This week marks 20 years since the horrific Station nightclub fire in West Warwick, Rhode Island, which killed 100 people and left 230 injured. The sum total of all settlements was slightly over $176 million. Firefighter and RI state Rep. talks trauma. One hundred people died in the blaze that started after pyrotechnics used by Great White, the hard rock band playing that night, lit the curtains behind the stage on fire. John Barylick wasn't surprised when his phone started ringing early on the frigid morning of February 21, 2003. "Everyone carries baggage and I think at some point you figure out how to pack it and carry it with you," she said. Footage showed chaos erupt . 100 people were killed. Rhode Island nightclub burns A fire at a rock concert in a West Warwick, Rhode Island, nightclub kills 100 people and seriously injures almost 200 more on February 20, 2003. He is now seven years sober from cocaine, although alcohol is a more "pestering problem," he says. People come here to reflect. "I try to say it in the lightest way possible," she said. " His attorney said Biechele wanted to be a private person.. Within seconds, sheets of flame raced up the wall. It wasnt about forgiveness for the death of his brother, because he never blamed them. Even if he couldnt. They sold thousands of shirts, held car washes, collected change outside grocery stores and organized benefit concerts, raising about $1 million over the last five years. WEST WARWICK, R.I. Savagely burned in the fire that incinerated the Station nightclub here five years ago next Wednesday, Linda Fisher has endured a dozen surgeries to salvage her . Tweet. Firefighters and rescue personnel remove one of the fatalities from the nightclub The Station in West Warwick, RI on Feb. 21, 2003. And regulations dont mean much unless they are consistently enforced. Families of victims, survivors share their stories of The Station nightclub fire | WJAR Monday marks 20 years since Rhode Island experienced the single worst disaster the state has ever. I figured I was on my own at that point.. interacts online and researches product purchases this aint good. He ineffectually tossed the contents of a water bottle at a wall. Vanner has no excuses. Vanner spoke about how his life derailed after 11:07 p.m. on Feb. 20, 2003. For the first February in 15 years, Lisa Del Sesto said, she hasn't had the nightmares. The Station nightclub fire that killed 100 people and injured hundreds more will never be forgotten by those who were there or lost loved ones. Some of the most grievously injured still work hard to get better, or close to what they were physically and emotionally before the fire. YouTube / National Fire Protection Association. Ive tried to get this away from being about hair bands, about heavy metal, and to make this a people issue, Mr. Snider said. she said. It couldnt continue another 10, 15 years, it couldnt. Anniversaries, he says, renew the ties and allow him to reflect and recount his version of events that fateful February 20th night. Fire safety work goes on: Advocates gather at Station memorial to mark tax law easing cost of sprinklers. But not by Jody King. Im all for moving on, said Mr. Williams, 37, who spent 10 weeks in a coma and says he now sees as if looking through sunglasses with Vaseline on them. She had seen the 1980s heavy-metal band many times in the past, including once at Liquid . He sees his actions as a verdict on his own humanity. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Diagram showing the location of victims. Gina Russo, 36, a chatty single mother of two small boys, passed out from the black smoke and never saw who pulled her out of the crush of bodies piled up like cordwood at the clubs main entrance. After prison, Biechele rebuilding life in Fla.: How tragedy inspired one member of Great White. A USA Today article reported, He completed his community service requirement last year [2007] with a local fire and rescue company and with a national agency that works for burn survivors., Michael served more than three years of his four-year sentence. Cookie Notice A fire occurred on the night of Feb. 20, 2003, in The Station nightclub at 211 Cowesett Avenue, West Warwick, Rhode Island. The Station nightclub in West Warwick, R.I., was on fire. But as he watched on television in 2021 theformer club owners,brothers Jeffrey and Michael Derderian,on their whitewash tour of the truthgo unchallenged by the reporter and producers of "48 Hours," he felt that agitation rising up in him again. Just seconds after 80s sensation Great White took the stage, pyrotechnics ignited a fire. The orthopedic surgeon hopes he can at least straighten it, although itll never work., One recent morning, at the home of her parents, in Cranston, Rhode Island, where she now lives with her two young sons, Russo adjusts the patterned bandanna that covers her head. How tragedy inspired one member of Great White: After the fire, Mark Kendall, guitarist for Great White, drew close to some survivors, and relatives and friends of those who died and were injured. We talk about fire safety a bit, I dont get too, too far into it.. The night of the fire, hundreds of people gathered at The Station to see Great White, an 80s band now with some new members lead by singer Jack Russell and known mainly for their hit "Once. ABCNews. . After 15 years of it being a dominant part of her everyday life, she said she is ready for it to be a part of her past. This may be called Tools or use an icon like the cog. But I dont want it to define the rest of my life. Cameraman Brian Butler was at The Station on February 23, 2003. But there is more to be done. She wrote a book, meets with burn victims, talks to fire departments and fire safety groups across the country. Lead singer Jack Russell said, Wow . The flames were at first thought to be part of the act. Skin grafts make them itch, like junkies attacking their scabs if their fingers work at all. But instead, I chose to run like a common coward.. When fireworks ignited the soundproofing foam on the stage wall, he ran for a fire extinguisher. As the California band Great White took the stage that February night in 2003, pyrotechnics ignited soundproofing foam insulation which resulted in a massive blaze. Brothers Michael and Jeffery Derderian, who owned The Station nightclub, for using highly flammable polyurethane foam as soundproofing on the walls of the club and for letting 462 people into a building, bringing it over capacity. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright . Today she is president of the Station Fire Memorial Foundation, the group that oversaw the construction of the memorial park. Survivors and friends of survivors active in the effort to turn the nightclub site in West Warwick into a memorial park recount the emotional journeys that brought them from 2003 to 2018. WEST WARWICK, Rhode Island (CNN) -- Fire investigators have recovered all of the victims from the rubble of a Rhode Island nightclub, and forensic pathologists are working round the clock. When January comes each year, she starts a lesson, delicately, talking about The Station and how there was a fire there. On the anniversary of the fire, Ms. Fisher and other survivors will gather at a restaurant across from the former Station site, where a circle of ragged crosses form a makeshift memorial to the dead. It was the worst fire in Rhode Island's history. The Top 25 Music DVDs Worth Rewatching It is the second most-devastating fire disaster in the history of Brazilsurpassed only by the Niteri circus fire of December 1961, which killed 503 people in Niteri, and the deadliest nightclub fire since the . There are survivors who have no ears, eyes, nose, hair, she said. Report of the Technical Investigation of The Station Nightclub Fire (NIST . Now, he carries the fallout of that suggestion with him everywhere. Fused by pain, Station fire survivors, loved ones mark 18th anniversary: Theyre all here. Judge Darigan asked Biechele if he wanted to say anything before the court passed sentence. The fire ignited when the bands tour manager lit pyrotechnics on a small stage surrounded by highly flammable foam used as soundproofing. At about 11:00 p.m., headlining band Great White began the song Desert Moon and tour manager Daniel Biechele flipped the switch to pyrotechnics, producing sparks. The Station Nightclub was a popular heavy metal nightclub in West Warwick, RI built in 1946 and grandfathered out of the 1976 fire sprinkler law. . Nearly 500 people died at The Cocoanut Grove that night in the United States' most deadly nightclub disaster. People come here to cry. Petrarca remembers one of the "most beautiful moments" she's had. The Station nightclub fire occurred on the evening of February 20, 2003 at The Station, a nightclub and hard rock music venue in West Warwick, Rhode Island, United States, killing 100 people and injuring 230.During a concert by the rock band Great White, a pyrotechnic display ignited flammable acoustic foam in the walls and ceilings surrounding the stage. "And I sent it to her and the best compliment I ever got was 'oh, his hair's fantastic. He refused to talk with reporters and entered an automobile driven by a lawyer. She paused, her eyes tearing. But for anyone who was in The Station nightclub on Feb. 20, 2003, she said, a night out triggers an awareness. Carcieri said 81 victims from the blaze that consumed The Station music club in West Warwick late Thursday night are too badly burned for visual identification. It requires sprinklers in every nightclub serving more than 150 people. For everyone who was involved, the memories still haunt them. Theyre depressed, guilt-ridden and angry, and to most Americans outside the small, insular state of Rhode Island, theyre invisible, forgotten casualties of a forgotten brand of rock & roll. People stare at them in public, at the bandannas that cover their hairless heads, at their red, claw-like hands, their lack of certain facial features, their melted ears. Select from premium Dance Club On West of the highest quality. It was a lethal combination, a perfect storm of events that led up to catastrophe. Kinan had . Medical examiners have begun the. White commented, Biecheles failure to get a permit in Rhode Island was not an unwitting, innocuous oversight but a deliberate, intentional decision not to abide by Rhode Island law., Biecheles attorney, Thomas G. Briody, noted that Biechele pled guilty despite his lawyers advice. A California woman who had been injured in an accident and hadn't left her house in five years wrote her, she said. The Station nightclub on Cowesett Avenue and Kulas Road in West Warwick, Rhode Island, caught fire as the band Great White shot off pyrotechnics to punctuate its entrance on stage. Rescue workers, firefighters and police officers pull bodies from the burned-out remains of The Station, a nightclub in West Warwick, R.I. February 21st, 2003 Susan Watts/NY Daily News Archive/Getty That night is not a coherent memory for her, she said, but a sequence of moments when she was hyper-focused on finding her friends or helping those around her. John Barylick in Killer Show points out that there is reason to believe the Derderians gave permission since the club had a history of pyrotechnics in shows. The charge is pending. In my head, I didnt even belong with them because I walked out without a scratch.. At least 43 people were killed and more than 80 others injured in a head-on collision between a freight train and a passenger train in Greece late Tuesday, in what was mainly due to human . There was nothing heroic about what I did.. I said to myself, we gotta go. The Station fire changed how we view fire safety. In June, Russo tasted solid food for the first time since February 20th. . The band Great White was set to perform at 11pm on February 20, 2003 and the fans came in droves to see them. The charge is pending. Joe Kinan was badly burned in the deadly Station Nightclub fire in Rhode Island that left 100 dead and 230 injured in February 2003 . Town fire inspector Denis P. Larocque, for not noticing the foam during an inspection a few months before the fire. Copyright 2023 Penske Business Media, LLC. A lot of the blue collar, average people whove already dipped into their pockets time and time again you can only give so much., 5 Years After a Nightclub Fire, Survivors Struggle to Remake Their Lives, https://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/us/17survivors.html, Linda Fisher has had a dozen surgeries, and says a burn injury is a life injury.. He is now seven years sober from cocaine, although alcohol is a more pestering problem, he says. "It was crowded, and it was getting bad. The main exit becomes clogged with a pile of clubgoers who had tripped in the surge. Station fire memorial nearing completion: Organizers say they have raised more than $1.9 million of the $2 million needed to build it and maintain it in perpetuity. Copyright 2023 FireRescue1. She finallywent home, on June 13th, 113 days after the Great White concert. Jeffs community service was appropriate. That day let her put a period on the last sentence of Chapter Two, she said. The first time I went to counseling, I made the therapist cry, Del Sesto said. 2.10.13: 'It went up like a match. "I can't do it for the rest of my life," she said. This fire completely destroyed the building and resulted in 100 fatalities and over 200 injuries, becoming the fourth deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history. It was there, she said, that she found the best therapists: others who had been in the fire. Medical teams met the challenge; everyone who got out survived that night: Whatever their memories, the medical professionals who helped the victims of the Station nightclub fire 10 years ago have one thing in common: they will never forget. While many say they will never get over it, they have found a way to get along with it. Gina Russo has no clear memory of how, with her hair on fire, she got out of the Station nightclub the night of Feb. 20, 2003. The Station nightclub fire, where 100 people died and hundreds more were hurt, will never be forgotten by those who were there or lost loved ones that February night. Petrarca was sitting near the bar that night in 2003, about five feet from a door, when the fire broke out. She said she went into the club that night a naive, fun-loving 27-year-old and came out angry and feeling guilty. Everything went black': For reporters, tragedy, disaster and sorrow come with the territory. Since he co-owned The Station nightclub with his brother Michael Derderian, Jeff suggested it as a venue for generic nightclub footage. But with last spring's dedication of the memorial on the old nightclub site, Del Sesto said she thinks she has found a way not to forget, but to live with the memories. Judge Darigan sentenced Biechele to four years imprisonment plus three years probation. People that were making $30,000, $40,000 a year had to take jobs making eight bucks an hour because they are so physically challenged, said Todd King, a survivor who lives and works in North Carolina now and runs the Station Family Fund, a grass-roots nonprofit group that still raises money for the worst-off victims. Almost twenty years after one of the deadliest building fires in history, the owners of West Warwick, Rhode Island's The Station nightclub are speaking out. Her father wont visit the memorial, and it took her years to be able to drive down Cowesett Avenue, she said. Even if the plaintiffs prevail, there may be little money to go around for those wounded in the fourth-deadliest nightclub fire in American history. Ms. Eagan guessed that at most, an eventual settlement would help survivors and spouses of the dead there are 23, and 65 children who lost one or both parents to pay off their mortgages and provide for their families, even if they cannot resume work. Even if he died trying. On February 20th, at 11:07 p.m. In the aftermath, Vanner battled an addiction to crack cocaine and alcohol, which he used to cope but which cost him jobs and his drivers license. Prosecutor Randall White urged a sentence of ten years. The 100 Best Albums of 2022. The Cocoanut Grove first opened its doors to the public in 1927. He tells her he wishes that hed tried to extinguish the fire. Some tried to leave through the stage exit only to be confronted by bulky bouncers blocking their way, intoning, Band exit only.. It's the most comprehensive and trusted online destination for fire service professionals worldwide. Send us a tip using our anonymous form. First, there is the issue of the club's capacity. According to an arrest report, Jackson had paid money to get into a nightclub in the 3600 block of South 7th Street Road on April 9, 2021. Station Fire Memorial Foundation rejects donation from Great White singer: The lead singer of the band whose fireworks touched off the Station nightclub fire that killed 100 people was forced to search for a new charity to be the recipient of money to be raised at a benefit concert in California. Fifteen years from now, she hopes, her students will go by the park, and have a memory, a connection, with the 100 people whose names and faces are etched into black granite squares arrayed throughout the park. It was the. Families of the killed and survivors sought for years to have the site of the horror turned into a permanent memorial. It took about five years to come to terms with that, she said. Donovan Williams, a survivor who was burned over 70 percent of his body and was left legally blind, said he was counting on settlements from the lawsuit to really help people move on. The fire spread quickly along the ceiling area over the dance floor. That night is not a coherent memory for her, she said, but a sequence of moments when she was hyper-focused on finding her friends or helping those around her. I cant do it for the rest of my life, she said. The former salesman for the company where the Derderians bought the deadly insulating foam says the fire destroyed his life: Barry Warner a foam salesman and neighbor of The Station nightclub suggested to the Derderians that they look into spray foam as an option to muffle the noise of the club. Loved ones remember Station nightclub fire victims, 20 years later February 19, 2023, 6:46 PM WBZ-TV's Paul Burton reports. He sees a court-ordered therapist, who has told him he has depression and PTSD. This is Bushs way of saying, Fuck you very much for voting against him in 2000. A controversial benefit tour by Great White raised less than $70,000 enough for about two weeks in intensive care for one fire victim. The Feb. 20, 2003 . Vanner doesnt know when the night will be over. Meanwhile, Ms. Fisher and Ms. Eagan are brainstorming about how to draw more support. They're sustained by family and faith: Meet the Darby family. He said, We do not allow pyrotechnics and it got us by surprise.. The second was the time from that night until the dedication of the memorial last spring. Fifteen years after that deadly night, the rubble cleared away, The Station Fire Memorial Park opened as a place for victims, family and friends to come and remember. Jeff told the audience that polyurethane foam is called solid gasoline by fire experts. There is only ONE bouncer in the world that positively worked at the station that night, and had a wife named Kelly that died after the fact. He suffered third- and fourth-degree burns to over 40 percent of his body and was comatose for three months. Realizing the truth, Biechele gasped, I think Im in trouble. Fire reached the ceiling. A handful of defendants have settled, offering a tentative total of about $71.5 million. Within. That day let her put a period on the last sentence of Chapter Two, she said. If it had been people at the opera that night, there would have been a big difference.. station night club 411 Station Nightclub Fire Premium High Res Photos Browse 411 station nightclub fire stock photos and images available, or search for station fire or station night club to find more great stock photos and pictures. Property owner Ray Villanova formally donated it to the Station Fire Memorial Foundation on September 28, 2012. On the day he died, Matt kissed his wifes stomach and said: God, I wish shed come today. Now, ten years later the family reflects on the many challenges and losses life has thrown at them. , nose, hair, she starts a lesson, delicately, talking about the nightclub. Sum total of about $ 71.5 million when the night will be over intensive care for one fire.. Slightly over $ 176 million today she is president of the Technical Investigation of the fatalities from the the. 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