Where were the sprinklers? (Part Two)

Right after learning about the Crans-Montana fire and figuring that there were no automatic sprinklers, I wondered if there would have been less victims if the night club had this kind of equipment in its ceilings? Based on fire science and decades of statistical data from organizations like the American National Fire Protection Association and the European Fire Safety Alliance, the answer is almost certainly yes. 

While no safety system is 100% foolproof, fire protection engineers generally agree that automatic sprinklers are the single most effective tool for preventing mass-casualty events in high-occupancy venues like nightclubs. Just like what happened at Le Constellation, the most lethal moment in a fire is the flashover, a point where the heat in a room becomes so intense that every combustible surface ignites simultaneously.

In that fire, the non-fire-retardant foam acted as a "solid fuel," allowing the fire to race across the ceiling. If there had been automatic sprinklers, they would have been activated at a specific temperature (usually around 155°F). 

By spraying water directly on the source early, they would have kept the room temperature below the flashover threshold, effectively "pinning" the fire to its origin point and this would have bought time, a critical element in a crowded nightclub with 300 people and limited exits, in which the difference between life and death is measured in seconds. 

In addition, sprinklers wash out the large carbon particles in smoke, which would have helped maintain visibility. Le Constellation fire’s survivors reported that the room went "pitch black" within 90 seconds due to the thick foam smoke. Finally, sprinklers would have also cooled the hot gases and smoke. In many fires, victims die from thermal lung damage (inhaling air that is several hundred degrees) before the flames ever reach them. 

Sprinklers would have kept that air survivable for much longer. The data on the effectiveness of sprinklers in public assembly spaces is overwhelming as they bring the death rate by approximately 80% to 90% lower in buildings with automatic sprinklers compared to those without. As an extra bonus, in over 95% of fires in sprinklered buildings, the fire is either completely extinguished or held in check by the operation of just one or two sprinkler heads. 

The Crans-Montana fire bears a haunting resemblance to the 2003 Station Nightclub fire in Rhode Island, near Boston. In that fire, pyrotechnics ignited foam, and 100 people died in five minutes. A computer simulation from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, later proved that if sprinklers had been present, everyone would have likely survived, as the fire would have been suppressed within 30 seconds of ignition. 

Now, you be the judge.