Remember The Station Fire? How soon some people forget!
Rhode Island - Performers can't light a single candle on the Odeum Theater's stage. The floors are concrete, the curtains flame retardant; an alarm system connects to the East Greenwich Fire Department. All in all, those who operate the historic community theater, which has drawn performers ranging from the Count Basie Orchestra to the National Shakespeare Company, think it's pretty safe.
"The most volatile appliance we have in the theater is the coffee maker," joked Frank Prosnitz, president of the nonprofit Odeum Corp.
But the theater's safeguards aren't enough to satisfy Rhode Island's stringent fire code, a set of safety rules adopted after a nightclub fire killed 100 people in 2003.
Fire officials decided last month that the Odeum must install a sprinkler system at an estimated cost of $200,000 or cut its capacity almost in half.
The resulting drop in ticket sales could close the theater, Prosnitz said.
After the 2003 tragedy at The Station nightclub, Rhode Island lawmakers adopted phonebook-size bills during a frenzy to tighten fire codes. Now a state lawmaker and several business owners wonder whether they went too far.
Rep. Joseph Trillo, R-Warwick, has introduced a bill repealing that new code, except for the provisions governing nightclubs. He argues that the costs the bills impose are too hefty for small businesses and says the state didn't need new laws to prevent the nightclub from burning - it just needed to enforce the old ones.
"The only solution to the problem is to stop the hemorrhaging, to pull the whole code," said Trillo, who owns a security business that sells burglar and fire alarms. "It's overkill."
The political will to enact the code came easily after the deadly blaze at The Station on Feb. 20, 2003, a tragedy that touched many in so small a state.
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