Russian Night Club Fire Kills 112

A fire in a night club in Russia kills 112 people. Seems someone (the owner, manager and yes, the fire works provider!) decided it would be great fun to set off fireworks inside the club and the ceiling and other flammables caught fire. Coupled with apparently inadequate exiting, it was a disaster waiting to happen.

Reading the various news articles it seems that Russia is not completely devoid of fire codes. But as reported:

Reuters: “More than 15,000 people die each year in fires across Russia and senior officials acknowledge that fire inspections are routinely used as a way to demand bribes from establishments, rather than enforce safety rules.”

API: “Enforcement of fire safety standards is infamously poor in Russia and there have been several catastrophic blazes at drug-treatment facilities, nursing homes, apartment buildings and nightclubs in recent years.”

Early in my career I caught a re-enactment of a similar Boston Cocoanut Grove night club fire in 1942 that killed 492. In fact, so horrible was this fire that is it regarded as the catalyst for our current US fire codes. Though there is a country-wide Universal Fire Code, each municipality is allowed to enact their own stronger, additional codes. To this day, Boston remains one of the cities with the strictest fires codes.  

Cocoanut Grove Fire - Boston Globe File Photo

Now I’m not a control person. But some things are just about sanity. In this area I come down on the side of our poor code enforcement people. In the office environment this job often falls on the facility manager.  Their job is a hard one.  Over the years I have heard these people called many expletives, including the office Gestapo and furniture Nazis, as they try to hinder fellow employees from moving around the cube partitions, completely covering the panels with flammables such as paper and non-fire retardant materials, to dumping furniture they didn’t want out of their offices and into the exit corridors.

There are rules and codes governing the placement of these things, mostly around safe exiting during fire or other disasters and fire prevention. Knowledge of these rules is not up to you. That is why there is such a thing as a Facilities Professional. They don’t do this for the fun of it or to make your day miserable. And they can’t do the job alone. They know that you, the employee, can’t be expected to have all the knowledge they do. But you can have the knowledge of personal responsibility and your part in the safety system. Think before you act. Ask others before you endanger them and your self.

If you still don’t feel you have any responsibility, here again is the Wikipedia link with a good description. I am still looking for the documentary I saw. The film is very good. Good enough that it scared the [expletive] out of me and made me a life long proponent of fire codes. So far the Internet consensus is that it was an HBO of A&E film. If anyone knows how to find it and especially where to get a copy, please let me know.  I did come across this 9 minute clip . It’s good enough

To help with your cognitive awareness around places you inhabit, here is a short list of codes that came out of that tragedy. Knowing about these will go along way in your understanding and respect for the codes and the people who must design and maintain these spaces. Having this knowledge is also why there is a difference between residential versus commercial/business designers, architects and contractors and office managers versus professional facility managers.

• Exit doors must swing out; panic bars and good exit signage
• Buildings with revolving doors must also have swinging doors along side
• Automatic sprinklers in specific types of usage spaces including restaurants and large public places
• Spaces of a certain size (over 3000 sq feet in offices) and of certain functions (like restaurants, night clubs, other public places) must have a least 2 exits. There are also codes around how far apart they need to be, obstructions about path of travel and a whole host of others rules, all to ensure you can safely exit in case of a disaster – fire, earthquake, etc. …
• Flame-retardation of materials – including wall, ceiling, floors, light fixtures and furniture

These codes are for your safety. Still one of the best preventions is you – and your participation. Be aware of where you are, where the exits are in places like planes, hotels, restaurants, arenas, churches – any place where people congregate. Know what to do to save your life. Be prepared. Be safe.