Sunday marks 40 years since Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire скачать в хорошем качестве

Sunday marks 40 years since Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire

CINCINNATI (WKRC) - Sunday marks the 40th anniversary of one of the tri-state's darkest days: The Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire. 165 people died in the nightclub that was packed for a performance of popular entertainer John Davidson. Too many people in a space with too few exits added up to tragedy when curtains, seat cushions and carpets caught fire and filled the place with toxic fumes. The fire took a lot of lives and changed even more. Now it's just a scrub-covered hill with a makeshift memorial above US-27. 40 years ago, it was a showplace that became the home of the nation's third-deadliest nightclub fire. On May 28, 1977, then Southgate Fire Chief Dick Riesenberg was the first firefighter on the scene. “I thought, this is a big one. This is the big one,” said Riesenberg. Within minutes he found out how big when the first firefighter inside the massive club came back with shocking news. “He said you better go out and tell the chiefs what's going on here. We've got people dead all over the joint. At this exit right here they are piled up,” said Riesenberg. In the end, 165 people died in the fire despite the heroic efforts of hundreds of firefighters, club employees and patrons. The state fire marshal blamed aluminum wiring for starting the fire. Overcrowding, no sprinklers and limited exits contributed to the death toll. Four decades later, it still haunts Dick Riesenberg. “40 years means to me… I still think about those people. The dead. The injured. I do. My wife will tell you it's not every night but occasionally I fight that fire in my sleep. After 40 years you'd think it would quit but it don’t,” said Riesenberg. The property has been touted as part of several development plans but none have worked out. There is a Kentucky state highway marker, a few makeshift memorials on the site, but 40 years after 165 people died at Beverly Hills there is still no permanent, official memorial. It's a contentious point for some, but for others, the 40th anniversary is about living legacies. Cari Kettman's parents Bob and Sue Kettman died at Beverly Hills. She was two. Her older sisters were 7 and 8. Kettman was launched on a difficult trajectory but now is in a great place. “Rather than get fixated on structures and memorial and those kinds of things, I guess I have always tried memorializing them every day in the choices I make. The life that I live and the legacy that I’m able to give and show my children,” said Kettman. “You have to look very hard to find the good in a tragedy but it can be there if you look hard enough.” 40 years is a lot of time to look for the good and the bad in what happened at Beverly Hills. And what's clear is it's important to keep looking and never forget. A group of Beverly Hills survivors and family members are meeting Sunday afternoon to honor the memory of the people who died in the fire. They're meeting from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Southgate Community Center. Weather permitting, they plan to visit the site.