NFPA Journal - November/December 2019 - 88

LAME HORSE
10 YEARS AGO, 156 PEOPLE DIED
IN A CATASTROPHIC RUSSIAN
NIGHTCLUB BLAZE
By Matthew Foley
arly on the morning of December 5, 2009, partygoers packed the
Lame Horse, a nightclub in the Russian city of Perm, to celebrate the
club's eighth anniversary. Then, in
an instant, fire broke out and chaos ensued.
Details were captured in a video shot by a
patron. A dance performance was accompanied
by fireworks that ignited the ceiling, which was
covered with a highly combustible combination
of plastic and twigs. The plastic was expanded
polystyrene, which produces toxic smoke containing high levels of carbon monoxide. As occupants
made their way to the exit, many were unaware
that the black smoke filling the building was more
life-threatening than the flames. "When I turned
back, I saw drops falling off the ceiling and then
there was a lot of smoke," a survivor told the BBC.

88 | NFPA JOURNAL * N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9

FIRE INCIDENTS AND
OTHER NOTABLE EVENTS
FROM SAFETY HISTORY

People were funneled
through a single exit, trapping many. Smoke overcame
patrons who were not
among the first to evacuate.
"People just broke down the
doors because panic began.
Everything was filled with
smoke," a witness told the
New York Times.
Occupants who escaped
observed another horrific
scene: bodies were piled in
the street as people frantically searched for missing
friends. Hundreds needed
medical attention, but
responders were unable to
transport all of the casualties to the hospital. The fire
resulted in 156 fatalities, making it the deadliest fire in post-Soviet
Russia and the ninth-deadliest international nightclub fire on record.
The poor enforcement of building codes was immediately cited as
a primary cause of the fire. Accusations began to surface that inspections in Russia were sometimes used as an opportunity for officials to
demand bribes, rather than enforce an acceptable level of fire safety.
Although the Lame Horse had been previously cited for unsafe conditions, the deficiencies were never rectified. "The authorities are directly
to blame, along with the corruption and the criminality of firemen," one
resident told the BBC. Four people, including the club's co-owner, were
taken into police custody and charged with manslaughter.
In the year prior to the Lame Horse fire, Russia had roughly 18,000
fire deaths, five times more than US totals during the same period.
In addition to underscoring the Russian fire problem, the Lame Horse
fire also highlighted the issue of inadequate nightclub safety and regulation worldwide, including in the US. The fire drew immediate and
accurate comparisons to the 2003 Station nightclub fire in Rhode Island,
where 100 people were killed in an overcrowded club destroyed by a fire
that began with the use of pyrotechnics. Around the world, people are
still at risk in these occupancies that share key characteristics, including
overcrowding, highly combustible interior finishes, insufficient exits, and
an absence of automatic sprinklers.
THE NFPA LIBRARY AND ARCHIVE holds a rich collection of books, reports, and photographs
that document important moments in fire history. To provide better electronic access for researchers and to preserve our unique archival holdings, work has begun to digitize the files of the Fire
Record Department, the original NFPA department responsible for collecting and analyzing information and compiling statistics about key fires and other events. The incidents featured in "Looking
Back" are drawn from this collection and will eventually be part of NFPA's online archive. For information, visit nfpa.org/library.

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NFPA Journal - November/December 2019

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