Night club fire, appears to be caused by customers being given fireworks

[dje]

3 hours ago, TomHoward said:

Sorry to resurrect an old topic for a wayward point but back when I used to tech a well known northern nightclub the fire exits were usually a bit suspect, there was often a high entry fee and what used to happen was that some punter would crash open a fire door to let all his mates who were waiting on the steps outside to rush in before anyone could get to it. They'd get in without being vetted / searched as well so it was a security nightmare, which probably could be avoided be some other means but it may explain why sometimes crash bars may have locks from the inside or there may be some resistance to fire exits being able to be repeatedly easily opened & closed at a moment's notice, obviously this isn't ideal but at least there sometimes could be some reasoning behind something rather than just plain ignorance

This is a common issue and besides dodging ticket fees and searches... the other major issue is capacity. If you don't know how many people are in your venue you can't limit it to the safe capacity, meaning that resolving one fire risk (ie, all fire exits being unlocked) simply creates a new one (venue being over-capacity).

I think in the old days this was largely covered by simply putting door staff on them. A cost of doing business. 

Nowadays you can use solenoid locks and door opening proxy sensors, linked back to the fire alarm control panel, so there is no excuse. When no fire is detected, the solenoid is locked, meaning the door can't be opened. In the event the fire alarm goes off, all doors are unlocked... but that's fine because everyone needs to leave anyway. In the event somebody opens a door when there's not alarm (by way of either forcing the lock, or pressing the emergency release button), that acts as a fire alarm input and sets it off. 

[Robin D]

Venue I attended some years ago largely solved the fire exit security issue. All exits had two firedoors each end of firesafe corridors. When the first was opened it alarmed and triggered the CCTV.  The first set were also self closing so it would need two people to then let others in giving a good chance that security would arrive. Local fire service (Berkshire) were happy as it brought the place of safety nearer.

[Stuart91]

1 hour ago, Robin D said:

The first set were also self closing so it would need two people to then let others in giving a good chance that security would arrive. 

I love the idea of someone triumphantly opening the outer door to let their mates in, only to turn around and see the first door shutting behind them all. 

The dual doors would also help with noise attenuation too. 

[Ynot]

And, sadly, we have ANOTHER incident in a nightclub - this time in Cameroon... 😞
Cameroon nightclub fire: Liv's Night Club in Yaoundé hit by deadly blaze - BBC News

You'd think that lessons would be learned in the wake of these things, but seems that no - there's always another ignorant dickhead who thinks they can just risk lives like this.

😞 😞 😞

[kitlane]

As the topic has been resurrected, I will note tragic fire yesterday in a nightclub in Cameroon.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-60102088

 

[Ynot]

1 minute ago, kitlane said:

As the topic has been resurrected, I will note tragic fire yesterday in a nightclub in Cameroon.

😄
3 minutes too late....