Last night, hundreds of students invaded downtown bars for Mardi Gras -- the day when people indulge in guilty pleasures, such as food and alcohol, before lent season.

However, this is one of the many holidays during which bar owners are a bit more careful about who and what they allow in their bars.

Tony Sapia, owner of Tony's Big Easy, said he knows that on Mardi Gras a lot of people come out to the bars, so he prepares accordingly by having extra employees working to make sure everything runs smoothly.

"Any club, bar or restaurant situation, you want to have all those areas clear -- bathrooms, exits," Sapia said, adding that his establishment has a full sprinkler system in place.

Like Tony's, many bars downtown have started taking safety a little more seriously and the Centre Region Code Administration has started to crack down harder with safety regulations to make sure all bars are in full compliance with the code.

After two tragedies occurred in the U.S. nightlife four years ago, bars and nightclub owners have become more vigilant about what goes on in their establishments -- and so have building code and law enforcement officers.

This week celebrates the four-year anniversary of The Station Nightclub fire in West Warwick, R.I. The station went up in flames Feb. 20, 2003, trapping more than 300 people in a deadly inferno. One hundred people

died after a spark from a pyrotechnic display by a live band ignited a piece of the foam used on the walls and stage for soundproofing, and quickly spread flames throughout the whole nightclub, according to a report by the Office for Domestic Preparedness.

The Station fire came just three days after 21 people died in a stampede at E-2, a Chicago nightclub. The stampede resulted after a chemical irritant was used to suppress a disturbance on the second floor of the club, according to a 2003 press release from the Cook County State Attorney's Office.

Some researchers of the Chicago and Rhode Island incidents-- the National Fire Protection Association and Crowd Management Strategies-- have stated that neither one of those tragedies would have occurred if the nightclubs had complied with the local building codes.

After those two incidents, many cities and states across the country amended their building codes and laws to prevent deadly tragedies from occurring ever again at any entertainment venue.

The changes trickled down all the way to State College, where the Centre Region Code Administration met with borough officials to discuss possible changes, Fire Inspector Shawn Kauffman said.

Taking Action

It was only this year that the code administration started using a computer program that automatically tells the officers when a certain bar is due for inspection.

"[Previously] most inspections were done because of complaint or renovation," Kauffman said.

The administration also will begin to do monthly occupancy checks, Kauffman said. During these "quick checks", the code officers walk into downtown bars during their peak hours -- 10:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. on a weekend night -- to do a head count of the crowd and check for any blocked exits.

"We want to make sure the bars are abiding by the laws, not just football weekends but every weekend," Kauffman said.

He added that if the head count is more than 10 percent of the occupancy limit, the officers get all the patrons out and close the bar down for the rest of the night. In addition, the establishment receives a fine ranging from $300 to $1,000, Kauffman said.

But if the bar or club is just within the 10 percent, the code administration takes it as a "fudge factor" because the averaged head count could be slightly off.

On Jan. 27, three code officers did a surprise occupancy inspection on 11 bars downtown back to back, Kauffman said. None of the bars were cited because they were all in compliance.

All the bars were given fair warning since October, though, when the code administration held a "Fire Safety After-Hours" seminar for all bar owners in the area.

During the seminar, Kauffman went over what the regular and occupancy inspections consist of. The full inspections -- done either once or every three years, depending on the size of the bar -- are to check that the bars are in compliance with the 2006 International Fire Code as far as working fire alarms, emergency lights and other devices, including sprinklers. The International Code is updated every three years, Kauffman said.

Changes with the code

The 2006 edition of the International Code has a more rigorous set of rules than the codes under which most of the downtown bars were built. For example, since Lulu's Nightspot, 131 S. Pugh St., and Candy Bar, 127 S. Pugh St., were built under the new code, they had to get voice fire alarms -- a recorded voice goes off saying people need to evacuate instead of the typical siren noise, Kauffman said.

The new code also states that any commercial building, which includes all nightclubs and bars with an occupancy load of more than 100 people, must have a sprinkler system. Also, any establishment that was built under previous codes, when such systems were not required, and wants to make any structural changes, must put in a sprinkler system. However, bars built before the new code can remain without a system as long as no structural changes are made.

Currently, about 50 percent of downtown bars have sprinkler systems, Kauffman said.

Even though a lot of tragedies, including the Rhode Island incident, have showed that sprinkler systems would have made a huge difference, they are still not mandatory for all bars in State College.

"As a fire inspector, I like to see sprinklers because I think it makes a building safer, but I can't say [the bars or nightclubs without sprinklers] are not safe," Kauffman said.

However, some code enforcers in other states might disagree with Kauffman.

Thirty-eight states, not including Pennsylvania, have adopted the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) safety code, spokesman Robert Solomon said. The NFPA is a private nonprofit organization that develops safety codes.

Solomon said after the Station fire, the NFPA made major changes to their code, including increasing number and size of exit doors as well as making sprinklers mandatory for all nightclubs and bars.

Kauffman said Pennsylvania has adopted some of the NFPA codes, just not the mandatory sprinkler one.

The 2006 NFPA code requires all establishments that hold more than 100 people to install a sprinkler system, even if they were built long ago and not making any changes to their structure anytime soon.

"[The new code] put the mandate in -- it doesn't wait for rehabilitation," Solomon said.

Zach Penrod, manager at Bar Bleu, 114 S. Garner St., said if the borough was to require sprinklers, they would install a system at Bar Bleu but for now he sees no need.

"It's a cement room, so I don't see any fires breaking out there," Penrod said.

Overcrowding

Factors such as occupancy levels and not blocking exits are eminent when dealing with large crowds, Paul Wertheimer, director of Crowd Management Strategies, a crowd-consulting firm based in Los Angeles.

Wertheimer said Crowd Management thoroughly researched the Chicago and Rhode Island incidents to try to help other nightclubs and bars prevent such tragedies from happening again. He believes that the two tragedies could have been prevented.

"First and foremost, don't overcrowd, don't block exits, have a trained staff that knows how to evacuate people in a safe manner," he said.

Local officials agree that too many people at a bar is a hazardous situation.

"When there's a large crowd of young people with too much to drink, it's always a concern," State College Police Sgt. Dana Leonard said.

However, Wertheimer said bar owners and managers should plan accordingly for any event, knowing that a large amount of people will be under the influence of alcohol at their establishment.

Sapia said he would rather have people wait in line to get into his bar than have it crowded inside.

"Some bars feel 'the more people, the better,' but we think it's better to give people space to be able to talk and dance and have a good time," Sapia said.

He added that having space is needed to control any problems that may arise.

Scott Lucchesi, owner of The Phyrst, 111 E. Beaver Ave., said he has a hand-counter at the door and when his bar hits the maximum occupancy levels, it's always "one in, one out."

He added that because sometimes it can get crowded as soon as there is any problem, all the bouncers remove whoever is causing the problem.

"We just tell them they gotta go, that seems to be the best way," he said.

Wertheimer said any bar that actually cares about its customers will take safety precautions, including installing sprinklers. He added that sprinklers are the best investment an establishment can make.

"[Sprinkler systems] are like what, $50-to-60,000? That is probably what the bar owner's Mercedes or BMW costs," he said.

Free nachos aren't enough

To prevent tragedies, a whole community needs to work together, from the code officers being on schedule with inspections, to the bar owners handling things right, to the fire department being ready to respond.

Rusty Schreiner, Alpha Fire Co. fire administrator, said because there is a large student population in State College, firemen are trained to deal with any bar or nightclub incident, whether it is a bad odor or a large fire.

He added that for the most part all bar managers, employees and patrons have been very cooperative when the fire department has shown up in the middle of everyone's partying.

Wertheimer said he wishes club and bar owners would also be cooperative with advice on how to have a safer establishment.

"It's a broad problem ... they say 'don't tell us how to run our business, we've been doing this x number of years,' " he said.

The two owners of Chicago's E-2 nightclub, along with two other people, are currently on trial for involuntary manslaughter because "they did not do anything to change the dangerous crowd conditions that regularly existed at the club," according to the State Attorney's Office.

One of the Station nightclub owners was sentenced to four years in prison and his brother and co-owner was given a suspended sentence and three years probation, according to reports from the Providence Journal. The men were both originally charged with 200 counts of involuntary manslaughter.

Solomon said most states don't start making the necessary changes to their codes and laws until a few years after a tragedy or event and only now are they starting to see significant changes.

"We tend to see states say 'oh well that happened up there' but they know they should change, so they wait around four or five years," Solomon said.

To stay safe, Kauffman advises club and bar-goers to be aware of their surroundings as soon as they walk in.

"When you go into a facility, know two ways out; on your way to the bathroom look for an exit," he said.

Wertheimer said preventing a nightclub disaster is easy and could be done tomorrow if bar owners would abide by all the code mandates.

"The problem is not the club-goers, it's the environment," he said. "This tells you how much a bar really cares about you. Not the two-for-one drinks or free nachos, but what they are doing for your safety."