The Station nightclub fire occurred on the evening of February 20, 2003, at The Station, a nightclub and hard rock music venue located at 211 Cowesett Avenue in West Warwick, Rhode Island, United States, killing 100 people and injuring 230. During a concert by the rock band Jack Russell's Great White, an offshoot of the original Great White band, a pyrotechnic display ignited flammable acoustic foam in the walls and ceilings surrounding the stage. Within six minutes, the entire building was engulfed in flames. The fire remains the deadliest firework accident in U.S. history and the fourth-deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history. It was also the second-deadliest nightclub fire in New England, behind the 1942 Cocoanut Grove fire.
A firecracker is a small explosive device primarily designed to produce a large amount of noise, especially in the form of a loud bang, usually for celebration or entertainment; any visual effect is incidental to this goal. They have fuses, and are wrapped in a heavy paper casing to contain the explosive compound. Firecrackers, along with fireworks, originated in China.
A fire broke out in the crowded República Cromañón nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 30 December 2004, killing 194 people and leaving at least 1,492 injured. The direct cause was the indoor pyrotechnics igniting the ceiling.
On the morning of December 31, 2007, ten fireworks stores began burning in Barangay Turo, Bocaue, Bulacan, Philippines, causing a series of explosions in the area. The fire lasted for almost an hour and caused several traffic jams on Fortunato F. Halili Avenue and the North Luzon Expressway.
Events in the year 2008 in China.
The Santika Club fire was a fireworks accident and nightclub fire that occurred on Thursday 1 January 2009, in the Santika Club in Ekkamai, Watthana, Bangkok, where New Year celebrations were taking place. 67 people were killed and another 222 injured when fire swept through the club during the New Year's celebration as the band "Burn" was playing.
The Lame Horse fire occurred on 5 December 2009, around 01:00 local time in the nightclub Khromaya Loshad at 9 Kuybyshev Street, Perm, Russia. The fire started when sparks from pyrotechnics ignited the low ceiling and its willow twig covering. The fire quickly spread to the walls and damaged the building's electrical wiring, causing the lights to fail. This is a dual fireworks accident and nightclub fire.
On 1 October 2012, at approximately 20:23 HKT, the passenger ferries Sea Smooth and Lamma IV collided off Yung Shue Wan, Lamma Island, Hong Kong. This occurred on the National Day of the People's Republic of China, and one of the ships was headed for the commemorative firework display, scheduled to take place half an hour later. With 39 killed and 92 injured, the incident was the deadliest maritime disaster in Hong Kong since 1971.
The Kiss nightclub fire started between 2:00 and 2:30 a.m. (BRST) on 27 January 2013 in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, killing 242 people and injuring at least 630 others. The acoustic foam in the ceiling was ignited. It was because outdoor fireworks were used indoors causing the ceiling foam to catch fire, creating a fireworks accident and nightclub fire. The premises having only one exit contributed to the high death toll as well as the electricity going out, making it impossible to find the exit with the layout the way it was. The only light in the building was coming from the bathroom where people flocked, only to be trapped with no way out as they believed it was an exit. It is the second deadliest fire in Brazilian history, surpassed only by the Niterói circus fire of 1961.
Typhoon Dujuan, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Onyok, was the strongest tropical cyclone to strike the Pearl River delta since Typhoon Hope in 1979. The 13th storm and 7th typhoon of the 2003 Pacific typhoon season, Dujuan developed on August 27 to the east of Taiwan. It initially moved to the northwest, slowly intensifying into a tropical storm while drawing moisture and rainfall over the Philippines. On the island of Luzon, one person was killed and areas were flooded. Dujuan quickly intensified after turning and moving quicker to the west-northwest, developing an eye. It reached peak winds of 150 km/h (93 mph) on September 1, and shortly thereafter passed just south of Taiwan. There, Dujuan left 590,000 people without power, killed three, and caused NT$200 million in crop damage. While moving through the South China Sea, the typhoon developed concentric eyewalls. Dujuan weakened to severe tropical storm status before making landfall on September 2 in southern China, just east of Hong Kong near Shenzhen, Guangdong. The storm dissipated the next day after causing 40 deaths and ¥2.3 billion in damage. Most of the deaths were in Shenzhen where the storm moved ashore, and the city experienced a near-total power outage.
Events in the year 2014 in China.
The Colectiv nightclub fire was a fire in Bucharest, Romania, on 30 October 2015, which killed 64 people and injured 146. The nightclub fire was caused by a fireworks accident, both being the deadliest in Romanian history. It occurred during a free concert performed by the metalcore band Goodbye to Gravity to celebrate the release of their new album, Mantras of War. The band's pyrotechnics, consisting of sparkler firework candles, ignited the club's flammable polyurethane acoustic foam, and the fire spread rapidly. Most of the victims were poisoned by toxins released from the burning foam. Overwhelmed by the high number of victims, Romanian authorities transferred some of the seriously injured to hospitals in Israel, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, the United Kingdom, Norway, Germany and France. Mass protests over the corruption linked to the fire led to the resignation of the Prime Minister of Romania, Victor Ponta.
Xiangxue Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. also known as XPH, is a Chinese pharmaceutical company. It was headquartered in Guangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone, Guangzhou, the capital of the Guangdong Province. The company started in a place that near to the tourist spot Luogang Xiangxue, thus called itself Xiangxue.
The Corinaldo stampede was a fatal crowd crush that occurred on 8 December 2018 at the Lanterna Azzurra nightclub in Corinaldo, Marche, Italy. Six people were killed and 59 injured.
The Guangdong Cultural Revolution Massacre was a series of massacres that took place in Guangdong Province of China during the Cultural Revolution. There were 80 counties in Guangdong during the Cultural Revolution, and according to the 57 county annals which became available during the "Boluan Fanzheng" period, massacres occurred in 28 of the counties with six counties recording a death toll of over 1,000—the average death toll among all the 28 counties was 278. The massacre in Yangjiang was the most serious, with over 2,600 deaths in Yangchun County alone. In addition, massacres also occurred in some cities of Guangdong; in the capital city Guangzhou, for example, the massacre targeting the prisoners of Laogai resulted in the deaths of at least 187–197 people within a week of August 1967.
On 26 September 2023, at around 22:45 AST, a fire broke out at the Al Haytham Wedding Hall during an Assyrian wedding in Qaraqosh, Al-Hamdaniya District, Nineveh Governorate, Iraq. The fireworks accident was triggered by the ignition of ceiling by pyrotechnic flares. Out of the estimated 1,000 people present, approximately 107 were killed, and 82 were injured.
