AccessMyLibrary provides FREE access to over 30 million articles from top publications available through your library.
Create a link to this page
Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:
Byline: Karen Lee Ziner
PROVIDENCE, R.I. _ The video shows black smoke rolling down a corridor in a sooty, rampaging cloud. Moments later, the entire nightclub combusts in what fire experts call a "flash-over."
Walls, windowsills, clothing _ everything _ flares up.
In that moment, the air grows so hot "that a single breath can kill you," said Casey Grant, assistant chief engineer at the National Fire Protection Association.
The video that captured the fatal fire at The Station last Thursday night was made by Brian Butler, for WPRI. It could play a significant role in the investigation.
At one point in the video, said Grant, Butler's camera peers into a corridor and shows the fire "just as it's about to hit flash-over, a very general term for when everything in the room simultaneously ignites."
The flash-over apparently occurred within minutes. The building was fully engulfed when the first fire trucks arrived.
Source: HighBeam Research, Tape may show why nightclub fire spread so fast.(The Providence...