By Nick Markowitz Jr.
Private Fire Investigator

We watched this week in horror as 21 people died in an illegal night club in Chicago and 93 people in West Warrick, Rhode Island, plus the hundred’s more who were injured. Both incidents were 100% preventable if the Life Safety and Fire Codes of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) had been followed.

NFPA has spent thousands of hours of research and millions of dollars developing codes to ensure safety of public facilities. But, instead, we have club owners in Chicago who allowed a dance to go on even though they were under court order not to have the 2^nd floor open. Here doors were locked and there was only one exit out.

We mustn’t forget West Warrick where we had a 60-year-old building with only 9 ft ceilings where a support person in the band, Great White, set off Pyrotechnics in a building full of highly-flammable foam materials that burn with such ferocity that they are known as a liquid fire.

These same exact materials are what took so many lives at Coconut Grove. Ignorance and failure to follow codes should result in felony charges and stiff jail sentences for all those involved.

Have we not learned any lessons from the Cocoanut Grove Club Fire in 1942 that killed 492, or the Kentucky dinner club fire that took more than 150 lives in 1977? Or how about those killed in the illegally-operated Happy Land Club in the Bronx, NY .

It appears that every one has the "it can’t happen to us" attitude. This is why I rarely attend any type of large event, and if I do, I am always looking for the exits, fire extinguishers, etc. Also, when I see violations, I immediately notify management and Fire Officials. For example, I will not tolerate locked and blocked doors and over crowded floors.

I recently helped one of my clients hold an art event at one of his properties and it was the same crowd of airhead-type artists who once again made the decision that they were not going to follow the rules. I shut the event down until they complied and then I filed a complaint with fire officials on how they conducted themselves on my client’s property.

The leader of this group of artists told me they had a $1,000,000.00 Dollar policy if something went wrong, but money can never replace human lives. Perhaps if they had a child and lost him or her senselessly in one of their shows maybe they would understand my concerns. Then again, maybe they would not.

Having been involved in the Fire Service for many, many years now, there is nothing worse than having to remove a dead, burnt body and watching the grief of survivor’s after such a traumatic event. Nothing can compare to this, I can assure you.

To prevent these kinds of tragedies, we need vigilance of the Fire Inspectors who cannot be everywhere all the time. Truth be known, they are under staffed due to budgetary constraints. But we also need the public to take a stand by demanding safer venues when they attend.

Most importantly, those who attend large events need to pay particular attention to their surroundings. Always have a plan and follow it if something should happen. Many at the West Warwick Club could have survived the fire if they had been paying closer attention, had gone after the closest exit, and had not panicked. But many of us go to such parties to forget all that stuff. Here we lose all our concerns, which is the wrong thing to do in a large crowd of people.

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