By Michael Tarm
The Associated Press
CHICAGO — Within a few days in February 2003, two deadly nightclub disasters in the United States had officials scrambling to step up safety measures across the country.
Four years later, many cities and states have made changes, from required sprinklers to clearly lit exits. But experts worry that some haven’t gone far enough to prevent a repeat tragedy.
“It’s an inconsistent report card across the country,” said Paul Wertheimer, a Los Angeles-based crowd safety expert who has researched the fatal 2003 nightclub stampede in Chicago and the deadly fire at a Rhode Island club some three days later. “There’s no comprehensive approach to how to approach crowd safety.”
Even though fire department spot inspections have risen in Chicago, for example, there are still fewer than a dozen building department inspectors doing annual safety checks in a city of 3 million.
Just last month, Chicago’s Ice Bar was in the news after a friend of a Chicago Bears player was shot to death inside. Wertheimer said the gunfire easily could have triggered another stampede like the one Feb. 17, 2003, at the now-closed E2 nightclub, that left 21 dead.
“I don’t think the lessons were learned to prevent another E2 — despite some good efforts,” he said.
Rhode Island’s response since its Feb. 20, 2003, fire has been more reassuring, Wertheimer said. Nightclub staff there must now undergo safety training, which is not a requirement in Illinois, and many nightclubs have been required to install sprinklers and make other safety upgrades.
“Rhode Island made substantial changes right away, and so did Massachusetts,” where many of the victims of The Station nightclub fire lived, said Robert Solomon of the National Fire Protection Association.
The Quincy, Mass.-based association, which has influenced safety codes throughout the country since 1896, convened an emergency panel immediately after the E2 and Rhode Island tragedies to update its safety code recommendations.
Among the suggestions was that all nightclubs have at least one trained crowd-control manager on site, and that all new nightclubs and older clubs with capacities larger than 100 be required to install sprinklers.
Solomon said he expects the 38 states that rely on his organization to update their safety codes will eventually adopt most of the changes.
At E2, someone used pepper spray to break up a fight in the second-floor club, sending several hundred patrons bolting for a narrow stairway and the lone exit door below. In the chaos, the door became jammed shut by a mass of bodies piled six feet high.
The Station fire in West Warwick, R.I., killed 100 after a pyrotechnics show by a rock band ignited foam used as soundproofing. Three men entered pleas last year; one received probation and the other two got four years each in prison.
Three men connected to E2 are currently on trial in Chicago for involuntary manslaughter. Their trial was to resume Wednesday, when the defense presents its case.
Chicago officials say E2 prompted significant change in the city.
“Not a day goes by where we don’t think of the E2 disaster and try to prevent that from happening,” said Scott Bruner, head of Chicago’s department of business affairs and licensing.
Bruner said clubs are now required to display well-lit diagrams showing patrons exit routes. Some E2 survivors said they couldn’t find alternative exits.
An Illinois law adopted months after the E2 deaths also made it a felony to use pepper spray or Mace in nightclubs, to set off pyrotechnics indoors or to block anyone from leaving a nightclub during an emergency. Violators face up to three years in prison.
In addition, about 95 Chicago fire department inspectors do unannounced inspections to see if clubs are exceeding capacity limits and that exits aren’t blocked or locked, including inspections on weekend nights. Before E2, late weekend inspections were rare.
Fire department inspectors conducted 2,477 weekend inspections in 2005, compared to 1,085 in 2003, department spokesman Larry Langford said. Inspectors now go to all 1,000 designated entertainment venues each year, buildings department spokesman Pete Scales said. Before E2, he added, they didn’t get to them all.
Still, even officials involved in reassessing safety say there’s no guarantee a similar disaster couldn’t happen again.
“Can you change human nature? No,” said Alderman Bernard Stone, chairman of the buildings committee in Chicago. “Can you stop a panic from occurring? No. And if you can’t stop a panic form occurring, you can’t guarantee something like E2 won’t occur again.”