Friday, March 28, 2003 | 9:23 a.m.
On March 13, less than a month after tragic nightclub incidents in Chicago and Rhode Island, concert-goers in Southern Nevada received their own venue safety scare.
As a performance by impressionist Andre-Philippe Gagnon let out at Paris Las Vegas' Le Theatre des Arts, a small fire broke out when radiant heat from lights set the stage curtains on fire.
Though Paris employees quickly doused the flames with fire hoses and no injuries were reported, the episode served as a reminder that venue employees and patrons must take precautions to ensure that Las Vegas never experiences a large-scale disaster like those in Chicago and Rhode Island in February.
"There's certainly a heightened awareness level, by default," said Yale Rowe, vice president of marketing for the Hard Rock Hotel, which houses the popular music venue The Joint. "The morning after the Rhode Island fire, we got everybody together and took a look to make sure our exits are open and free and that everything we do is right on." On Feb. 17, 21 people were killed and more than 50 injured at Chicago nightclub E2, as patrons trampled over each other in an attempt to escape the crowded facility.
With the Chicago ordeal still making headlines, tragedy struck again on Feb. 20 in West Warwick, R.I., when 99 people perished in a fire at the nightclub The Station during a performance by heavy-metal band Great White.
With the Chicago and Rhode Island incidents still fresh in the public's mind, the threat of terrorism during the war with Iraq has made club representatives and patrons even more conscious of the importance of venue safety.
Locally, signs of the heightened state of awareness seem to be everywhere.
At the Pretenders' show at the House of Blues on Feb. 22 just two days after the Rhode Island fire a cluster of fans opted to remain near the theater's back corner, close to an exit. Before the band took the stage, the concert-goers could be heard discussing their fears about potential fires at Las Vegas shows.
Each night at popular Bellagio dance club Light, the DJ stops the music at around 1 a.m. to point out the venue's four exits, three of which lead outside the hotel-casino.
And just prior to the March 16 concert by Kiss at the Palms' Rain in the Desert, Clear Channel promoter Danny Zelisko made this unusual announcement as the facility's floor plan was projected onto the big screen behind the stage:
"Rain in the Desert is divided into three levels, each with is own exits. Please direct your attention to the exits on your level."
Kiss went on to perform without its trademark pyrotechnics, marking one of the few times the veteran band has ever played without fire during its three-decade career.
But just how safe are Southern Nevada's nightclubs and concert halls? According to Las Vegas Fire and Rescue spokesman Tim Szymanski, they are more prepared, in general, than similar venues across the country.
"We're actually the model for other cities when it comes to fire safety," Szymanski said, then referred to the tragic fire at the old MGM Grand (now the site of Bally's) in 1980.
"After the MGM fire, fire safety became a big issue here. We pride ourselves on being one of the safest places in the world."
Sticking to Capacity
In Southern Nevada, seating capacities, also known as "occupant loads," are determined based on a series of factors, including what the building is being used for and its square footage.
Those figures are determined before Las Vegas, Henderson or Clark County officials issue business licenses for any facility designed to host public assemblies.
But Bob Leinbach, spokesman for the Clark County Fire Department, is quick to stress that such venues may undergo random checks to ensure they are staying within their guidelines.
"We have an inspector whose job it is to visit these locations at night, to inspect businesses unannounced," Leinbach said. "And regardless of the actual number, if an inspector feels a room is not as safe as it could be, he can ask them to do something to change that."
Leinbach said in such cases, the inspector could demand an immediate reduction in the number of people present in the room or request more exits be created, if that option exists. And, in extreme circumstances, Leinbach said inspectors do have the legal authority to stop a performance, though he was quick to add that he has never seen that done in Southern Nevada.
At Light, employees use hand-held clickers to count patrons on the way in and subtract that number on the way out to make sure the nightclub stays within its 550-person capacity.
"Being in the Bellagio, we're pretty strict with our capacities," said Sean Christie, director of marketing for the Light Group, which also includes Bellagio club Caramel and Treasure Island club Mist. "We're constantly checking how many people are coming in and going out of the club."
The Huntridge Theatre's concert hall looks as if it could comfortably accommodate more than its mandated 1,090-person capacity. But Huntridge Booking Director Tom Anderson said the venue is careful to stop ticket sales when it reaches that magic number.
"If you were to venture past your legal capacity, it would be irresponsible," Anderson said. "You would also be opening yourself up to tremendous liability if something went wrong."
Exit stage left
In the aftermath of the Chicago incident, many local venues have reviewed their exit strategies to prevent the type of pandemonium responsible for the deaths at E2.
The Thomas & Mack Center is Southern Nevada's largest indoor arena, with a capacity that can reach 18,000 for events utilizing an unseated floor section. Planners have devised an "Emergency Quad Plan" to funnel crowds in four directions in the case of an emergency.
"We break our room down into gradients, like four pieces of a pie," said Daren Libonati, executive director of venues for the Thomas & Mack, Sam Boyd Stadium and Cox Pavilion. "We have four sets of main doors out of the building, and every area feeds to a different exit."
On The Joint's second-floor balcony, double doors open to a wide staircase leading directly out to the parking lot in front of the Hard Rock Hotel.
Most fire officials offer the same advice to concert patrons and club-goers: Your original point of entry might not be your best way out. In both Chicago and Rhode Island, most patrons attempted to exit through the main entrance, making it difficult to escape safely.
"As soon as you enter a room, you need to look for exits, not only for fire safety but in today's world with the threat of terrorism, " Szymanski said. "If you are leaving the premises and you see a lot of people headed for the nearest door, you should probably head for another exit."
Szymanski also stressed the importance of orderly evacuations, and suggested that people seeking additional precautions consider carrying pocket flashlights to such events.
"And follow your institutions," he said. "If something doesn't seem right, most times it isn't."
According to published reports, the Chicago stampede began when a bouncer sprayed pepper spray into the crowd in an attempt to break up a fight between two patrons.
John Teichman, owner of new Las Vegas nightclub ibiza USA and the Missouri hotspot Shooters 21, said he takes care to hire staff he can trust to remain calm.
"That was a case of bad security, where somebody made a bad decision," Teichman said. "Some doormen automatically have a chip on their shoulder when they come to work, and we won't tolerate that here. The first time I know about somebody doing something like that, they're gone." Compounding the Chicago incident, according to reports, was a lack of available exits. Several were allegedly blocked or locked up -- a condition Leinbach termed a "very serious violation" of Southern Nevada's fire codes.
"If it is a required exit, they would need to either unlock it or remove whatever is blocking it," Leinbach said. "If it's not a required exit, people shouldn't be led to believe it is an exit. So they would need to remove or dim the exit sign."
Pyrotechnics
Minutes after Great White took the stage in the Rhode Island tragedy, the band's pyrotechnics set fire to the building's sound insulation, prompting a fast-moving fire.
In the weeks since, pyrotechnics themselves have come under attack. But Szymanski argues that if handled properly, fire effects can be used safely to supplement a concert.
"We do use some pyrotechnics here in Las Vegas, but the code word is 'professional,' " Szymanski said. "You're usually working with a professional pyrotechnics company, and they know what their capabilities are and what the limits are.
"And anytime someone wants to use fireworks or anything like that, they have to get permits."
Indeed, city and county regulations require permits to be obtained on an event-by-event basis, rather than issuing them to venues for a specified period of time. In other words, a Kid Rock show at the Thomas & Mack would require a separate permit for pyrotechnics, even if the county had issued a permit for Ozzy Osbourne to use pyro for a concert at the arena the previous night.
"Every event we put on is signed off on by fire marshals," Libonati said. "And if a band is using pyrotechnics, they'll do a pre-fire before the show and test the pyro, with a fire marshal observing."
In a recent interview with the Sun, Kiss bassist Gene Simmons said that too much focus has been placed on pyrotechnics since the Rhode Island fire.
"The unfortunate things is that the one word that keeps coming up is pyro, not confined club space," Simmons said. "But in the Chicago club people died and there were no rock bands and no pyro. They just died because it was a confined space."
Several casino venues, including The Joint and the MGM Grand Garden Arena, held shows featuring pyrotechnics last year. However, most neighborhood clubs do not allow visiting acts to use pyrotechnics.
The 59-year-old Huntridge is one such example.
"We have a complete fire suppression system, our facility is maintained very well and our staff is well-trained," Anderson said. "But we don't allow pyrotechnics at all. For our venue, it's not very appropriate."
Small fire at Paris
Even without pyrotechnics, fires can break out at clubs and concert halls for a variety of other reasons, as shown by the small fire at Paris Las Vegas earlier month.
"I don't know how the outcome could have been any better," Leinbach said. "No one got hurt, no one panicked and people evacuated properly. And if it had gotten much bigger, the sprinklers would have kicked on."
In Rhode Island, local codes did not require that sprinklers be in place in a venue the size of The Station, and the club did not have them.
The vast majority of public gathering spots in Southern Nevada do feature sprinkler systems, with codes requiring them for establishments between 3,000 and 5,000 square feet and larger.
"My gut wants to say sprinklers would have helped in Rhode Island. How much they would have helped, it's tough to say," said Jim Begley, a Las Vegas-based regional manager for Schirmer Engineering, a national company specializing in fire protection engineering and code consulting.
"Whenever you provide fire protection for a building, your baseline is to start with sprinklers. Sprinklers save lives," Begley said.
Sprinklers are generally heat-activated. Heat rises to create a layer of heat across the ceiling, sprinkler heads exposed to that heat open up and the heads release water already present in the system's pipes.
Contrary to what is often depicted in films and on TV, sprinklers might drench individual areas of a room while other areas remain dry, depending on the temperature detected throughout the room.
Another contributing factor in the Rhode Island fire may have been inferior foam soundproofing insulation in the club's walls. Though experts are quick to point out that "flame retardant" is not the same as "flame resistant," the material used in Rhode Island was reportedly not even up to retardant standards.
Southern Nevada's casinos can pose challenges when it comes to flame retardancy, Begley said, since they tend to use more exotic paints, wall and ceiling coverings and insulation for visual effect.
But, he added, casinos generally take extra steps to ensure safety.
"You'd be hard-pressed to find anything in a casino that isn't sprinkled," Begley said.
Casinos also benefit from a couple of inherent fire-fighting advantages: on-site security forces and "fire control rooms." The control rooms are especially valuable, allowing casino employees to pinpoint a fire's location, relay that information to fire fighters en route and communicate with fire fighters once they arrive.
Alarms are another key component of fire detection. At both Rain in the Desert and the Palms' other nightclub, ghostbar, a fire alarm automatically triggers lights and cuts off all music, be it recorded or live.
And at the Thomas & Mack, building operators are in the process of upgrading the arena's radio system to aid in communications in the event of an emergency.
"It would take a breakdown of several systems for a disaster to take place at a venue here," Leinbach said.
Lessons learned?
Tragic as the Chicago and Rhode Island nightclub incidents were, fire safety experts say they might ultimately save lives, as venues nationwide re-examine their safety features in the wake of the two disasters.
"Like a lot of safety-based industries, our industry is reactionary," Begley said. "People want to put the money elsewhere until these incidents occur."
To demonstrate his point, Begley described a timeline drawn up by one of the professors he had in college. It listed some of the country's worst fires -- including Las Vegas' own Las Vegas Hilton and MGM Grand fires of the early 1980s -- and then showed the improvements to various codes and regulations made after those tragedies.
On Feb. 25, just five days after the Rhode Island fire, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) called for its Technical Committee on Assembly Occupancies to meet and review safety issues related to the Chicago and Rhode Island events.
"Although we still don't have all the facts about these terrible incidents, we know enough right now to warrant a serious review and scrutiny of the future direction of codes and standards, and their enforcement locally. We must learn from these tragedies, and the time to act is now," NFPA Executive Vice President Arthur E. Cote said in a press release.
Of course, no matter what precautions are introduced, fires and other chaotic events will always be possible hazards for nightclubs and concert halls everywhere.
The issue clearly makes representatives at some venues jittery. Officials at the House of Blues and MGM Grand Garden Arena declined to contribute to this story, and several others did not return calls or emails seeking comment.
However, local fire safety experts insist Southern Nevada's clubs and arenas are safe.
"We're a tourist-based economy, so you can't even begin to have an area where people think they're not safe," Begley said. "As a result, we have some of the most stringent and effective fire protection and life safety codes in the country."
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