Improved Fire Safety in Nonresidential Buildings

Mr. REED. Mr. President, yesterday the House passed H. Con. Res.85, a resolution paying respect to the victims of the tragic nightclub fire on February 20, 2003 in West Warwick, RI, and expressing the sense of Congress regarding the need for improved fire safety in buildings used by the public. I thank my colleagues for expediting consideration of this important resolution in the Senate today.

The West Warwick fire is a devastating loss that has affected the lives of thousands of Rhode Islanders. Mr. President, 99 people have died, and nearly 190 people were injured, many of whom are still in hospitals in critical condition.

In the first minutes and hours of this tragedy, our firefighters, police, and emergency medical personnel performed heroically under horrific circumstances, as did many of the patrons who were at the scene and helped to save others.

I want to express my heartfelt condolences to the many families of those who perished in the West Warwick fire, and to let them know that our thoughts and prayers are with them and with the survivors who will struggle with the physical and mental toll of this horrible event for the rest of their lives.

This was a catastrophe brought on by a series of bad decisions. Fault will be sorted out in time, but there are already lessons learned.

State and local officials across the country are, and should be, reexamining their fire and building codes and stepping up enforcement of safety practices in public buildings to make sure that a tragedy like this does not happen again. Congress should do everything it can to support this effort and to encourage both state and local governments and federal agencies to adopt and strictly enforce the most current fire and building consensus codes.

In addition, as our nation continues to fight the war on terror, the response to the West Warwick fire provides a good illustration of how far we've come—and how far we have to go—in improving our emergency management capabilities. Local first responders were on the scene within minutes to help rescue victims, treat the injured, and fight the tremendous blaze that consumed the Station nightclub. As casualties continued to mount, the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency coordinated the massive rescue and recovery efforts by state and local agencies from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Several hospitals in Rhode Island and Massachusetts received scores of victims suffering from severe burns and smoke inhalation, many of whom remain in critical condition today.

There is no question that the response to the West Warwick fire was better than it would have been before September 11, 2001, thanks to our state's efforts over the past 18 months to strengthen emergency preparedness. Federal assistance in this regard has helped, including equipment and training grants from the Department of Justice's Office of Domestic Preparedness, FIRE Grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and bioterror preparedness grants from the Department of Health and Human Services, which included funding to create regional hospital plans to respond to terrorism.
But we can do better. As tragic as the West Warwick fire was, it was a localized event involving deaths and injuries in the hundreds rather than thousands, yet it overwhelmed our state's emergency response systems and hospital emergency room capacity. Assistance from surrounding states and Federal agencies was required to manage the immense tasks of emergency response, medical care, and identifying scores of bodies.

Rhode Island and other states, with the support of the Federal Government, will continue our efforts to strengthen the security of our homeland, and we will apply the hard lessons learned in West Warwick about safety in public buildings.

Mr. President, I thank my colleagues for supporting this important resolution to urge state and local officials and owners of entertainment facilities to examine their safety practices, fire codes, and enforcement capabilities to ensure that such a tragedy never befalls any community again.