By Derek Redd, The Intelligencer
WHEELING, W.Va. — The 2003 Station nightclub fire in West Warwick, Rhode Island, left 100 people dead and another 230 injured and remains one of the deadliest nightclub fires in American history. And, as attendees of this week’s fall training conference of the West Virginia Chapter of the International Fire Marshal’s Association learned, it could have been avoided.
The conference concluded Wednesday at the Wheeling Island Hotel-Casino-Racetrack with a look into the inspection of assembly occupancies, and used the Station fire as a case study in how to correctly conduct them.
The focus of the two-day conference was education, said Bobby Palmer, president of the West Virginia Chapter. The first day was spent on the essentials of National Fire Prevention Association codes and procedures. Wednesday dove into assembly occupancy inspection.
“The fire life safety codes are constantly being updated and constantly changing,” Palmer said. “So in order to be sure that our members have the most up-to-date and current information to be able to perform their responsibilities correctly, we want to provide the education necessary for them to do that.”
