Great White Involved in RI club fire...

Gabe Nickelson · #1 02-21-2003, 10:11 AM

It's tragic news, but it appears during a Great White concert the pyrotechnics went nuts and burned the place to the ground with many deaths reported. Unaccounted for is a guitarist from Great White - Ty Longley...

Let's hope no more tragic nightclub disasters like this occur... and keep those people in our thoughts.

Gabe

davester1234 · #2 02-21-2003, 10:39 AM

omg, that is terrible news....didn't hear about that....

my prayers are with them.

ScottRosenberger · #3 02-21-2003, 10:40 AM

I'm not sure what to say, I love Great White, but if someone from the band is responsible for what happened I'm sure there will be hell to pay. Right now the news is all he said, she said I hope they get to the bottom of this

davester1234 · #4 02-21-2003, 10:42 AM

any links to any info?

Gabe Nickelson · #5 02-21-2003, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davester1234

any links to any info?

http://www.cnn.com
http://www.msnbc.com

Pretty much any US news station will be covering it.

Gabe

EDIT - adding this direct link to info related to the band:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Musi...ite/index.html

davester1234 · #6 02-21-2003, 11:16 AM

Hey Gabe, thanx.

When I asked for links, I checked jemsite before i even turned on the tv or radio when i woke up....little did I know that the story would be all over every major communications sources.

Geezus, I feel shaken up by this.

BeastofLove · #7 02-21-2003, 11:19 AM

Living about an hour north of Warwick, RI (and with my 2 best friends in Providence), it was in all the local media this morning. Really tragic- the fire spread so quickly. My thoughts are with the family and friends of the 26 dead...

-Ben

Gabe Nickelson · #8 02-21-2003, 11:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BeastofLove

Living about an hour north of Warwick, RI (and with my 2 best friends in Providence), it was in all the local media this morning. Really tragic- the fire spread so quickly. My thoughts are with the family and friends of the 26 dead...

-Ben

60 confirmed dead at this point.

Gabe

davester1234 · #9 02-21-2003, 11:31 AM

May I ask a question?

Lets say the band knew the pyro's were not allowed at that particular venue. They used them anyway, and the tradegy happened....assuming the situation is really as simple as that, who ultimately would be held accountable for this disaster, the band, or the club OWNER?

**cerealk** · #10 02-21-2003, 11:37 AM

you can ask the question...

but, I think it might be better to find out the facts first before speculating who is to blame...

Cheers

Simon
ps I do like Great White, first heard their stuff in 1988, saw them supporting Alice Cooper years ago on tour in the UK

pps this was the lead story on Sky News and BBC news here in the UK this morning.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/default.stm

and the story itself
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2786331.stm

Gabe Nickelson · #11 02-21-2003, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davester1234

May I ask a question?

Lets say the band knew the pyro's were not allowed at that particular venue. They used them anyway, and the tradegy happened....assuming the situation is really as simple as that, who ultimately would be held accountable for this disaster, the band, or the club OWNER?

According to what I read, the building was not legally suppose to have pyros. But according to Jack Russell, the singer of GW, the band had the 'go ahead' to use them. If the band had permission, then I believe it would be the business owners responsibility. If GW used them w/o permission, it would probably still fall mainly on the business owner because he/she should know what's going on in the club at all times.

I'm sure we'll know more as this tragic day progresses.

Gabe
P.S. The events over the last week in nightclubs has really brought to my attention the need to check a place out before going. See where all the exits are. Apparently this club had 4 exits but everyone went for the main one because they were unaware of where the others were.

darren wilson · #12 02-21-2003, 11:42 AM

There's footage of the fire starting from a fan's camcorder in the crowd.

Apparently pyro cans on the backline ignited EGG CRATES that were on the walls for acoustic dampening. The whole back wall went up almost instantly, and then the ceiling caught on fire.

The big questions are 1) why was the club allowed to operate with such a huge fire hazard like egg crates stapled to the walls (a shockingly common occurrance) and 2) WTF kind of dumbass puts pyro cans right next to them?

What a horrible tragedy.

BeastofLove · #13 02-21-2003, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gabe Nickelson

60 confirmed dead at this point.

Gabe

Right! I just saw that- they're saying 60+... they could only confirm 26 earlier this morning. Unbelievable.
Got an email from one of my friends in Providence- his mom called him at 7:30AM because she wanted to make sure he was ok and didn't go to the Great White show... his 1st instinct was that it was some sort of prank call.
This is getting crazy... just tragic.

-Ben

ScottRosenberger · #14 02-21-2003, 12:54 PM

They were still the best live band I've ever seen.

I'm not gonna comment anymore until the facts play themselves out. So far the news isnt reporting anything that could be considered fact except for the amount of dead.

BrianH · #15 02-21-2003, 01:44 PM

The info I have is. Great White was told by the owner they could use pyro. All but one exit was locked. No exit signs were lighted. The building had no sprinkler system. The building was not filled to capacity, but its capacity was set before tables, stage etc where in the place. People called on cell phones while trapped in other rooms before ultimately burning to death.

very sad. The fire department said they had done all they could. The owner said the fire department should have saved those people and spoke badly of them. It was said it only took 3 mins before the place was engulfed in flames.