STATION NIGHT CLUB FIRE

Station Night Club Fire



Station Night Club Fire

Introduction

On the night of February 20, 2003, a deadly fire occurred in The Station Nightclub at 211 Cowesett Avenue, West Warwick, Rhode Island, USA. One hundred people lost their lives in the fire with more than two hundred other people being hurt from burn, respiratory insult and physical trauma. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) established a National Construction Safety Team (NCST) to determine the likely technical cause or causes of the building failure that led to the high number of casualties in the nightclub fire.

The fire was investigated using a real-scale experimental mock-up representing approximately 20% of the nightclub and was computationally studied using the Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS). In the FDS simulations, the ignition of burnable surfaces was determined solely by its ignition temperature and the burning rate was determined by the heat of vaporisation and the received heat. The FDS simulation of the mock-up experiment was intended to calibrate the model, fixing key model parameters by matching simulation results with experimental data. These simulations suggested that a heat release rate (HRR) of 1500kW/m2 and a maximum burning rate of 0.008kg/m2 s were appropriate for the initial burning locations and burnable surfaces respectively. These parameters were then used to investigate the full-scale nightclub fire by NCST.

In the FDS simulations of the mock-up test and the actual nightclub fire a single ignition criterion (surface ignition temperature) was applied. This leads to the use of a high level of heat release rate at the prescribed burning locations in order to create a high temperature area to sustain continuous burning and fire spread. Furthermore, the initial burning area is sensitive to this HRR. In addition, the FDS calculations ignored the main toxic fire gases CO and HCN, which can have fatal effects on building occupants. Using the FDS simulations and a temperature tenability threshold of 120 O C to evaluate the effect of heat on escape capability, NIST derived an available safe egress time (ASET) of 90 sec based on the predicted lower layer temperatures in the fire simulation. Several evacuation tools were used to analyse the required safe egress times (RSET) and the number of people that remained within the building at the determined ASET. However, as the evacuation simulation was not coupled to the fire simulation, the impact of fire hazards on the evacuating occupants was not directly considered.

Nightclub Mock-Up Experiment

The Station Nightclub is a single-story wood frame building [1]. A floor view of the nightclub is shown in Fig. 1(a). The mock-up used in the experiment was reconstructed in real scale with polyurethane foam covered walls, a drummer's alcove, a raised platform, carpeting, and wood panelling. A top view of the test compartment and dimensions are shown in Fig. 1(b). The ceiling height was 3.8 m. A single opening, 0.91 m wide and 2.0 m high was located in the wall opposite the alcove.

The test room was equipped with thermocouples, video cameras, heat ...