WASHINGTON (AP) -- A survivor of the Rhode Island nightclub fire that killed 99 people and injured more than 180 blamed the federal government Thursday as ``negligent'' in the tragedy for failing to require sprinkler systems in all businesses.
His accusation came as lawmakers from Rhode Island and Pennsylvania proposed a tax-incentive plan to encourage businesses to install sprinklers in older buildings that currently are not required to have them.
But Bob Cushman, a 40-year-old consultant who escaped the Feb. 20 fire at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, R.I., called for federal laws forcing businesses to install sprinklers.
``The federal government, to me, has been negligent. This should have passed years ago,'' said Cushman, of Warwick, R.I., who was in Washington with Reps. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., and Jim Langevin, D-R.I., who wrote the tax-incentives plan.
``When I was standing there and I saw those flames, I was pretty calm,'' Cushman said. ``I thought that somebody was going to get a fire extinguisher to put it out, or the sprinklers were going to go on. And in a matter 15 seconds, the whole stage was going up in flames. The only reason I got out of that place _ I was lucky, I was standing right in front of the stage _ was because it was my turn to buy the beers.''
One of Cushman's friends is still recovering in the hospital.
No nationwide standards govern public fire safety in the United States. Cities usually base fire safety regulations on standards in the Uniform Building Code and the Building Officials and Code Administrators' code _ older versions of which allow places of public assembly under 5,000 square feet to operate without sprinklers. Additionally, many buildings constructed before 1974 are exempt from sprinkler requirements.
The Station nightclub was not required to have sprinklers because of its small size. The fire started from the pyrotechnics of the rock band Great White.
Weldon, a former volunteer fire chief who created the Congressional Fire Services Caucus, called his tax-exempt plan a fast first step toward getting sprinklers in all public places. He said a nationwide mandate forcing businesses to install sprinkler systems would not be adopted anytime soon.
``Doing tax credits is doable this year. Giving incentives to retrofit buildings is doable this year,'' Weldon said. ``That doesn't mean we wouldn't support something like a national mandate but being realistic, with the political system the way that it is, that ain't going to happen this year.''
He said he would file his tax-exempt legislation as soon as next week.
Weldon and Langevin also called on nightclubs and concert halls to voluntarily adopt new safety precautions to point out emergency exits to patrons before a show begins.
