre. It’s hard to imagine how quickly the fire spread, but watching a video of the tragedy gives you a good idea of how quickly things got out of hand.
[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOzfq9Egxeo[/tube]
I remember when this happened. It was so terrible, and it came just a week or so after a bunch of people died in another nightclub in Chicago, a stampede or panic of some kind, if I remember.