VIDEO: Five months after 100 people lost their lives in the Station nightclub fire, Rhode Island lawmakers passed the most sweeping changes to its fire code in state history.
And despite some early calls to ease the requirements of the new code by businesses who felt the rules were overly burdensome, the law has remained largely intact.
State Fire Marshal Timothy McLaughlin said the overhaul of the code has made Rhode Island “probably the safest state in the country” when it comes to fire safety. “When they did this in 2003, they did it for a reason,” McLaughlin said. “We saw what happened, the pledge back then was ‘we never want this to happen again,’ and I don’t think we’ll ever see that again.”
The Comprehensive Fire Safety Act was signed into law by then-Gov. Don Carcieri in July 2003.