http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Midwest/0...lub/index.html

:(

This is horrible. I'll bet that people thought it was a terrorist attack of some kind.

Just heard about it on the radio. :(
What a tragedy... It must have been terrible, people in a dark club, completely unexpecting, just having fun. When a panic occurs in such a situation, with people trampling each other to get out... that must be awful.
A few years back, a similar thing happened in Holland, only there was an actual fire in a club. The emergency exits had not been taken good care of, so people had difficulties getting out. It wasn't a big village where it happened, and the entire generation of young kids has changed there - a lot of them either died or are scarred with severe burns for life.
If you go out, check where the emergency exits are and if there are enough of them.... :(

[ 02-17-2003, 09:35 AM: Message edited by: Melusine ]

Yeah, everyone still remembers Volendam, Melusine. :( It was at a New Years's party, making it all more horrible.. This is just horrible news we're hearing here. Really horrible :(

This is about 16 blocks south of my house. It's all over the news here. :(

I'm sorry to hear that Timber... somehow the shock is bigger if it happens right on your doorstep so to speak. Makes you relate more easily, thinking someone you know could have been involved... I really hope there *was* no one hurt that you know! :(

It's being reported now that the club was open in defiance of a court order shutting it down.

That is awful!! That proprietor probably never saw this coming... but he SHOULD have!!
The tragedy I mentioned in my previous post, the one in Holland, occurred under similar circumstances. The pub where it happened did not have adequate emergency exits, and failed safety inspections. It was New Year's Eve, lots of young people were in there having a good time, when a piece of Christmas decoration caught fire, panic broke out, the exits proved unreachable, people were trampled, choked, burnt... it still makes me shiver to think about it.
A whole generation of beautiful young people, some dead, some scarred and mutilated by the fire, some scarred from the experience or from losing friends. Like I said it was a small village, most people in it were involved in some way.

This type of story is all too common. The news reports this sort of thing at least once a month from somewhere around the world. And yet people never learn, the owners, the party goers or the officials.

Then I hope he go's to prison for a long, long, time