ESSAY
"The Rhode Island Nightclub Disaster"

Categories

Kia Javanmardian

February 25, 2003

National

Technology

Deaths

Nightclub

Complex systems

Normal accidents

Excerpt (first and last two sentences)
"The Rhode Island nightclub tragedy shows the collapse of a real world system.  An article in the New York Times discusses this debacle and the role of the club owners, firefighters, and common citizens....
...
There were multiple failures within a system that was supposed to protect the audience from a sudden fire.  The use of extremely flammable insulation, the lack of emergency exits and the failure of the fire department in identifying potential hazards made the night club a disaster waiting to happen."

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