My condolences... I cannot imagine much worse. Just out trying to have a good time and then something like this..

I'm sorry, that sounds terrible, but do you have a link to the story? I don't know anything about this and the Washington Post doesn't say anything. When/where did this occur?

just happened tonight in Rhode Island. Haven't seen it online but MSNBC is covering it.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/875480.asp?0cm=c20

It is hitting very close to home for me... I work in West Warwick, and three of my coworkers have been effected. Two were at the show - one was there with her parents, and her mom is missing, the other was there with her husband, who is badly burned. A third coworker's son was there, and from what we know, still missing.

The mood in the office here today is exceptionally somber.

As you may have seen, a local camera crew was at the show filming for a follow-up on the Chicago tragidy. Through a strange twist of fate, they caught the beginnings of the fire, and subsiquently the beginning of another horrific tragidy.

A sad Friday no matter what,
-Greg / MK2

My thoughts are with you.

Having seen the footage, it is scary just how fast the fire spread. It seems clear to me that despite the club having recently passed it's fire inspection, and regardless of the fact that (probably unlicensed) pyrotechnics appear to have started the fire, many people did not stand a chance once the roof ignited. I hope that the relevant authorities, both locally and nationally, review their fire safety requirements. This just should not happen in the USA.

This just should not happen in the USA.

Shouldn't happen anywhere.

Common sense. It's a wonderful thing.

Shouldn't happen anywhere.

True, but there are places in the World that don't have the resources that the US have, and have to simply do the best they can. I don't think that the US are doing the best that they could in this area. For instance, the UK is far stricter about flammable furnishings. For the home, let alone 'public' establishments, any new furnishing sold must contain flame retardant and non-toxic fume producing foam. In the US, it's fine to sell quick burning toxic foam, as long as it is clearly labelled. A label doesn't help save lives.

Boy, the video on this in the cnn newspass section is horrendous. It actually shows the fire starting form inside the nightclub. From what I can tell, the fire raged out of control EXTREMELY fast.

- trs

Not again!

We lost 63 youths here in Gothenburg during a disco/party at Halloween 1998...

/Michael

3 minutes from ignition to inferno

With nothing but roiling black smoke inside from the foam on in the rooftiles catching so quickly, effectively making visibility nil. Soo terrible...

It doesn't look like there was any form of fire extinguisher used. As soon as the fire started, people just ran.

Naturally the band is blaming the venue, the venue is blaming the band.
So sad

From other Nightclub owners' comments, it appears as though Great White may have a history of setting of pyros without permission.

Certainly from my time working in Uni gigs in the UK, anytime someone wanted to use pyros, there had to be a bucket of sand next to each, and a couple of guys with appropriate extinguishers nearby. I would suspect that a similar requirement would be necessary for the club to get a license for pyros. (Apparantly they didn't have one anyway).

I can quite believe that the club owners would have more of an incentive to follow common sense precautions than the band would, and find it harder to believe that the club owners would have known about the pyros and not provide extinguishers.

Did Great White ever find their guitarist? I remember seeing an interview with the lead singer the morning of the fire and he was missing.

3 minutes to inferno...

With 300 people, they would have to evacute 100 per minute, almost 2 per second. That's not easy if they're all going out the same door and a good bit of them are drunk.

Last I heard, Ty was still missing. They suspect that it was closer to 350 people, which is above their legal capacity. (Not that it would have saved that many lives IMHO),

Same here. Actually I heard that Ty is one of the many victims . Also I heard that they already replaced him in the band and that Great White is going to continue their tour in 2 days!

My prayers to the West Warrick area.

The guitarist has been positively identified as a victim at this point in time.

Wow. The Show Must Go On, it seems.