This day in history: On this day in 1970, a fire killed 146 people at a dance hall outside of Saint-Laurent-du-Pont in France. Firefighters discovered upon arrival that the management of Club Cinq Sept had kept the emergency exits padlocked in order to keep people from entering the building without paying. At 1:45 in the morning, when the fire broke out, there were about 150 dancers still in the building who had paid to hear a performance by the rock group "The Storm". The dance hall was decorated with "paper and plastic psychedelic decorations" which caused the fire to spread rapidly, and firefighters in Saint-Laurent were only notified after two young men ran nearly a mile to the town to sound the alert. Witnesses told investigators that the fire had started after a patron had lit a cigarette and then tossed the burning match aside rather than extinguishing it.
In June 1971, one of the managers, Gilbert Bas, was charged with, and found guilty of, manslaughter in relation to the deaths. He received a two-year suspended sentence. Two other managers died in the fire. The mayor and three building contractors were found guilty of causing injury through negligence, and received short suspended sentences.
Wikipedia has an entry with a list of all the nightclub fires.
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