INFERNO
HORROR at THE FIRE STATION
HAMMERNEWS.com Alt ARTICLE updated Feb 2013 by Michael Hammerschlag
194 dead Buenos Aires 2004, 152 Perm 2009, 66 Thailand 2008, 240 now dead in Brazil: what does it take for people to learn? Just a charged fire extinguisher by any fireworks and one guard to babysit it- in Brazil the extinquisher didn't work. Worse the stupid criminal bouncers shut the doors because in Brazil people pay after the show, killing dozens. 78 are critical. This place had 2000 people in it, double capacity, and only 1 exit!!! Another haunting video from Russian fire, so much like Station club video of doomed people fleeing a charnelhouse. Fireworks burning the plastic foam ceiling, only 1.5 minutes to escape, bodies stacked like cord wood by the exits, poison gas from the burning foam, even the witness statements- identical. Rhode Island victims suffer every time this horror is repeated.
W. Warwick, RI: 9:30am 2/21/2003 updated Mar 14 + 2013 I've just returned from 3 hours at the disaster scene, where now 99 people perished (all of whom have been identified) and 187 were taken to the hospital-36 admitted at last count. One more body was found Feb 23rd and the count was dropped by one on the 27th; but in a testament to full-court medical care, only 3 of the desperately burned patients have succumbed (another Mar 2+6th), though some have 80-90% burns. 14 more people are still critical, with inhalation burns of the lungs or high percentage burns. After the first 15 fatalities, victims have had to be identified by dental records; state policemen were sent out to collect closed dentists' r
ecords. About 464 people were in the crowded
low-ceilinged club, above the capacity of 250 (with the pool
tables and machines inside- manager Beese says it was 317), to see the faded 80's metal rock Great White band when they started their first
song and ignited gerbs- firework fountains
that they had used in many previous performances. "If
I knew they were going to do that, I would
have been afraid," said Jerry, sitting
shellshocked in the Duncan Donuts 150 yards
from the incinerated club.
List of Victims{ProJo}Hospitalized Portraits of Victims {BosGlobe} Donations Photos of Victims {Ch6}From extensive interviews with 11 people inside at the time of the fire, including some not interviewed by anyone else, we've got a good sense of what the material was that ignited so horribly fast. The wall behind the band, hit by a raft of sparkler sparks, was covered by foam rubber
sheets pressed into the shape of repeating
egg cartons (leading some witnesses to think
it was cardboard)- a standard acoustical
dampening material, but this stuff was spectacularly
flammable. {PJ} It was "the lowest grade, the cheapest stuff; 2½"
thick packing foam costing $575 for 25 sheets
of 3'x7' size installed in June 2000.³
Flame retardant foam would have cost double,
or $6 per fatality. Stage manager Paul Vanner
says owner Jeff Derderian was concerned about
noise complaints, and the town was insisting
on it for relicensing. A neighbor who had
complained about the noise, Barry H. Warner,
worked for American Foam and suggested and
ordered it. ------ Sunrise over right side remains 6:45am 2/21 Copyright 2003 Michael Hammerschlag
Other bands say some foam has been there for up to decade, and had dried into a crumbly brown texture. The sparks coming out at a 45° angle from 2" x 9" tubes slapped into the foam. "You could see it glowing... I knew we were in bad shape," said Vanner. "I think I'm in trouble," said GW tour manager Dan Biechele, who set up the fireworks, according to sometime bouncer Mario Giamei, as the fire spreads (ProJo reports). As one can see in the unbelievable video, the fire raced up the walls in 2 smooth sheets that were so even that it looked like an effect to the crowd, leading to 40 seconds of immobility, time they would never get back. It quickly passed to the ceiling, which was made of cheap drop foam panels, painted black, with black lights hanging below it to illuminate the glowing speckles of material amid the black. "When it reached the ceiling, I knew something was wrong," said a 30ish man waiting in the blockaded zone for his ride (about 5 insiders echoed his words). This ceiling also proved insanely combustible. Only 20-30 seconds after the first flames, the whole rear wall seemed to explode in a sheet of flame, and the remaining band member who was trying to fight the fire, barely made it off the stage. The guitarist, Ty Longley, is among the fatalities, another was burned.
"It was so instantaneous, you have no idea.. within seconds, it was walls, ceiling," said a woman
wrapped in a bedcover outside in the cold
dawn. From interviews with people in the
middle of the crowd, once they had been pushed out the door by the surging crowd
(60 seconds), the dark poisonous smoke dropped to chest level within 30 seconds
and within 3 minutes fire started coming out most of the doors
and windows. For the remaining crowd, life
had became a desperate struggle. If they
survived, they would have had to crouch down
below the acrid lethal smoke which "had
a horrible smell to it- it smelled like rubber",
and keep moving smoothly towards the front
door or one of the 2 other open exits, which
was almost impossible because of the surging
crowd: "I didn't feel like I had much
control over where I was going. I wasn't
going to go towards the fire!" said
Jerry, about the door right by the stage
that a few patrons and band members fled
through, though it had speakers partially
blocking it. A still photo seems to show
that exit sign out, though that may be an
illusion from the flash. Another exit door
was on the left end of the horseshoe bar
("invisible, because it was colored
the same as the wall," says car salesman
Bill, also a factor in the 1977 Ky fire),
another in the back through a maze of hallways-
both little unused because their exit signs
were not really visible from the floor, and the herd movement towards the front
door carried everyone along. Even a wom
an within 5 steps of the rear bar lounge
door "got pummeled" and knocked
down getting out. Others smashed windows
(greenhouse) to the right of the front door, which were also broken by those on the
outside, and clambered through the slashing
glass into the cool sustenance of the outside,
bloody but alive. Todd King of Framingham says that stretch of windows were mostly
blocked by pool tables, vending machine,
table, and air hockey table; which were supposed
to have been removed to increase the
occupancy
for concerts.The 15' front entrance corridor narrowed and split into 2 directions inside and the outside railing and ramp stopped straight movement out the door at 5 ft.. Along with the band bus and cars parked up against the building, all these factors impeded egress from the deathtrap and access for the firefighters. The band's lead singer Jack Russell claims he got permission for the fireworks, but The Station owners and 4 previous band venues deny the band asked, and claim complete surprise. One club, the Stone Pony, in New Jersey doused their fireworks when they started. But 3 other bands have claimed they used fireworks too at The Station club as many as 20 times, 2 with videos. {BH}W. Warwick fireman had been stationed in the club 7 times in 2000-2001 for sanctioned fireworks during concerts. Fire marshals have fanned out to inspect all small clubs in the state and have closed 8, including a club 4 miles fm The Station, Mardi Gras, which had covered most of its interior in foam. Legal suits have been flying, with plantiffs including Anheuser Busch and massive Clear Channel Communications (owns most radio stations)- this case will be litigated for years.
Scott
One problem was no audible instructions from club person
nel to direct people to the other 2 near open 
exits (another was in the kitchen) in the 60 seconds before panic set
in. "A security guard brushed by me..
he ran by me.. all he said was 'excuse me', he didn't say 'Everyone out', nothing, nothing," said Scott bitterly, a 80's band fan from Portsmouth (Newport).
In the video, a person, perhaps Budweiser
rep Michael Cordier (who died), waves and
points repeatedly towards the main exit.
Of course, for someone working, after the
brilliance of the pyrotechnics, it would
have taken a dozen seconds to notice what was happening,
and the entire time there was to
escape was maybe 90 sec.- 70 seconds from when Butler's camera
records the ignition to when he escapes the
building. Few emerged after. The NFPA says temperature alone was untenable at 113 seconds. "There was no time. Half the
staff died because they were pushing people out the door," said a woman sadly late Sunday(23rd) night in the Cowesett Inn across the street
from the remnants of the bar. 4 members of the staff perished in the hellish inferno, including 2 bouncers:
Tracy King, and Steve Mancini (who was also
in the opening band-Fathead), and his wife Andrea- the ticket taker. FSGE
Evacation animation videoTodd King (no relation) claims another bouncer at the front door, not understanding what was happening, pushed him and his wife back into the club. "He shoved my wife.. behind me; I grabbed her belt, pulled her around in front
of me,
[then] the bouncer shoved me...Then I just
pushed everybody through." 
Ironically,
after the Chicago trampling, they may have
been more concerned with controlling panicked
running or been unaware: no one in the entire video ever screamed "FIRE!". "The area between the ticket booth
and that wall.. was so small.. 2 people couldn't
walk side by side,"
explained Todd in a 4 hours of interviews.
The 4x4 ft white ticket booth greeted people at the end of the 15x6'
entrance corridor (with another door halfway) and presented another
fatal constriction
for fleeing patrons, with an exit left into the bar, and right into the
club. 25 bodies were found
inside that bottleneck. "As we reached
the ramp, chairs came flying through the
windows" (of the bar lounge). John Gibbs
claims he and his friend, Kevin Dunn, were prevented from exiting out the stage door (behind the speakers) and pushed towards the
front of the club by club workers. His friend
died. Another stage escapee, Bruce Cormier, shoved his way past the bouncer with his son and daughter; 15 seconds later
he said the door slammed shut. Sited 3 times by inspectors, that door opened the wrong way {PJ}- into the club- and panic bar was sometimes
broken. 2-4 dozen more people
should have been able to make it through
this door, but that would have required moving
towards the fire, instinctively difficult. Since they were the
farthest inside the club, most died- 2-8 dozen going out that stage
exit would have reduced the pressure on front, allowing more to escape
there too.Todd King and wife Left side remains copyright 2003MH John Gibbs -
{
PJ}As people piled up inside the front door,
off-duty bouncer Mario Giamei, and opener
Fathead drummer Al Prudhomme, who had fled through
the stage door, yanked terminally tangled
people clear of the pile. 8 West Warwick police, who'd been about to
make a routine sweep throught the club, also
dove into the desperate effort to free people
from the pile. Within 1 minute, to the everlasting horror of witnesses, smoke and then flames filled that door. "He was one of the ones who tried",
said the manager of the Greek sandwich joint
across the street, about a haunted troubled-looking
cop who stopped th
ere March 4th. Kevin Meese,
the club manager, says he and Joe crawled
back into the smoke filled bar area with
a flashlight, calling for people {PJ} Incredible
tales of courage and sacrifice occurred as
people threw strangers out of the inferno,
or went back inside looking for friends (like
Matt Darby, who pulled out 12 people), never to emerge. "I'll never listen
to another Great White song," said Dawn in the Cowessett Inn, who'd played in 2 bands at The Station over 12 years. In the haunting video, lovely
waitress Dina DeMaio cheesily mugs for the
camera of her boss- she was celebrating her
30th birthday, there wouldn't be any
more. As of Sunday night almost all the remnant
structures had been torn down, it was just
rubble, except for a piece of the left wing
and incredibly, the drummer alcove, where
the fire started. Sunday a caravan of buses took relatives
to a private viewing of the ruins, but as
if nature was piling on... for the last 2
days it poured rain in RI.
left side left wall - sign by Cowessett Ave.
This bar was a ramshackle dry wood building
dating from 1946 
with extensions; some parts I think covered
by tar paper, creosote?, and large old shingles,
which is why it went up like a torch. "A fire damaged the club in March of 1972... which remained closed until November 1974"- NFPAIt had been a bar, restaurant, club over the decades. Driving back unaware from a video store, I hit a thick plume of the club smoke at 12:10am on Post Rd. (US Rt. 1) an hour after the fire + 2 1/2 miles away, and was hit by a wave of wild panic so strong I yanked the handle up on my door and started to throw myself out of the 45mph vehicle. "I've got to get OUT!!!!" screeched in my head. But this was wood smoke...what was going on here? That smoke was redolent with the horror and panic of the victims. Then I heard the sirens of 5 cities' fire and ER vehicles and knew some piece of Hell had visited.
Incredible, setting off fireworks next to flammable foam without even a fire extinguisher nearby- this was the first error. The walls ignited enormously- almost like it’d been covered by flammable liquid. The local CBS TV station WPRI had cameraman Brian Butler next to stage where you can see walls ablaze and people had no idea there was a problem- he was able to back all the way out of place before people started leaving, calmly but worried- some walking ghosts. Tragic. I walked into that place, The Station, once maybe 6-9 months before- it was a typical cramped club with a warm friendly atmosphere, but didn't stay- it's a suburb-rural place (somebody was yelling "Yeah, that's Great" as the fire flashed up the walls, thinking it was part of act). I looked around it critically, with light fixtures right up against the low bare wood ceiling and thought it was such a horrible fire trap that I mentioned it to a patron. They must have installed the foam drop ceiling after. The club, however, did just pass a fire inspection a month ago: sprinklers were not mandated for a club that size. The flammable foam was never noticed or listed in any of the 3 inspections since it was installed, though the rules mandate verifying flame resistance. "It was all dry dry wood," said Angel, who drove by the club 5 minutes before the fire and had been there often. "The lights were too close to the ceiling... especially where the band played."
That kind of foam- unless it's heavily fireproofed, emits deadly cyanide gas when burned (a longtime problem with airline cushions), and melts. OSHA burn tests of the same foam found
in the basement of the club produced toulene diisocyanate, acetone, acrylonitrile,
- all poisonous or corrosive (to flesh) solvents.
There’s a foot of black smoke at the ceiling
within 1 minute of ignition, which probably
became fatal within another 30 seconds. Inevitably,
as the place filled with blinding poisonous
smoke, the crowd panicked, rushed the exits,
and piled up prone by the door and broken
windows, where other guests smeared with
blood tried to yank them through. The horror. "As they opened the door,
the smoke billowed, and within 5 seconds,
the lights went out," a woman said,
which started the stampede. The immediate
power failure and roiling smoke plunged the
club into blackness, but within 30 seconds the funeral pyre above provided illuminatation, with the burning drops of melted foam a hideously beautiful spectacle.One thing that might have saved some people was if someone had instantly commandeered a car and crashed through the 20 ft stretch of windows near the door. This was impossible because the band's luxury tour bus was parked right up along the front, "the driver's side was all burnt at the top," said Bill. Scott saw it too, but "they got that out of there before it all went up." Slow motion of the video reveals an anemic spastic stream of water from hoses presumably pinched under car tires as firemen desperately tried to water the pile of incinerating people in the front door. They suceeded, according to a WW cop, one person at the bottom of the pile drowned. That stretch of windows was blocked by pool tables, chairs, vending machine, air hockey and a merchandising table; which people had to clamber over into the smoke and heat to make it through the windows. If there’s a fate worse than death, it’s serious burns. Heroic fireman entered the inferno before the building was safe and pulled 100 people out of there, many just before the roof collapsed. "They were there within a minute and a half. I called 911 and said 'People are dead.. get over here'.. which got their attention," said Todd. He and his wife Teresa, whom he credits for noticing the fire first ("She said, 'We've gotta go'... I thought she was mad at me."), spent the next 2 hours ferrying the grievously injured into the Cowesett Inn and parking lot and tending them.
center smokey section 2003 MH
WPRI TV station had sent a cameraman there in response to Chicago club disaster a week before (21 crushed to death in closed down-stairway exit after bouncers used tear gas to stop a fight) to show a club that was up to code and was safe! And it was owned by another person from the same station, Jeffrey Derderian, who was also there on the story. Saturday night he gave a short sobbing press conference about his experiences that night, basically thanking people and denying giving permission for the fireworks, but the lust for retribution has begun- the attorney general and governor have been promising criminal charges... against someone. Feb 23, they searched his brother Michael's (the main owner of the club) house, and a grand jury was convened Wednesday, with the band members Great White and others testifying. Jeffrey is widely praised by his employees, colleagues, and patrons as a "really nice guy." He had been trying to sell the club, maybe the very next day. The brothers have hired former Republican AG Jeffrey Pine to defend them, the former boss of the current Democratic AG John Lynch, who has seemed to back off somewhat.
In anothe
r
vicious irony, Derderian had produced TV
reports for WHDH-TV7 in Boston on what do
when a fire filled a room with smoke and
another on mattress fires, where they lit
fires in a room and crouched below smoke.
In it he said about the polyurethane foam in the
mattresses, "fire safety experts call this stuff solid
gasoline", that makes deadly fires because
of the "speed and intense smoke". His stage manager, Paul Vanner, says
he told the brothers 3-4 months ago that
"I can't guarantee safety," if
they continue to use fireworks, and that
had been none used till Great White blackened their club. It turns out the Derderians
had no required worker's compensation in
effect for their decimated employees and
were paying several of the 13 member staff
under the table. PJ reports Michael taking
the full cash register drawer from the bartender
Julie outside the club and running behind
the burning building. March 13 the Nat. Fire
Protection Association took testimony from
witnesses in Boston- they recommend dropping
the capacity for manditory sprinklers. Todd
says that by the time he'd returned home
at 2 am that terrible night, the club website:
www.thestationrocks.com had been taken 
down, he thinks to hide
pictures
of the bands with pyrotechnics. "If
that place had 100 people in it, it was full,"
said a waiter at the Cowesett Inn. "I
always hated that place," said Bill
in the nearby Duncan Donuts, whose mother
and brother almost attended that night. "It
was so cramped.. You always had a feeling
something was going to happen there."
Copyright ©2003 Michael
Hammerschlag (inc. all daylight photos)
-Sign at Site
May 12, 06: The indictments missed the person with the greatest responsibility for keeping the place safe: the club stage manager; and the morons who turned people away from the stage door. "That's what the grand jury returned," said AG Lynch to my query. "I can only do what they say." Great White mngr Biechele may have reckless in using too big fireworks for that low ceilinged club, but it was a nightmare firetrap waiting for the slightest spark and mostly the responsibility of the owners and managers. 4 years jail seemed fair, considering his deep sorrow and honor in pleading guilty, but in many states he would have recieved less or nothing for misdemeanor manslaughter. Jan 2013: Jeff Dederian got off with 10 years suspended, but his brother Michael got 4 years in jail (served 27 mon. till Dec 2009), as band manager Biechele did (served 16 mon.). No one else- the derelict fire or building inspectors, stage manager, or bouncer... were ever fired or punished, although West Warwick's Denis Larocque saw the foam many times in inspections. And for Derderian to use that explosively flammable foam after doing a TV report on it was monstrously negligent. Just 1 extinguisher by the
stage... ADDEN: In 2010, an incredible $176 million
settlement
was reached from WPRI-TV ($30m), foam manufacturer Sealed Air Corporation, event sponsors Anheuser-Busch ($21m), Clear
Channel Communications ($22m), liquor co., RI State + West Warwick ($10 mil each), insulation co. Polar Industries + Home Depot ($5m), Derderians ($813k), JBL speakers ($800k), and the band ($1m): lawyer John Barylick said,
"27 individuals and corporate defendant groups paid the settlement fund " for roughly 300 plaintiffs.
The last civil suit ended May 2011. The settlement
fund was cofounded by my best source, Todd King. Some of my recommendations were adopted by the NFPA,
(inc. mandatory trained crowd manager, sprinklers above 100 people
club, multiple exit signs), which became law in RI on the first
anniversary of the fire, Feb 20, 2004. In Sept 2012, the
owners of the property finally transfered the site, covered by
makeshift crosses, to the foundation for a memorial.
Michael Hammerschlag’s commentaries + articles have appeared in New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Seattle Times, Providence Journal, Honolulu Advertiser, Columbia Journalism Review, Media Channel, and Capital Times. He reported from Russia, Europe, Africa, + Ukraine from 1991-1994, and 2007-2012, wrote for Moscow News, Tribune, Guardian, Times, and We/Mui; Kiev Post, Weekly, Business Ukraine; has produced TV reports and documentaries, and did radio reports and 15 hours of talk shows. He broke the first big story about media mistakes in the 2000 election. His web page is HAMMERNEWS.com , mail: hammerschlag AT hotmail.com Subject: RI FIRE
W. Warwick Police Chief
² Map in boston globe inaccurate-
I thought stage exit had a corridor with
another door 10 ft to the right, but door
opened straight outside; some said there
was a partial wall with poles between horseshoe
bar and main floor, but who knows. Map in
2/22 ProJo completely wrong, as is evident
from the next page aerial photo. 3/1 Projo
map shows door at front left corner of building,
which they counted ~40 people who used to
exit.³ Many years ago I bought a sheet of 3" foam rubber for a camping sleeping pad from that company: American Foam Corp.. Once when camping, I used a little laundromat detergent box as a candle holder (not advised) and woke to the nylon tent floor and edge of the sleeping bag on fire. It never reached the foam, luckily.
Memorials at Station site May 2006
NOTE: This started as a blog, but was converted into an article. The orga
nization is strange,
some things are repeated, there are errors
since I don't have a spell check on html
editor, and it's constantly being updated;
but I mean it to be a definitive mid-length
article on this horrible event, with my reporting
and news from many sources integrated into
a coherent tale. Presumably, people have
read articles on the big issues, like the
foam purchase. I casually knew 4 victims
of this Stephan King nightmare. I would like
to have been there- I would like to have
saved those people, but I couldn't. I can
do this. In June '03, too late, I was offered a large piece of change for an
article on this, but 6 months later it wouldn't have been opening
wounds, but ripping up scars, and truthfully this was a horror so fast
and hideous, as if Freddy Krueger's hand had pulled those people under,
that I didn't want to wallow in it and the victims' agony for another 2-3 months. With great
reluctance, I turned it down. Some errors in my club map were not
removed to expose the Rashomon Effect on multiple traumatic
testimonies (no foyer on stage exit). See the NFPA case study map. 1977 Southgate, Ky (Cincinnati) Beverly Hills Supper Club fire- previous worst fire with 165 fatalities- Cincinnati Post
Account of Robert Riffe, who was stuck in the door pileup - Prov Journal
