Your web DJ has decided to talk about fire prevention at nightclubs, and summarizes a knowledge coming from various experiences. Why is fire prevention so hard at nightclubs? There are some objective problems. First, reproduced sound is appreciable only in presence of favorable acoustic properties of the venue. It implies that you should avoid stationary soundwaves, echoes, excessive reverberations, and, generally, sound reflections with an intensity comparable to the sound coming directly from loudspeakers, especially at unfavorable phases. Unluckily, a similar ambient requires an absence of parallel, reflecting walls, and a large utilization of materials able to absorb sound reflections. Those requirements are exclusively obtainable: by complicating the planimetry of the venue, and the path towards security exits; by covering naked walls with materials necessarily not fireproof. Second, at every nightclub, the three elements necessary to start a fire are always present. More precisely: the fuel, that is anything not fireproof, including personnel and frequenters; the oxidizer, that is the air for breathing; and the primer, that are uncontrolled flames, such as smokers, candles, fireworks, electrical short circuits, hot light systems, and so on.
I have some opinions in the matter of the deadly blaze at Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, on January 1, 2026, an accident that can teach a lot of fundamental things. Briefly: a management of a nightclub, when totally and culpably lacking of professionalism, can cause true massacres; no nightclub should operate in complete absence of fire safety measures; a nightclub lacking of minimal fire safety requirements should never admit over 400 people exceeding its capacity of 300; a similar dangerous place should never serve alcoholic beverages, even to teenagers as 14 and 15; uncontrolled flames are risky at safe nightclubs, but were like a Russian roulette at Le Constellation, where barmen served bottles of champagne adorned with lit fountain candle sparkles, in presence of a highly flammable ceiling clad in acoustic foam, a material that, when burnt, produces a dense and toxic smoke. From my point of view, what are the possible, long-term consequences of the accident of the above? Shortly: a criminal trial under a huge, international attention, and a great political pressure; a big loss of reputation of Switzerland as a touring destination; the global, dramatic crisis of the nightclubs sector might notably worsen; hopefully, much more attention to the topic of fire safety; hopefully, many countries to update their fire prevention norms; the bankruptcy of the municipality of Crans-Montana, because of many, expensive requests of restoring the damages to the wounded, and to the relatives of the victims; and so on. As a first conclusion, the professionalism of managements of nightclubs should be accurately disciplined, and constantly verified by public authorities. Of course, the proper application of fire prevention measures is an essential element of that professionalism.
I have something to suggest to my common readers, especially to frequenters of nightclubs, and to nightclub DJs. You can adopt behaviors, useful for your safety, and for contributing to an improvement of fire safety. Observe carefully the internal structure of the interested nightclub, and mentally compile a sort of check-list, for verifying the presence of the following, easily visible, things: a modern and adequate electric system; fire exits, accessible without difficulties, not closed, and signaled by emergency lights, whose number should be approximately 1 large 1 meter per each 150 persons of capacity; a smoke detection and control system; powder fire extinguishers far from electronic equipment, and CO2 extinguishers near computers and electronic units, well in sight and in exercise; formation of personnel, resulting from operative praxes and from written instructions to public; presence of someone charged of adopting the opportune emergency measures, in case of incoming, uncontrolled fire; and so on. Well, if the mental check-list had negative results, you should behave as follows: if you’re a common frequenter, leave immediately the place, and go to another one; if you’re the DJ on the way to be hired, refuse the work, in order to avoid the sad destiny of the DJ of Le Constellation bar, Mr. Matéo Lesguer, dead in the fire at 23. In conclusion, the consciousness of general public on the topic of fire safety has the potentiality of being decisive for avoiding a disco inferno. Coming to music, the mix of the page is based on 21 beautiful songs dedicated to dangerous fire.
File name is “burning disco is too hot, by Max Look DJ (Jan 2026)”, about 1 hour and 22’ of the hottest tunes.
The highly flammable playlist:
Nine Inch Nails – burning bright (field on fire)
Goat – let it burn
Bruce Springsteen – into the fire
Iggy Pop – fire engine (Ministry mix)
Age of Chance – disco inferno
Paul Kelly – melting
Van Halen – on fire
AJR – burn the house down
Bloodhound Gang – fire water burn
Deep Purple – burn
Sly & Robbie – fire
Imagination – burning up (dub)
Robert Plant – burning down one side
Kiss – firehouse
Jimi Hendrix – house burning down
J. Geils Band – flamethrower
Tom Petty – walkin’ from the fire
Tiga – burning down the house
Orlando Riva Sound – the blaze
Radio Dept. – Heaven’s on fire
Buffalo Springfield – burned
