Pulse club owner: Door was not blocked during mass shooting
The city of Orlando released hundreds of pages of documents Tuesday related to the Pulse nightclub shooting that left 49 people dead.
Emails and texts released by the Orlando Fire Department indicate that one of the exits at the Pulse nightclub was inoperable weeks before the massacre of 49 patrons by a gunman on June 12.
But the records released Tuesday also suggest that the gay nightclub had twice the number of exits needed to accommodate its maximum occupancy of 300 patrons.
An email exchange between Orlando Fire Marshall Tammy Hughes and Fire Chief Roderick Williams said that the last fire inspection was conducted in late May.
A follow-up visit was planned but hadn't yet been assigned, so it wasn't known if the problem was fixed.
Hughes said that was within a normal follow-up schedule.
In a text message, Hughes said the club's six exits were enough to handle double the allowable occupancy.
The attorneys for the owners of the Pulse nightclub shooting released a statement on Tuesday.
"On May 21, 2016, the Orlando Fire Department inspected the club and found that an exit sign light bulb needed to be replaced and that a fire extinguisher needed to be hung on the wall, both of which items were corrected. The lack of specificity and clarity in the fire department’s report is regretful. "As for the allegation that a public exit door was blocked, that is untrue. The club has six exit doors, which exceeds the applicable code requirements. None of those six exit doors were blocked. There is a door to the outside that is not used by anyone, whether they be employees or patrons. That door is in a room behind the bar where patrons are not allowed. That door is not an exit door."
