STORM2K

At least 14 killed, others critically injured after "stampede" at Chicago nightclub, according to police and fire officials.

Funny how that doesnt surprise me. Even though its bad news, its backpage to this bad storm here. Those discos are always overcrowded and then if there's a fire....you're toast.

And to think......I WANTED to go there! I'll take a raincheck!

Reminds me of the time of that stampede at a concert by "The Who" at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati back in the late 1970s where several were killed and injured!

Eric, we well remember the Who concert tragedy here in Cincy. It happened 12-3-79 and sadly 11 fans lost their lives that night. Just recently Bruce Springstein wanted festival seating for his concert at the same arena, formerly named Riverfront Colleseum. Festival Seating was banned after the Who concert. It was lifted for this Bruce S. concert. Everything went fine but they made sure every door was open and lots of police were on hand to keep order. Problem was twofold with the Who event: only a few doors were opened and fans heard music playing. It was just a sound check but they thought the concert had started and officials werene't opening the doors in time. So a stampede started. Those in line had festival seating tickets - first come, first served. They were trying to get in and the Chicago nightclub tragedy had folks trying to find a way out. I do see similarities to the Who tragedy but I first thought of the Beverly Hills Supper Club (May, 1977) in Northern KY. Fire broke out and patrons were scrambling just to get out. Doors and exits were padlocked or blocked. Firefighters found bodies stacked up near doors that should have been open at Beverly Hills. Were you living here then (1977)? I was camping in Indiana with my dad and brothers. We turned on our radio the next morning while eating breakfast. That's when we heard about the terrible fire there.

Sad, sad day for Chicago. Feel for the families of these unfortunate victims.

Was there a fire? On the news it just said stampede, nothing about a fire?? Oh this will clear it up http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Midwest/02/17/chicago.nightclub/index.html

I was in Cincy during '77-'79...didn't move to NY state until 1985. I remember the Beverly Hills Supper Club tragedy and my church youth minister and his wife were with some friends for a school banquet that night at the Club when the fire broke out...sadly one of the friends (a woman) of this couple died in the blaze! My parents were at the Cincinnati Convention Center at an Amway rally the night of that tragedy and remember all the chaos with Cincy fire depts racing across the river to assist Ky firefighters and rescue workers...when they left the center they saw the flames shooting up into the air.

Eric

It was a stampede that broke out after a fight from what I understand. The fire she was talking about was in a restaurant years ago.

Both very sad!

Rainband this was a fight that broke up and then the security people there sprayed pepper and that was the cause for all the people to stampede but also an exit was closed so that was the real cause that now in the latest news 21 haved died and over 30 were injured.

Agreed, with it being sad. I was just wondering cause I have heard people locally saying it was a fire..So thats why I looked it up I think thats got to be one of the worst ways to go. Very sad indeed.

That was the mistake right there from law enforcement spraying the general crowd with the pepper spray!

What were they thinking I wonder??? :o

It was a chaotic scene: Hundreds of screaming people stumbling down the darkened stairs of a crowded nightclub, gasping for air and stepping on bodies, only to find themselves trapped at the bottom with one open exit.

At least 21 people were killed and 55 injured in the stampede early Monday at the E2 nightclub, authorities said. There were reports that as many as 1,500 people were crammed into the second-floor club when someone sprayed Mace or pepper spray to quell a fight about 2 a.m.

Witnesses described a frenzied scene of some people trying to climb through the ceiling, while others were trampled in the frantic rush for an exit, their faces and bodies flattened against the glass front door.

Some people fainted on the club floor; others were coughing and crying, gagging and blindly groping for any way out.


"People were being trapped underneath you ... so we're actually standing on people's heads and we didn't even know it," said Amishoov Blackwell, a 30-year-old patron. "It was just bodies laying everywhere."

Blackwell said one man crushed between two people told him, "'I can't breathe! I want you to hold my hand, man. If I don't make it, tell my mom that I love her!' He just basically collapsed."

Some witnesses reported that the lights were cut in the stairwell.

Firefighters with sledgehammers and pry bars desperately struggled to open other doors in the half-block-long building. Some were locked, others blocked by laundry bags from the first-floor Epitome restaurant, authorities said.

"There are people trying to get out that could not get out," Fire Commissioner James Joyce said. "Locked and blocked doors are a contributing factor. We can't explain how management or ownership would allow that."


The locked doors are a fire code violation, Joyce said. He said at the most recent inspection in the fall of 2002, there were no blocked or locked doors or other serious violations.

Fire officials say they do not know the legal capacity of the club but initially estimated the crowd at 1,500.

Police Commissioner Terry Hillard said investigators were trying to sort out conflicting stories about the source of the Mace or pepper spray and obtain videotape from inside the club. Witnesses said the spray may have come from the club's security guards trying to break up a fight between at least two women.

"Lives were tragically and senselessly lost, pinned down by a stampeding crowd," Hillard said.

"We will get to the bottom of this," he said. "Right now our investigation is at full tilt."


Friends and family of missing patrons flocked to the morgue Monday afternoon, searching for information and holding out hope that their loved ones were still alive.

"I just can't understand it," said Herschel Blake, who was looking for his 22-year-old grandson, Michael. "His mother called me and said, "Your grandson is dead. The door was locked. There was only one way out of the place.'"

Witnesses said some people were stomped on; many victims suffered crushing chest and head injuries.

"Everybody smashed; people crying, couldn't breathe," said club-goer Reggie Clark. "Two ladies next to me died. A guy under me passed out."

Water and ice were passed to some of those trapped as rescuers struggled to pull them from the building.


"You could see a mound of people," said Cory Thomas, 33, who went to the club to pick up two friends. "People were stacking on top of each other, screaming and gagging, I guess from the pepper spray. The door got blocked because there were too many people stacked up against it."

"I saw them taking out a pregnant woman," Thomas said. "She was in bad shape. I saw at least 10 lifeless bodies."

The president of a Chicago entertainment agency that has booked acts at the club said access to the building was unsafe for the number of people reported to be there early Monday.

"The doorway was obviously inadequate for an emergency," said Ron Onesti of Onesti Entertainment Co. "When the place is filled to capacity, the doorway is very thin."

Photographs on Onesti's Web site depict packed crowds at the nightclub. Onesti maintained that his agency had nothing to do with managing the club and hadn't had any dealings involving it in about a year.

The club is located in the Near South Side, a commercial district near the McCormick Place convention center.

The stampede was one of the nation's deadliest.

In December 1991, nine young people were crushed to death in a gymnasium stairwell while awaiting a celebrity basketball game in New York.

In December 1979, 11 people were killed in Cincinnati in a crush to get into a concert by The Who.

So sad This being a popular hangout of people my age...i can totally understand just how crowded that place was and how they only have one entrance open so that there is only one way for people to get in...get carded etc. They are in my thoughts

That is one dreadful story. I can't imagine what those people went through! My prayers are with them and their loved ones.

People just went into a chaos...there's many fire code violations due to locked/blocked doors. Also overcrowding....what else is new?! It always takes a few tragedies like that to wake people up. Sad.

I apologize for the confusion from what I posted. When Eric mentioned the Who tragedy it also brought back memories of a local fire, years ago. I mentioned the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire b/c Eric used to live here in Cincinnati. People frantically tried to exit that huge nightclub and exits were locked. 165 died in that fire. The Chicago Nightclub tragedy just seemed to bring back awful memories for me (and Eric also).

Thanks for clearing this up. I'll be more careful in the future.

Appreciate you posting the article and report Rob. Those poor people! Terrible way to go. Praying for their families.

I honestly didn't know the story, thats why I researched it, wasn't trying to argue with anyone..Sorry Misunderstanding

Rainband - me too! Sorry. Explained to Sky in a note, I guess I'm still on guard about my posts from our experience elsewhere with another message board! I'll relax now....