- 2 months ago
Disaster Transbian episode 55
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00:00judging by what you say was the overcrowding and what else you saw in there that night do
00:05you think it would have been easy to prevent such a tremendous loss of life what would have
00:10had to have been done was it poorly organized what what happened was the place poorly set up or what
00:17i don't think there's any organization in the place in the first place you can't you couldn't
00:22get in touch with the cabaret room unless you took the microphone away from the entertainers anyway
00:26there's no intercom in the place at all there's no uh uh uh fire alarms there are lights in there
00:33there's a light in the hallway that uh it's an emergency light i don't even know how to turn it
00:36on they don't structure you all that kind of stuff we hit it together everything was going great it
00:40was beautiful if the people had just moved when they were told to get out because when we got out
00:45there we just figured everybody was out when they started we just figured everyone was out a report
00:50on paper and something for arson investigators and coroners examiners to probe for years and years to
00:57come but tonight it's a very tragic and a very heart-rending experience
01:03oh my god
01:33the beverly hills supper club fire in southgate kentucky is the seventh deadliest nightclub fire
01:47in history it occurred on the night of may 28 1977 during the memorial day holiday weekend
01:56a total of 165 people died and more than 200 were injured as a result of the blaze
02:04the beverly hills was a major attraction less than 2.5 miles outside cincinnati just across the ohio river
02:12in southgate kentucky on us 27 near what would later become its interchange with interstate 471
02:21the club booked its entertainers from las vegas nashville hollywood new york and other show business
02:28hubs the site had been a popular night spot and illegal gambling house as early as 1926
02:36ohio native dean martin had been a blackjack dealer there the club had reopened under the then current
02:44owners and management in 1971 and was considered an elegant venue that attracted top-notch talent and
02:52affluent clientele several additions had been built onto the original structure between 1970 and 1976
03:02creating a sprawling non-linear complex of function rooms and service areas
03:09the resulting complex was roughly square in shape and though it was not situated in a north
03:15south direction reports of the fire have tended to use these as reference points when describing the
03:22complex assuming this system the front entrance of the complex lay at the southern point of the
03:29compass along the central portion of the southern wall to the east of the building entrance was a
03:36small event room called the zebra room a narrow corridor to the zebra rooms east separated it from
03:43the viennese room in a series of service spaces which ran northward along the building's eastern wall
03:50this interior corridor terminated between the garden room occupying the central portion of the north wall
03:58of the building and the cabaret room which jutted out from the northeastern corner of the building
04:04a smaller branching corridor led from the internal corridor to an exit door that sat between the
04:12garden room and the cabaret room to exit the building from the cabaret room using that corridor a person
04:20would need to pass through a set of double doors into the main interior corridor pass through the single
04:26door between the main interior corridor and the branching interior corridor turn a sharp corner into the
04:33branching corridor and proceed approximately one quarter of the length of the cabaret room to the
04:39single door that connected the branching corridor to the exterior of the building this complex navigation
04:46was not atypical for the building a number of other event and services spaces were scattered
04:53throughout the rest of the building with some rooms leading into each other some leading into interior
04:59hallways and some leading to the outside of the building a partial second story covered approximately
05:06the southern third of the building sitting above the main entrance zebra room and main dining room
05:14it held two more small event rooms made of six smaller rooms conjoined collectively labeled the crystal
05:21rooms though the building's frame and ceiling tiling was classified as non-combustible the beverly hill
05:29supper club made substantial use of wooden building materials including floor joists for the two-story
05:36portion of the complex and framing on interior hallways it was decorated throughout with highly flammable
05:43carpeting and wood wall paneling it was the 70s event rooms also used wooden tables and supports
05:51as well as tablecloths curtains and a variety of other small combustible materials
05:58the building did not have a fire suppression sprinkler system installed at the time these were not
06:04required in venues such as the supper club nor did it have an alarm system or smoke detectors
06:11in addition the majority of the paths of egress in each event room led not to the outside of the building
06:18but to a variety of narrow interior corridors and service spaces
06:31from the newsroom this is eyewitness 12 with bill crafton exclusive accuweather and sports with fred
06:39playbook good evening fred wiper will be along with sports in just a little while our major story
06:46this evening may be the major story we've had to cincinnati for a long time the story of death and
06:50holocaust at beverly hill summer club south of newport in northern kentucky a fire which began tonight or
06:56just shortly after 8 30 this evening there you see a a live shot from the scene from our edge report that fire is
07:04still blazing reporter kyle hill is on the scene from beverly hills kyle
07:26that fire there in beverly hills this evening we are not aware of the extent of death
07:31major at this point things are very confused as far as reports from the law enforcement officials but
07:38that live picture that you see there shows that that picture from beverly hills uh the fire that
07:43has been blazing out of michael since about 8 30 this evening about two and a half hours ago is still
07:48burning there are still a couple of areas inside beverly hills that are unreachable by fire because of
07:55the extreme heat and fire they have called for more oxygen they have called for more ice water more
08:00flashlights beverly hills there as you can see has been almost completely destroyed the place was
08:05packed this evening john davidson in concert there were at least five thousand dinners served there
08:10this evening on top of all of the other people who came there not to eat but just to see the john
08:15davidson program there were four weddings going on at beverly hills and so the place was full
08:21st louis hospital in northern kentucky is full of critically injured people they can take no more
08:26emergency patients uh other patients are now being sent to st elizabeth and to booth's hospital
08:34and now just moments ago they started coming in through general hospital in rick cincinnati
08:42on saturday may 28th 1977 the beverly hills supper club was operating beyond capacity largely due to the
08:51popularity of that evening's cabaret room show featuring popular hollywood singer and actor john davidson
09:03something in the way
09:06in the way she was
09:21i don't want to leave from her you know i believe and how
09:27somewhere in her smile
09:32somewhere in her smile
09:34she knows
09:36i don't need no other lover
09:41something in that style
09:46that shows me
09:48i don't know
10:05you're asking me
10:07will my love
10:09i don't know
10:28based on its number of exits the cabaret room could safely accommodate about 600 people according to
10:35the calculations of the fire marshal
10:38on that night it exceeded capacity with people seated on ramps and in aisles
10:45according to later estimates based on seating charts and memories of those present
10:50the number of patrons in the cabaret room at nine o'clock pm was between 900 and 1300
10:57regardless of the exact number sources agree that the room was beyond its safety capacity
11:03elsewhere in the club patrons were eating gourmet meals
11:08later estimates placed the total number of people in the beverly hills supper club on may 28 1977
11:16at approximately 3 000 substantially more than the 1500 people fire code allowed at the time for
11:24a building with the number of exits the club had near the south exit close to the main bar the opposite
11:30end of the building from the cabaret room a wedding reception drew to a close around 8 30 pm in the
11:37zebra room near the building's main entrance some of its guests had complained of the room being
11:43excessively warm with loud explosions from beneath the floor and the group left the building before
11:49the end of their allotted time the room remained vacant from their departure until 8 59 pm when an employee
11:57smelled smoke and opened the zebra room's door to confirm the presence of smoke she asked another employee
12:05to call the fire department while she and others grabbed fire extinguishers and began trying to fight the flames
12:13though the employees were not aware of it their opening of the zebra room's door allowed enough oxygen
12:23into the room to cause what had been a smoldering fire in the room's drop ceiling to flash over and begin to
12:30spread rapidly now let's examine flashover and what the term really means as the fire grows you get a hot
12:39gas layer up top underneath where firefighters normally operate the conditions are still tenable while
12:45operating in ppe with an scba as the temperature inside the room is increasing the contents are being
12:53preheated and begin to paralyze when the temperature of the hot gas layer reaches 600 degrees celsius
13:00or 1100 degrees fahrenheit the auto ignition temperature of carbon monoxide ignition occurs at this point we
13:07have what we commonly referred to as rollover the ignition and burning in the hot gas layer radiates
13:14heat to everything else in the room leading to almost simultaneous ignition of all the room's contents
13:21providing there's a sufficient oxygen to feed it we now have fire floor to ceiling with temperatures in
13:27excess of 1100 degrees fahrenheit everything in the room is on fire this is what we call flash over
13:35even a firefighter with full ppe has mere seconds to survive this environment this test conducted
13:43by nist demonstrates the flashover phenomenon and the conditions that lead to it the furniture used
13:50in this experiment is older and the cushions are polyurethane backed instead of polyester this will
13:56result in a relatively slower fire development the fire is started on the back couch with a piece of
14:02newspaper it burns clean for the first few seconds and once the fire gets into the synthetics we see
14:09fuel rich combustion products pouring out and filling the hot gas layer notice the piece of crumpled newspaper
14:16on the floor in the center of the room as we start to get rollover the hot gas layer radiates heat to
14:22everything around it the temperature of the room starts to increase notice the white vapor coming off the
14:29newspaper it pyrolyzes and auto ignites in a matter of seconds just due to the radiation from the hot gas layer
14:37this is a precursor to flashover notice the turbulent fire conditions until the entire room's transitions to flashover
14:45to flashover
15:07all right
15:11all right
15:13it quickly became clear that fire extinguishers were useless against the fast-growing blaze
15:30the fire department was alerted to the fire at 9.01 pm and arrived at 9.05 as they approached firefighters
15:39on the first emergency vehicles could already see smoke coming from the building as smoke began
15:46to escape the zebra room and drift down the hall toward other banquet rooms patrons and employees
15:53nearest to the zebra room smelled it the employees began to urge room occupants to leave the building
16:00however as the sprawling complex lacked an audible fire alarm those in more isolated rooms had no way to
16:07know that there was a fire in the building until an employee walked the length of the building alerting
16:13them fire investigators later estimated that the fire once it spread through the northern doors of the
16:20zebra room took only two to five minutes to enter the cabaret room as a result news of the fire and the first
16:28of the smoke and flame reached the cabaret room the farthest point from the zebra room nearly simultaneously
16:34by the time busboy walter bailey arrived in the cabaret room and interrupted the show to order an evacuation
16:43at 9 06 pm there was very little time left for the audience of around 1 000 people to leave via the room's
16:51small number of exits as it spread laterally the fire also began to spread upwards engulfing the spiral
17:00staircase that would have provided the best exit for those on the second floor of the building
17:06around 9 10 pm power failed in the building extinguishing the lights
17:21in the building extinguishing the fire in the building of the building of the building of the building
17:24panic ensued and even those who had been calmly moving towards exits in the cabaret room
17:29began to push and shove each other the situation was made even more desperate because of the three
17:36exits in the room two were seen blocked by the fire leaving the crowd to funnel through only a single exit
17:44employees outside the exits attempted to pull guests to safety but the crush of bodies as those behind
17:54pushed upon those in front became so solid that no amount of strength could free most of them many of
18:01those who escaped the crush blocking the northeast fire exit became lost trying to find other exits
18:10the building's confusing design often led to a set of doors opening into a bar area that funneled frantic
18:17guests into a dead end firefighters alerted that the majority of the building's occupants were in the
18:24cabaret room focused their efforts there but even the combined efforts of every fire department in the
18:30county were simply too little too late temperatures in the cabaret room soared into the thousands of
18:38degrees and even firefighters weary and dehydrated were soon unable to safely attempt any further rescues
18:47bruce rath from the fort thomas volunteer fire department was quoted as saying when i got to the
18:53inside doors which is about 30 feet inside the building i saw these big double doors and people
18:59were stacked like cordwood
19:10so
19:12they were clear up to the top they just kept diving out
19:37on each other trying to get out i looked back over the pile of it wasn't even dead people
19:43that were dead and alive in that pile and i went in and just started to grab them two at a time and
19:48pulled them off the stack dragged them out at 11 30 pm fire command suspecting that the building's roof
19:55would soon collapse ordered all firefighters to evacuate the building
20:00at approximately midnight the roof did indeed implode onto what remained of the building
20:08the magnitude of the blaze was such that firefighters did not have the flames under control
20:14until around two o'clock that morning parts of the building continued to burn until may 30th two days
20:22after the fire began
20:30the river cross is formalizing over here at this time uh we're trying to find out some system for
20:36notification of uh
20:39family for one of the people who are in state the river cross is uh at this time trying to
20:44establish a quarter uh the uh 7th street uh as you can see there one of the roof just fell in
20:56uh the bottom uh sort of uh feeding an anti-retreat to every portion of the facade of the uh
21:03nightclub hall let's look at joanne moore joanne uh what the fuck up there
21:08well let's do what's going on my deal with uh 10 times here they have to get the wood down their own
21:13trucks so they're on the plane the uh focus in his right is uh being blown towards the fire truck
21:21and once again they are evacuated yes i am as you can hear the timing on the eye
21:27your birthday is on the top go back to you now
21:29directed us to calmly exit by the the door
21:33uh the uh there was a question about the uh uh morgue facility are you aware of that
21:56uh could you find out if the south gate vfw hall or the
22:00port port in port thomas is being used for which facility
22:12all right thank you very much we're having uh some severe audio problems on uh
22:17howard are you there
22:30uh
22:44uh
22:50uh
22:58It was a long time ago, it was a long time ago, and as you recorded this, that day was from 19 to 100 years ago.
23:09The best that was all of you was not any business I can do,
23:14come to this camera, and we believe all the issues,
23:19it's a long time, and we're going to have to sit down.
23:22The camera can pick it up at the small chapel, the small wedding chapel, here at Beverly Hills.
23:32This is a long time of five minutes.
23:35They are now 3.1 in an attempt to leave the chapel at the small temple,
23:41and it's about the only thing that would happen to be shrunk.
23:45For now, this is Howard Aime with Art at the Capitol Hill.
23:48All right, if I could confirm one thing with you, Howard, he said that there were 99 that had been identified,
23:54but over 100 were dead, is that the figure?
23:57That's essentially correct, that's what he said.
24:00There are 99 in this row of, there are two rows here, then there are what, another?
24:08About 50 on the other side.
24:10About 50 on the other side of the hill.
24:12And of course, there were more sacked over the hill.
24:14And then, uh...
24:16Right over a little rise, the 99 are only those facing us here.
24:20All right, back to you.
24:22Let's check that. If that is true, that would change things dramatically.
24:26Could you check that, please, and get back to me?
24:29All right, stand by.
24:30If it is so, we're not reporting it as true at this point, but one of our reporters has just been told that besides the 100 people that they can see from their vantage point on top of the hill,
24:44there may well be another 200 to 300 more around the other side of the building and inside the back of the building.
24:52Um...
24:54We are going at this point with a figure of just over 100. We will stick with that figure.
24:59...weigh the bodies out on the hill. It's in the dark, you can't see it, but as they move through the spotlights, we're seeing them just slowly take them over to the rescue units and eventually down the hill.
25:10Uh, that's about it. I'll go and make that check for you.
25:16This is someone at the top of the hill.
25:18All right, go ahead.
25:20You can't believe this.
25:22They have brought up a...
25:25Army truck.
25:27And they're taking the bodies.
25:30And I'm putting it on the truck now.
25:33And there are...
25:35Two rows.
25:37Now it's a little overcome. It's easy to be overcome.
25:47The bodies are laid out here.
25:51Two rows of them, more on top of the hill.
25:54They've brought in a truck from the Army base over in Port Thomas.
25:58And they're preparing to close the victims up and take them out.
26:03No one knows how many there may still be inside.
26:06Uh, no one even seems to know exactly how many have already been recovered.
26:10From the top of the hill with Howard Aime, this is Art Moterell.
26:13Join us in.
26:14That's what's in the row!
26:15Thanks up to you in.
26:16Wow, everyone.
26:17That's it!
26:18Have a great day!
26:19Have a great day!
26:20Have a great day!
26:21You're welcome!
26:23Do Jay Tara.
26:25Sure!
26:27And you're lovely!
26:29Go you!
26:3110 seconds left!
26:33More years!
26:35Go me!
26:38Take a break!
26:39Try to go kill you!
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