Nightclub in Bucharest Gutted by Fire - 41 Injured

January 21, 2017 - Bucharest, Romania.  A fire, believed to be started by sparklers on drinks and / or patrons smoking that ignited the roof decor, gutted the Bamboo Nightclub and sent at least 41 people to the emergency room.  No deaths have been reported.  About half of the victims were transported by Emergency Vehicles, while others made their way there on their own.  Reported injuries included smoke inhalation, hypothermia because they ran from the burning building into outdoor temperatures of -12°C (-10°F) leaving their coats behind, and sprained ankles or broken bones because they jumped from the second floor of the building to escape.

(Image ISU via AP)

One witness said that waiters were serving bottles of drinks with sparklers stuck in the tops.  Fireworks and smoking are both illegal in nightclubs and public places in Romania.  Prosecutors have begun an inquiry about the building construction, permits, staff training, insurance, inspections, and other concerns.

(Image Andreea Alexandru via AP)

The Bamboo Club was originally opened in 2002, but was destroyed by a fire in 2005, and then rebuilt.

There is no information available at this time about the building being equipped with fire sprinklers, fire alarm system, or other fire fighting equipment.

Also See:
theatresafetyblog.blogspot.com/2015/11/nightclub-fire-in-romania-kills-27.html

OSHA issues fines for Stage Manager killed in blast

2016-02-03 -Last summer we reported about an incident in west Texas where a Stage Manager was killed when a pyrotechnics storage bunker for an outdoor show exploded  (http://theatresafetyblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/fireworks-storage-building-explodes-and.html)

OSHA has now investigated the incident and issued a statement:  “A 21-year-old worker, with three months of work experience under her belt, lost her life because Texas Panhandle Heritage Foundation failed to provide appropriate training and protective equipment to workers handling pyrotechnics.”

That was the assessment of Elizabeth Linda Routh, OSHA’s area director in Lubbock, Texas, after a young worker was fatally injured last summer while taking an inventory of the pyrotechnics for an outdoor musical production at the Palo Duro Canyon State Park in Canyon, Texas.

After an inspection following the fatality, OSHA issued six serious citations for failing to train workers on the use of explosives, provide fire retardant clothing, perform a hazard assessment and develop a written hazard communication program.

Proposed Penalties: $42,000

Texas Panhandle Heritage Foundation is a performing arts employer.

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Although $42,000 may not seem like much for a human life, this assessment of the situation opens the door for civil litigation so the victim's family can pursue further compensation.

Nightclub Fire in Romania Kills 27, Injures 170

2015-10-31 - Bucharest, Romania - An late night fire in a basement nightclub claimed 39 lives, injured over 190, and was completely predictable and preventable.  A heavy metal band Goodbye to Gravity gave a free Halloween concert at the Colectiv nightclub just south east of the city center, and during the show some fireworks (pyrotechnics) were set-off which ignited a foam covered column that was adjacent to the stage.  Witnesses said the fire rapidly spread across the foam and pine wood covered ceiling causing a panic in the crowd.

Ironically, the band had just played 'This is the Day We Die' from their new CD "Mantras of War", and then as they started into the next song the fire started.  Delia Tugui, a Spanish teacher at the American International School of Bucharest who was at the concert with her husband and son, said club goers were surprised by how fast the fire spread and panicked.

Moments before the fire

"The lead singer made a quick joke: 'This wasn't part of the program.'  The next second, he realized it wasn't a joke and asked for a fire extinguisher," she wrote on her Facebook page.  "In 30 seconds . . . the fire spread all over the ceiling.  People rushed to the entrance but it was too narrow, and people panicked.  Behind me people stampeded, climbing over each other, to try and get out."

The fireworks spray towards the foam covered column

"I was two meters from the door and I barely got out," she told The Associated Press.  "People started pushing each other, stamping on each other, it was incredibly quick."

Patrons still smiling unaware of the hell that was about to break loose

"Friends were looking for each other under the pile of people," she said. "It was a nightmare."

She said she knew some would not escape.

"I realized that those on the other side of the bar would not get out alive."

Once she got outside there was a blast and her hair caught fire, Tugui said.

"I tried to put it out with my hands and got burned.  People behind me were burned from head to toe."

A  3D computer generated graphic of the nightclub fire can be seen here.

The band’s lead singer, Alex Pascu, was hospitalized and later died.  Antena 3 TV said bass guitarist Alex Telea was reported missing by his parents, who have been searching for him.  he is also confirmed dead.

Florentina Dinca, 38, who lives opposite the nightclub, told The Associated Press there was chaos as emergency workers tried to aid the badly burned clubgoers.

"They were very frightened, they screamed, ambulances didn't know what to do," she said.  "Girls had their hair burned, they had burns on their faces.  It was terror."

“There was a stampede of people running out of the club,” a man who escaped without shoes told Reuters.

A young woman who sustained minor injuries described the club bursting into flames.  “In five seconds the whole ceiling was all on fire. In the next three we rushed to a single door,” she told television station Antena 3.

The nightclub had only one entrance / exit and it was just 80cm wide (31 1/2").  Paul Angelescu, a reporter with ProTV, said the mayor told him the venue had all the necessary permits to operate as a club, however, they did not have permits for any pyrotechnic use.  Further investigation will determine if the facility was indeed compliant with current local building codes.

The club was said to have 300-400 in attendance that night, and some were minors. It was only permitted for 80 occupants.  In Romania it is permissible for adults to bring their children into nightclubs, and occasionally unaccompanied minors enter the clubs because the monitoring of age is very lax.

The nightclub is one of dozens of clubs and bars that have sprung up in the Romanian capital in recent years, a lively city of 3 million renowned for its nightlife and long hours.

Shooting candles and indoor fireworks are common in bars and restaurants in Romania and enforcement of fire regulations is poor.

Twelve hospitals were filled with burn and smoke inhalation victims, and hundreds lined-up outside to donate blood.  The death toll is expected to rise.

Update:  Thousands of protesters in Romania have been gathered in Bucharest expressing anger towards the government for the lax building code enforcement that led to this tragedy.  Prime Minister Victor Ponta and his Cabinet resigned Wednesday, November 4 in response to public demands for accountability.

If this story seems all-to-familiar, numerous nightclub fires have been initiated by the illegal use of pyrotechnics which ignite foam materials used for sound absorption.  These include The Station nightclub fire in 2003 at West Warwick, Rhode Island, which killed 100 people; and and the Kiss nightclub fire in Santa Maria, Brazil, which killed 242 people.

More coverage can be found at:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colectiv_nightclub_fire

This blog entry updated 2015-11-07-10:15PM

Fireworks Storage Building Explodes and Kills Assistant Stage Manager

Amarillo, Texas - 2015-07-31, 5:54PM - 21 year old Peyton Trueblood was killed Friday evening when a fireworks storage building exploded and sent flaming debris over 200 yards from the blast site.  Peyton worked in the Palo Duro Canyon park amphitheatre where the musical "Texas" is presented.  Reports say she was taking inventory between two storage building when the explosion occurred.  Peyton was from Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Peyton Trueblood (on left) (from facebook)

The Texas State Fire Marshal is investigating to find the cause of the incident.  Kris Miller, executive director of the Texas Panhandle Heritage Foundation, which produces the show, said that about 1,600 rounds of fireworks — enough to last until the end of the show’s season on August 15th, plus rounds stored for homecoming at West Texas A&M University — went up in the explosion.

Miller added “She had talked about what an honor it was to work with the fireworks and being certified to do that.  And when I spoke to her mother last night, she said something about how Peyton felt proud about that.”

Palo Duro Canyon Park Superintendent Shannon Blalock says the park has resumed normal operations following yesterday's tragic accident.  2015 marked the 50th season for the popular musical located about 25 miles south of Amarillo.  Information about the show can be found at: www.texas-show.com

Park officials say they will continue to working with the State Fire Marshal and the Randall County Sheriffs Office as the investigation continues.

(Updated details 2015-08-05)
Follow-up:  OSHA issues fines:  http://theatresafetyblog.blogspot.com/2016/02/osha-issues-fines-for-stage-manager.html

Fan injured by unsecured canon equipment sues promotor

William Mueller Jr. sued Live Nation and others, in St. Louis County Circuit Court in March 2013.  Mueller claims he suffered injuries to his groin and upper thigh and suffered pain, mental distress, and temporary loss of consortium (see below).  Mueller says he attended the KISS concert at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater on August 27, 2012 when a cannon was discharged during the band's final song.

He claims he was standing at his assigned seat when the cannon "exploded and with great force launched a metal ratchet tie-down strap" that hit him.  "(P)rior to this incident plaintiff had been diagnosed with a rare brain cancer (Esthesioneuroblastoma) and had experienced major surgeries and intense radiation therapy," he says in the complaint. "At the time of his injury, plaintiff's body was in a weakened and vulnerable condition.  Defendants owed to plaintiff the duty to exercise the highest degree of care for his safety.  [The] Defendants actions, conduct, or omissions were negligent, negligent per se, or both and were not those of a reasonably prudent person."


While the band KISS is known for outrages theatrical performances from raised platforms amidst fireballs, canons, smoke machines, and pyrotechnics, it would be reasonable to assume as an attendee of the concert that there would be precautions taken to ensure the audiences' safety.

Mueller seeks actual and punitive damages for negligence.  He is represented by David Diamond of St. Peters, Missouri.

The band KISS is not a party to the complaint.  The defendants are Contemporary Group Acquisition, Live Nation Worldwide, Live Nation Entertainment, All Access Staging & Productions, and Live Nation general manager Leslie Ramsey.

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Loss of consortium is a legal principle that awards monetary compensation for the damages that an individual had to suffer because of family member being injured or for being deprived of a normal family relationship. Damages can mean the loss of love, emotional relations and other services offered by a family member or spouse, if he/she had not been injured. The injury may also have occurred because of assault and battery, wrongful death, false imprisonment, medical malpractice, negligence, sale of addictive drugs and the like.

According to the loss of consortium definition, the basis for awarding these damages is simply the inconvenience of having an injured spouse. This can also be when this injury or act has a devastating effect upon the individual filing the consortium lawsuit or if the injury can directly affect the individual’s personality such as getting depressed or general unpleasantness.

The term consortium encompasses a wide variety of meanings to include all the benefits that a person receives from another family member such as affection, companionship, cooperation, and financial support.

Nightclub Fire in Brazil kills 235, injures over 140

The following report is excerpted from an article in by Associated Press writer JULIANA BARBASSA Original content here:  http://news.yahoo.com/no-alarm-only-1-exit-brazil-nightclub-fire-002812171.html 

SANTA MARIA, Brazil (AP) — The nightclub Kiss was hot, steamy from the press of beer-fueled bodies dancing close. The Brazilian country band on stage was whipping the young crowd into a frenzy, launching into another fast-paced, accordion-driven tune and lighting flares that spewed silver sparks into the air.

It was another Saturday night in Santa Maria, a university town of about 260,000 on Brazil's southernmost tip.

Then, in the pre-dawn hours of Sunday morning, January 27th, it turned into a scene of indescribable horror as sparks lit a fire in the soundproofing material above the stage, churning out black, toxic smoke as flames raced through the former beer warehouse, killing 233 people.

Picture Tweeted just as the blaze started

"I was right there, so even though I was far from the door, at least I realized something was wrong," said Rodrigo Rizzi, a first-year nursing student who was next to the stage when the fire broke out and watched the tragedy unfold, horror-stricken and helpless.

"Others, who couldn't see the stage, never had a chance. They never saw it coming."

A security guard said afterward that the club was at its estimated maximum capacity of between 1,000 and 2,000 people.

There was no fire alarm, no sprinklers, no fire escape. In violation of state safety codes, fire extinguishers were not spaced every 1,500 square feet, and there was only one exit.

As the city buried its young Monday, questions were raised about whether Brazil is up to the task of ensuring the safety in venues for the World Cup next year, and the Olympics in 2016. Four people were arrested for questioning, including two band members and the nightclub's co-owner.

Rizzi hadn't even planned on going out that night. He was talked into it by friends and knew dozens at the club. He said the first sign of a problem was insulation dripping above the stage.

The flames at that point were barely noticeable, just tiny tongues lapping at the flammable material. The band's singer, Marcelo dos Santos, noticed it and tried to put out the smoldering embers by squirting water from a bottle.

The show kept going. Then, as the ceiling continued to ooze hot molten foam, dos Santos grabbed the drummer's water bottle and aimed it at the fire. That didn't work either, Rizzi said. A security guard handed the band leader a fire extinguisher. He aimed, but nothing came out; the extinguisher didn't work.

At that point, Rizzi said, the singer motioned to the band to get out. Rizzi calmly made his way to the door — the club's only exit — still thinking it was a small fire that would quickly be controlled.

The cavernous building was divided into several sections, including a pub and a VIP lounge — and hundreds of the college students and teenagers crammed in couldn't see the stage. They continued to drink and dance, unaware of the danger spreading above them.

Then, the place became an inferno.

The band members who headed straight for the door lived. One, Danilo Brauner, went back to get his accordion, and never made it out.

The air turned dense and dark with smoke; there was no light, nothing pointing to the single exit. Rizzi found himself clawing through a panicked crowd that surged blindly toward the door.

"I was halfway across the floor, I could see the door, but the air turned black with this thick smoke," he said. "I couldn't breathe. People started to panic and run toward the door. They were falling, screaming, pulling at each other."

The manager, meanwhile, was outside dealing with a drunk and belligerent young man. No one there had any inkling of the desperate scene unfolding just beyond Kiss' black, sound-proof double doors, said taxi driver Edson Schifelbain, who was in his car, waiting for passengers.

A security guard poked his head out and said there was a fight. A fraction of a second later, someone inside yelled "Fire!" The manager opened the doors and it was like opening the gates of hell, Schifelbain said. 

Young men and women, mouths and eyes blackened with soot, clothes tattered, tumbled out screaming and crying. Some ran right over his taxi and two other cabs parked nearby, breaking mirrors, windshields, bashing in the doors. Horrified, he realized his cab was in their way, but couldn't move it because there were bodies hunched over it, collapsed in front of the tires, everywhere.

"The horror I saw in their faces, the terror, I'll never forget," he said. Two girls gasping for air climbed into his car, and as soon as he was able, he sped the six miles (10 kilometers) to the university hospital.

"One of them was crying all the way, screaming, 'My friend is dying,'" he said. "I did what I could. I don't know what happened to those girls." 

Inside the club, metal barriers meant to organize the lines of people entering and leaving became traps, corralling desperate patrons within yards of the exit. Bodies piled up against the grates, smothered and broken by the crushing mob.

Rizzi was stuck, unable to move, taking in gulps of smoke, feeling the gaseous mix burn his lungs.

He was within seconds of passing out, he said, when the whole frenzied mass suddenly lurched forward. The gates gave way, and everyone toppled over. Rizzi was lying on top of two or three people, several more heaped on top of him. He stuck out his hands, smacking them against the sidewalk and door.

Someone pulled him to safety. "To get out, I climbed, I pulled people's hair. I felt other people grabbing me, hitting me in the face," he said. "It's hard to describe the horror. But once I was outside, I recovered, and started pulling out the others."

Soon, he said, the street was a sea of bodies.

This was the scene 24-year-old Gabriel Barcellos Disconzi found when he arrived about 3:30 a.m., an hour after fire broke out. Wakened by a phone call from friends, the club regular immediately started pulling out bodies as smoke spewed so thick that entering the building was unthinkable. 

Using sledgehammers and picks and their bare hands, he and other young men broke down the walls. Born and bred in Santa Maria, the outgoing young lawyer had dozens of friends and acquaintances inside.

"It was all so fast, there was no time for anything, no time for crying over a friend," he said. "It was dead people over here, living over there. Body after body after body."

Both Rizzi and Disconzi were there when they broke into one of the bathrooms and found a tableau of nearly indescribable desperation: It was crammed with bodies, tangled and tossed like dolls, piled as high as Rizzi's chest. In the darkness and confusion, concert-goers had rushed into the bathroom thinking it was an exit. They died, crushed and airless in the dark.

"I'll never forget the wall of people," Rizzi said. Disconzi helped load them into a truck. Just the dead jammed into that bathroom filled an entire truck, he said.

By this time, the city was waking up to the dimension of the tragedy unfolding at its heart. Doctors, nurses and psychologists began arriving, giving immediate assistance — checking eyes and respiratory passages, stabilizing the burned, resuscitating those whose hearts had stopped or lungs had failed because of the smoke. The living they loaded into ambulances. The mounting number of dead went into trucks.

At Charity Hospital, the region's largest, "It was a war scene," said Dr. Ronald Bossemeyer, the technical director. "Trying to give care, comfort the living, and keep family members who started to arrive from overwhelming everything — it was madness," he said, choking back tears. "The wounded, the doctors, people running with saline, with oxygen. We've never seen so many patients." 

As families waited, nurses and technicians ran back and forth, bringing an earring, a shoe, a wallet, anything that could help identify those still living, Bossemeyer said.

As doctors were at work saving those who could be saved, a group of mothers was calling around to check on one another. Elaine Marques Goncalves woke up to that terrible question: Do you know where your child is? 

With a jolt, she realized two of her sons, Gustavo and Deivis, had not come home the night before. "I knew they'd gone to a club, but I didn't know which one," she said. Trying to keep calm, she joined the multitude pressing for news outside the hospital.

Hours later, she got some good news: Gustavo had burns on 20 percent of his body and had suffered two heart attacks as his lungs failed to draw oxygen, but he was alive and being flown to the state capital, Porto Alegre, for treatment. 

"I had time to put my hands on him and say, 'My dear, your mother is here with you,'" she said. "He was sedated, but I know he could hear. Then I had to tear myself away and go find my other son."

Hours passed as the dead piled up in the city gym. It took an entire day of anguish before she learned what she'd dreaded most: Deivis was dead.

As he lay there among basketball hoops and water coolers, one body among so many, she asked the questions on everyone's mind.

"How can a club just burn like that? People have to know what happened here," she said. "It won't bring back my son, but I have to ask. This nightclub was beyond capacity. The whole world has to know. Why couldn't they get out?"

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Police were questioning the club's owner and interviewing witnesses as part of an investigation into what caused the blaze, state-run Agencia Brasil reported.

The club's license had expired in August and had not been renewed, local fire official Moises da Silva Fuchs told Globo TV.

In total, at least 235 [as of 1/30/2013] died - almost an even number of men and women - while over 140 people were treated in hospitals, Reuters reported.

Reinaldo Azevedo, writing on the Veja news website, asked why the fire department had previously approved a venue with only one exit. "Our grief must also exercise wrath," he wrote. "This is not a tragedy manufactured by chance. It is the work of a chain of negligence."

Ongoing updates about this event can be found at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Maria_nightclub_fire 

A good commentary and news summary from the Ingorsoll-Rand Door Hardware Company's blog site I Dig Hardware: http://idighardware.com/2013/01/kiss-nightclub-santa-maria-brazil/

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1940 - Rhythm Nightclub, Natchez, Mississippi - 209 fatalities.

1942 - Coconut Grove Nightclub - Boston, Massachusetts - 492 deaths.

1977 - Beverly Hills Supper Club - Southgate, Kentucky - 165 dead.

1981 - Stardust Nightclub - Dublin, Ireland - 48 killed.

1996 - Ozone Disco Pub - Quezon City, Phillipines - 162 died.

In 2000, 309 people were killed in a fire at club in Luoyang, China. 

2003 - Epitome Nightclub - Chicago, Illinois - 21 fatalities.

A 2003 nightclub fire killed 100 people in Rhode Island at The Station Nightclub after the rock band Great White illegally used pyrotechnics that ignited combustible foam soundproofing that lined the walls and ceilings of the venue.


Another celebration where fireworks ignited ceiling décor occurred in Buenos Aires, Argentina's República Cromagnon nightclub in 2004; the death toll there was 194.

A 2009 fire at the Lame Horse nightclub in Perm, Russia, was caused by fireworks igniting plastic decorations on the ceiling; 152 died as a result.

Killer Show - Not your normal night out.

Author and Lawyer John Barylic has summarized the events that led up-to and resulted in the 2003 fire that killed 100 people at The Station Nightclub in East Warwick, Rhode Island.  His book summarizes the mounds of documents researched on behalf of the families of those injured and killed that fateful night.

The story of the fire, its causes, and its legal and human-tragedy aftermath, is one of human lives put at risk by petty economic decisions – by a band, club owners, promoters, building inspectors and product manufacturers. Any one of those decisions could have potentially avoided the tragedy. Together, however, they formed a fatal critical mass.

Information about his book can be found at www.killershowbook.com

The site include reviews of the book, photos from the event, and links to interviews.

Photo Credit:  Daniel Davidson (Copyright holder)

Other interesting links about this event:

NIST Disaster and Failure Studies:
www.nist.gov/el/disasterstudies/fire/station_nightclub_fire_2003.cfm

NFPA Case Study: Nightclub Fires:
www.nfpa.org/assets/files/pdf/research/case_study_nightclub_fires.pdf

Fire Engineering Magazine:
www.fireengineering.com/articles/print/volume-165/issue-1/features/station-nightclub-fire-revisiting-lessons-p1.html

In a minute . . you can lose everything

Bulwark, a manufacturer of fire retardant clothing, has commissioned a short film about the fragility of our existence.  The images in the film, along with the narrative, are well produced and thought provoking.  The film, 451°, is titled as a play on the famous Ray Bradbury novel Fahrenheit 451.  The intricate model constructed for the filming is similar to the scale stage sets frequently fabricated to conceptualize a project during the design phase.  Check it out!

Bulwark's products can be useful to those working in the performing arts in areas that involve pyrotechnics, open flames, or the risk of arc-flash exposure when working around electrical panels.

Have a blast: ASP announces Training Courses for Stage Pyrotechnics in the UK

The Association of Stage Pyrotechnicians has announce five training classes to be held in the UK during 2010.  Visit their web site:  http://www.stage-pyro.org.uk/  and take a look around.  This is a great resource for information and links.  Click on "Current Courses" for the traing schedule offerings.