Use the anniversary of this awful event to see what is happening to your city's fire inspections, safety codes, and sprinkler laws. Many states, after the Rhode Island nightclub fire, passed laws forbidding pyrotechnics in nightclubs.
Go to The Providence Journal website if you want to see excellent in-depth coverage.
The Boston Globe says:
A year after The Station nightclub fire prompted calls for sweeping changes in fire regulations nationwide, Rhode Island is the only state to have passed comprehensive changes to its fire safety laws.
The paper included this sobering passage:
"It's not my sense that [the Rhode Island] fire is poised to make profound change," said David Lucht, director of the Center for Fire Safety Studies at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. "We don't as a society take fire safety that seriously."
After the nation watched television images of bodies piled up in a doorway at The Station on Feb. 20, 2003, one safety specialist predicted the fire's impact would "ripple around the world."
But in Massachusetts, state budget cuts to local aid forced many communities to slash firefighter positions. In some cases, firefighters assigned to safety inspections were pulled from their posts to staff fire trucks.
More than a dozen other states debated tougher laws, most focusing on limiting or regulating pyrotechnic displays like the one that touched off the West Warwick, R.I., fire that killed 100 and injured about 190.
In Rhode Island, the comprehensive codes are set to go into effect today, the anniversary of the fire. All places of public assembly with a maximum capacity of 150 or more will be required to install sprinkler systems. Those with repeated safety violations will be listed on the Internet beginning today.
The new Rhode Island code, which the National Fire Protection Association recommends for everyone includes these provisions (which of these has your state/city considered?):
Fire sprinklers in new nightclubs and similar assembly occupancies and in existing facilities that accommodate more than 100.
Building owners to inspect exits to ensure they're free of obstructions and to maintain records of each inspection.
The presence of at least one trained crowd manager for all gatherings, except religious services. For larger gatherings, additional crowd managers are required at a ratio of 1:250.
Prohibit festival seating for crowds of more than 250 unless a life-safety evaluation approved by the authority having jurisdiction has been performed. Festival seating, according to NFPA 101®, is a form of audience/spectator accommodation in which no seating, other than a floor or ground surface, is provided for the audience to gather and observe a performance.
Resources:
The National Fire Protection Association is a 75,000-member, not-for-profit organization that studies fire hazards and recommends codes and standards to reduce the dangers. In its "Research and Reports" section, it discusses The Station fire and compares it to other deadly nightclub fires. It also provides its standards for use of pyrotechnics, educational information, and summaries of other large nightclub fires.
The Emerging Natural Gas Crisis
The Christian Science Monitor reports:
The United States is skating on the edge of another big jump in natural-gas prices this spring -- perhaps even a shortage that, depending upon the weather and its severity, could leave residents shivering and cause some industrial customers to curtail operations.
Analysts describe the situation with varying degrees of alarm, from "shaping up for an unmitigated disaster" to "tight" on supplies. Last week, Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve, spoke of his "chronic concern" about how a sharp spike in natural-gas prices would affect the economy.
Most Americans would quickly feel the effects of a severe shortage -- and subsequent price hike. Natural-gas utilities, with 64 million customers in the U.S., provide 24 percent of all energy consumed. Their gas heats and cools millions of homes, and increasingly is burned to generate electricity. Natural gas is both a fuel and a feedstock for the nation's $460 billion chemical industry with its 1 million employees.
The Monitor reports:
"Weather is the most decisive factor," says Michael Stoppard, an expert with Cambridge Energy Research Associations, a Cambridge, Mass., adviser on energy to businesses.
Seven weeks of cold weather lie ahead. If it's a deep freeze, natural-gas supplies could be stretched and prices could soar. If prices jump high enough, many industrial firms voluntarily shut down temporarily, leaving gas utilities more capacity to serve residential users.
Resources:
American Gas Association
Gas FAQ from Gas Association
Do Not Call Seems to be Working
My wife and I were talking last night and agreed that it seems like we have gotten almost no telemarketing calls in recent months. Of course, we signed up for the Do Not Call list.
It would be worth asking viewers/readers/online users what their experience has been.
The Federal Trade Commission says:
The effectiveness of the Do Not Call Registry was reinforced by a Harris Interactive® survey released (Feb 13) indicating that more than half of all U.S. adults (57 percent) say that they have signed up for the registry. Ninety-two percent (92 percent) of those who signed up report receiving fewer telemarketing calls, and twenty-five percent (25 percent) of those registered say they have received no telemarketing calls since signing up.
It does not mean that all businesses are complying, of course.
Here is the FCC's logbook:
October 2003 – 4,341 complaints
November 2003 – 2,228 complaints
December 2003 - 1,192 complaints
January 2004 - 1,256 complaints
February 2004 - 867 complaints (as of Feb 17).
You can see who has been cited, so far, for violating the rule.
The Federal Trade Commission has logged 150,000 complaints.
Beware of the Do Not Spam site
The feds say it is a fake. Consumers should not submit their e-mail addresses to a website that promises to reduce unwanted "spam" because it is fraudulent, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission says.
Though the website (found at www.unsub.us) promises to reduce unsolicited commercial e-mail, those who sign up could end up receiving more spam than ever or even fall victim to identity theft, the FTC said.
The FTC says:
The website at "unsub.us" mimics the language, look, and navigation of the website for the National Do Not Call Registry, a legitimate free service of the federal government. The unsub.us site is not run or authorized by the FTC.
The FTC is concerned that the "unsub.us" site could be part of a high-tech scam that uses a deceptive website to trick consumers into disclosing their e-mail address or other sensitive personal information. This site may be a ruse to collect valid e-mail addresses to sell to spammers. The result could be even more spam for consumers who sign up for this "registry." Or it may be even worse –- some scammers have collected information through bogus websites like this one that mimic those of legitimate organizations, and then used the information to commit identity theft.
Half of One State's Hospitals "In the Red"
Ask your state hospital association how your state compares.
From the (Pittsburgh) Tribune-Review:
Nearly half of the state's 185 general acute-care hospitals are in the red. The latest assessment by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, released today, indicates that hospitals are having trouble paying the costs of providing medical care.
The number of hospitals operating in the red in 2003 increased to 48 percent, up from 42 percent in 2002 and 34 percent the previous year, the report shows.
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Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, story excerpts, and other materials from a variety of websites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed, and a link will be provided, whenever possible.
