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CNN Live At Daybreak
Nightclub Fire Survivors Reflect on Nightmare
Aired June 06, 2003 - 05:51 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Lessons learned from last February's deadly nightclub fire in Rhode Island are being used to create new, tougher fire safety rules. They're designed to make sure such a horrific scene never happens again. One hundred people were killed, nearly 200 injured.
CNN's Jamie Colby reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HAL PANCIERA, FIRE SURVIVOR: Every day I relive looking over that bar and looking at that stage.
JAMIE COLBY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Thirty-five-year- old Hal Panciera was out for a night of fun with three friends at Rhode Island nightclub The Station February 20 when heavy metal group Great White took the stage.
PANCIERA: And I caught the pyrotechnics out of the corner of my eye. I said Oh, what's that? And then as soon as I did that, the building started to burn.
COLBY: Within minutes, with no sprinkler system and only one of four exits visible through the blinding smoke, he says, a pile up grew at the front door few could escape.
PANCIERA: When the smoke hit me, it was so thick, so black, so toxic, you couldn't breathe. You couldn't see. My first instinct was to wait for my friend, to see if I could get my friend out.
COLBY: All of Hal's friends got out alive, though one was burned over 60 percent of his body.
PANCIERA: I heard bottles breaking, people screaming, women screaming, people screaming for their relatives, their boyfriends, their girlfriends, their wives, their husbands, their sisters, their brothers. It was, it was a nightmare.
COLBY: Returning to the site, now a makeshift memorial, Hal tries to make sense of it all, wondering what, if anything, will come from the tragedy.
PANCIERA: I have a very difficult time trying to accept the fact that people went out to enjoy an evening of fun and wound up not going home to their family and their friends. And that's a hard pill to swallow. COLBY: Hal and others touched by the tragedy have demanded Rhode Island enact more stringent fire safety laws prohibiting pyrotechnics in a club that small. After an exhaustive investigation, the state commission has proposed significant upgrades to Rhode Island's fire code.
REP. PETER T. GINAITT, COMMISSION CO-CHAIRMAN: Accomplishing this goal would be one of the appropriate tributes to the victims of The Station nightclub fire of February 20, 2003.
COLBY: The measure calls for limited pyrotechnic displays, mandatory inspections, sprinklers in most large venues and the elimination of grandfather clauses.
GINAITT: Rhode Island must develop a culture of compliance with fire safety practices.
PANCIERA: Club owners, fire inspectors should all look into these facilities with more diligence so that something like this doesn't happen again.
COLBY: Hal has used his experience to teach his two sons about fire safety so they'll never be in danger in the first place.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And state law makers are expected to approve most, if not all, of those recommendations that Jamie Colby was talking about.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired June 6, 2003 - 05:51 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Lessons learned from last February's deadly nightclub fire in Rhode Island are being used to create new, tougher fire safety rules. They're designed to make sure such a horrific scene never happens again. One hundred people were killed, nearly 200 injured.
CNN's Jamie Colby reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HAL PANCIERA, FIRE SURVIVOR: Every day I relive looking over that bar and looking at that stage.
JAMIE COLBY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Thirty-five-year- old Hal Panciera was out for a night of fun with three friends at Rhode Island nightclub The Station February 20 when heavy metal group Great White took the stage.
PANCIERA: And I caught the pyrotechnics out of the corner of my eye. I said Oh, what's that? And then as soon as I did that, the building started to burn.
COLBY: Within minutes, with no sprinkler system and only one of four exits visible through the blinding smoke, he says, a pile up grew at the front door few could escape.
PANCIERA: When the smoke hit me, it was so thick, so black, so toxic, you couldn't breathe. You couldn't see. My first instinct was to wait for my friend, to see if I could get my friend out.
COLBY: All of Hal's friends got out alive, though one was burned over 60 percent of his body.
PANCIERA: I heard bottles breaking, people screaming, women screaming, people screaming for their relatives, their boyfriends, their girlfriends, their wives, their husbands, their sisters, their brothers. It was, it was a nightmare.
COLBY: Returning to the site, now a makeshift memorial, Hal tries to make sense of it all, wondering what, if anything, will come from the tragedy.
PANCIERA: I have a very difficult time trying to accept the fact that people went out to enjoy an evening of fun and wound up not going home to their family and their friends. And that's a hard pill to swallow. COLBY: Hal and others touched by the tragedy have demanded Rhode Island enact more stringent fire safety laws prohibiting pyrotechnics in a club that small. After an exhaustive investigation, the state commission has proposed significant upgrades to Rhode Island's fire code.
REP. PETER T. GINAITT, COMMISSION CO-CHAIRMAN: Accomplishing this goal would be one of the appropriate tributes to the victims of The Station nightclub fire of February 20, 2003.
COLBY: The measure calls for limited pyrotechnic displays, mandatory inspections, sprinklers in most large venues and the elimination of grandfather clauses.
GINAITT: Rhode Island must develop a culture of compliance with fire safety practices.
PANCIERA: Club owners, fire inspectors should all look into these facilities with more diligence so that something like this doesn't happen again.
COLBY: Hal has used his experience to teach his two sons about fire safety so they'll never be in danger in the first place.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And state law makers are expected to approve most, if not all, of those recommendations that Jamie Colby was talking about.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
