The Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire- Cause and concern

Essay by smitty5050University, Bachelor'sA+, September 2006

download word file, 4 pages 0.0

It was Saturday night, Memorial Day weekend May 30, 1977. The Beverly Hills

Supper Club was the place to be. Upstairs in Crystal Rooms 1, 2 and 3, about 100

People from the Greater Cincinnati Choral Union were finishing their dinner and

fashion show. The 100 or so members of the Afghan Hound Club of Southwestern Ohio were just sitting down to eat in Rooms 4, 5 and 6. Elsewhere in the building, the Savings & Loan League of Southwestern Ohio and Northern Kentucky were holding an awards banquet. On the ground floor, in the Zebra Room at the front of the club, a wedding reception was breaking up early. It was about 8:30 p.m., and behind the walls and the thin plywood paneling in the L-shaped room the disaster was beginning. Unseen, the wiring was smoldering. It would take less than an hour before the full extent of the horror was apparent.

In the coming weeks, months and years, another horror would become apparent: The 165 deaths could have all been prevented.

1. Describe in detail the fire prevention code enforcement problems that were present in the Beverly Hill Supper Club.

''The Life Safety Code in effect in Kentucky at the time of the fire could have avoided this large loss of life if it had been applied,'' the NFPA said. In an investigation after the blaze, the National Fire Protection Association found several major code violations, including the following reasons:

Exits. There should have been 27.5 exit units in the building. There were only 16.5. Some of the exits were locked, blocked, and had inadequate signage.

Toxic fumes. Most of the victims died from smoke and a mixture of gases created when the fire consumed flammable materials such as seat cushions.

Sprinklers. The nightclub didn't have sprinklers. After...