Worst Sound Deadening Ever

[Patrick Bateman]

A few years back there was a nighclub fire in Rhode Island. A hundred people died. From what I heard at the time, the fire was caused by using pyrotechnics indoors.

The other day I heard something interesting about the fire, which I hadn't heard before. The club owner had installed egg-crate fiberglass foam on the ceiling because of noise complaints from neighbors.

Isn't that ridiculous? A hundred people died because some genius thought that fiberglass was an effective way to sound-proof a room

Great White and "The Station" nightclub fire tragedy ... - MusicStack.com Forum

[kevinkr]

Originally Posted by Patrick Bateman

A few years back there was a nighclub fire in Rhode Island. A hundred people died. From what I heard at the time, the fire was caused by using pyrotechnics indoors.

The other day I heard something interesting about the fire, which I hadn't heard before. The club owner had installed egg-crate fiberglass foam on the ceiling because of noise complaints from neighbors.

Isn't that ridiculous? A hundred people died because some genius thought that fiberglass was an effective way to sound-proof a room

Great White and "The Station" nightclub fire tragedy ... - MusicStack.com Forum

It wasn't fiberglass which isn't all that flammable, but some highly flammable type of open cell polyurethane acoustic foam not approved for this usage. Received a lot of press coverage in the local Boston papers. Note that the nightclub did not have the required fire sprinkler system either. A huge and horrible tragedy.

The Station nightclub fire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Here is the NIST report on this fire: http://www.fire.nist.gov/bfrlpubs/fire07/PDF/f07061.pdf

Note that the wikipedia entry is not complete, far more is known than is listed there, but serves to give you the idea.

[Top Shelf]

Originally Posted by kevinkr

It wasn't fiberglass which isn't all that flammable, but some highly flammable type of open cell polyurethane acoustic foam not approved for this usage .

I hope we're talking about fiberglass insulation because fiberglass mesh with resin and hardener burns like gasoline.

[kevinkr]

Originally Posted by Top Shelf

I hope we're talking about fiberglass insulation because fiberglass mesh with resin and hardener burns like gasoline.

The point is there was no fiberglass insulation involved in this fire, it was highly flammable polyurethane foam. Leaves me wondering whether anyone even read my post or followed the links I provided.

[bentoronto]

I read your post. Thanks. Crowd behaviour is part of my "day job".

The criminal nightclub owner also didn't understand the basic distinction between "sound absorption" and "sound barrier". But then a lot of people don't. And even when you understand the principles, you still need specific knowledge of materials and design concepts.

As other threads here show, quite hard and expensive to implement control of sound architecturally. Needs a lot of cleverness for the home DIYer to accomplish much.