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That's why the fire marshal in all cities and towns require all places of public assembly to post in a prominent place the maximum occupancy of a room. This number is based on the square footage of a room and the number of entrances and exits required based on local, state or national requirements. Exceeding this number will result in heavy fines against the owner of an establishment.

Unfortunately, either because of greed (the more people packed in to the club, the better for the bottom line), crime or security problems (people sneaking in and/or out through side doors, high crime in the neighborhood, the current homeland security threat level) can make a situation like that what happened at Epitome a disaster waiting to happen. The death toll could have been much worse.