ON New Year’s Eve, a deadly fire raced through a crowded nightclub in Argentina, killing 170 people. Kingston Mayor Desmond McKenzie is determined that it does not happen here. Taking his case directly to club patrons, McKenzie is telling Jamaicans who go to local nightclubs and other places of amusement that many of them are operating illegally, and do not have proper fire safety measures in place.

“Many of the major nightclubs are operating in contravention of the law,” McKenzie said at a council meeting last month, without naming names. “They don’t have properly defined exits, they don’t have proper fire extinguishers, they have only one entrance in and one exit out.”

The public is largely unaware that they are at risk when visiting these nightclubs, he adds.

The Fire Prevention Department, which inspects places of amusement and other buildings frequented by the public, has been working alongside the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC), which grants the licence that allows them to operate, to ensure that they meet safety standards.

“We have embarked on a sensitisation programme and once a business applies to the KSAC for a one-year permit to operate a nightclub and the Fire Prevention Unit is informed, we carry out an inspection of the building,” District Officer Romeo Boyd tells the Sunday Observer.

Despite these efforts, however, many nightclubs, high-rise buildings and service stations still have many deficiencies, fire officials say.

In what seemed to have been a busy year last year, the Fire Prevention Department inspected 131 nightclubs, 23 tenement buildings, 104 offices, 448 industrial and commercial premises, six hospitals, 88 schools, 18 theatres, 18 places of safety, 22 homes for the aged, 227 hotels, 69 day-care centres and 41 clinics.

But in many cases, the inspection showed that proprietors were ignorant of the safety requirements, Boyd discloses. While he was unable to give the actual number of places of amusement which do not have adequate safety measures in place, he says the inspection turned up other startling discoveries, including nocturnal establishments, go-go (strip) clubs that operate clandestinely at night and disappear at dawn.

The fire department also found that some nightclub operators were willing to try to circumvent the need for a permit. An increasingly popular ruse to evade applying to the KSAC for a nightclub licence, is to open a pub or cafe and run it as a place of amusement part of the time.

According to Wayne Farquharson, the deputy chief fire prevention officer, during 2004, the Fire Prevention Unit found eight establishments in Kingston which were guilty of trying to find a way around the licencing requirements by operating as bars or cafes.

“We are working with them to put in fire defences in order that they can apply for fire certificates and can get places of amusement licences,” Farquharson explains.

In the meantime, the Fire Prevention Unit is educating businesses and customers on what safety features it is looking for.

These include:

. a working fire alarm system and adequate number of exits in keeping with the number of persons using the facility

. a warning system such as an alarm bell and a stroboscope (a flashing red light)

. the electrical wiring of the building should be able to facilitate a sound system

. doors at places of amusement should open outwards, otherwise in an emergency, people might stumble and be trapped and

. the unit checks that the staff is trained in emergency evacuation procedures.

A place of amusement meeting a minimum of 80 per cent of the requirements will get a provisional certificate for six months and will be given a time frame to fix the outstanding problem areas, says Boyd.

“We are not here to shut down these businesses.

We use gentle persuasion, after which, if they fail to comply, we would recommend closure. We find that once a person clearly understands the requirements and the consequences of non-compliance, they comply,” Boyd adds.