Monday, August 29. 2011
It was a cold night in West Warwick, Rhode Island, just above freezing, when the crowd made their way into The Station nightclub. Just another tour stop for the evening's headlining band, Great White, the night would end in a disaster unparalleled in rock and roll history when a quick moving fire ignited by the band's pyrotechnics swept through the packed club in just 5½ minutes. When the cold morning light came the death toll would climb to 100 - concertgoers, workers, and members of the band and crew.
Another 230 were injured, many of them critically. It was only after this disaster that the hard questions were asked, too late for the families of the dead and injured. |  |
In the ensuing investigations many people were faulted, including the City's fire inspectors, with the club owners, and Great White's tour manager serving prison sentences. The investigation revealed how tragically critical the crushing stampede for the main exit was. Although there were four possible exits, most patrons headed for the front door and the stampede quickly blocked the exit resulting in numerous deaths and injuries.
This week will be interviewing some survivors of The Station fire, talking about what happened during and after the fire, about how a concert forever changed their lives in just 5½ minutes, and about just how important it is to know where all the exits are. When it comes time it could be a matter of life or death.
It is important to know where all the exits are, unfortunately none of the ACL Festival maps that we could find include that information. The stampede to the main exit at The Station contributed greatly to the toll of dead and injured, and at that concert out of 458 people in attendance, 100 died. Most people attending the ACL Festival will only be aware of the main entrance as well, certainly without a better map, and there will be close to 100,000 people in attendance.
Just to update: we were promised a conference call by the City of Austin but that has not occurred as yet, and they have not responded to the questions that we forwarded them. Should either happen we will post it here. We have heard nothing further from our requests for information to C3 Presents since they declined to participate, but we will note that both entities have responded to requests for the same information by the Austin American Statesman, although we asked prior. We hope that the Statesman has the follow through to do more than publish a one of article full of sound bytes and softball questions, since neither entity involved with the ACL Festival has responded to ours. |
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