The Station nightclub fire

(in dark red) in Kent County, Rhode Island (in light red) The Station The Station was a nightclub located at 211 Cowesett Avenue at the corner of Kulas Road in West Warwick, Rhode Island. The building that would become The Station was built in 1946 and was originally used as a gin mill. Before being converted into a nightclub and concert venue, the Station building had been used as a restaurant and tavern. A fire had previously occurred at the building in 1972 while it was used as a restaurant called Julio's. No occupants were in the building during the 1972 fire, but the interior was significantly damaged. Local bands that had played at The Station before the fire had used pyrotechnics during their concerts without incident, including a Kiss tribute band that had set off fireballs during their show in August 2002. Great White 's co-founders Jack Russell (left) and Mark Kendall (right) in 2008 For their 2003 tour, the official name of the headlining band of the February 20 concert was billed as Jack Russell's Great White, which was an offshoot of the original band Great White and led by lead singer Jack Russell. The original band had risen to fame as part of the glam metal scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s. They were best known for their 1989 cover of Ian Hunter's "Once Bitten, Twice Shy", which reached the Top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100. Kendall, who had co-founded the band with Russell in 1977, had rejoined Russell's version of the group in 2002. In February 2003, Jack Russell's Great White was on an eighteen-date concert tour. They had been using a pyrotechnic display during their performances, which some club owners had denied them permission to use, citing safety concerns. In the aftermath of the fire, the band and the owners of The Station disputed whether the band were allowed to use the pyrotechnic display during their concert. All the members of Trip escaped the Station without injury, but two members of Fathead, cousins Keith and Steven Mancini, along with Steven's wife Andrea, died in the fire. The concert was hosted by Michael Gonsalves, a disc jockey for Providence rock radio station WHJY who was also known as "Doctor Metal". Gonsalves was the host of the WHJY program The Metal Zone, at the time the longest-running heavy metal radio program in the United States. ==Fire==

Ignition Jack Russell's Great White started their performance at 11:07 p.m. on February 20. Despite the club's maximum licensed capacity being cited as 404, a total of 462 people were in attendance during the concert. During the performance, pyrotechnics set off by tour manager Daniel Biechele began to ignite the flammable acoustic foam on both sides and the top center of the drummer's alcove at the back of the stage. The pyrotechnics were gerbs, cylindrical devices that produce a controlled spray of sparks. Within 40 seconds of the ignition, Great White stopped playing and left the stage as The Station's fire alarm began to sound, although it was not connected to the local fire department. The fire was reported to the West Warwick Fire Department by cellphone calls to 911 within sixty seconds of ignition. A West Warwick police officer already at the scene also reported the fire to police dispatch. Fire departments in Warwick, Coventry, and Cranston rendered mutual aid to the fire site. The Cowesett Inn restaurant across the street from The Station acted as an ad hoc burn triage and command center for first responders. A portion of the nightclub roof collapsed at 11:57 p.m., and a second portion in the building's sunroom collapsed at 12:07 a.m.. By 1:30 a.m. on February 21, all the affected individuals had been transported and the street had been cleared. Ninety-six individuals died at the scene, and four more died in the hospital in the following weeks. Four employees of The Station were killed in the fire. In April 2003, the Derderians were fined $1.07 million for failing to carry workers' compensation insurance for their employees. Providence Phoenix columnist Ian Donnis wrote of the effect that the fire had on the close-knit Rhode Island community, "The loss of so much life would represent a tragedy anywhere, but it struck especially hard in Rhode Island, the nation's smallest state, where no place is more than an hour away by car..." Recording and account From inception the fire was caught on videotape by cameraman Brian Butler for WPRI-TV of Providence, and the beginning of that tape was released to national news stations. Butler was present for a planned piece on nightclub safety being reported by Jeffrey A. Derderian, a WPRI news reporter who was also a part-owner of The Station. The report had been inspired by the E2 nightclub stampede in Chicago that killed 21 people three days earlier. Derderian had begun working for WPRI on February 17, three days before the fire. WPRI-TV and Derderian were criticized for the conflict of interest in having a reporter report on his own property. ==Investigation==

NIST report A National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) investigation of the fire under the authority of the National Construction Safety Team Act, using computer simulations with FDS and a mockup of the stage area and dance floor, concluded that a fire sprinkler system would have contained the fire long enough to give everyone time to exit safely. The Station, which was built in 1946, was exempt from a sprinkler requirement in the state fire code through a grandfather clause, which stated that buildings constructed before 1976 were not required to have a sprinkler system. The NIST report was released on March 3, 2005, and was made available in two parts on June 30, 2005. Grand jury investigation An investigation of the fire by a Rhode Island state grand jury was started by then-Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch on February 26, 2003. On December 9, 2003, the grand jury announced indictments against Station owners Jeffrey and Michael Derderian and Jack Russell's Great White road manager Daniel M. Biechele. West Warwick fire marshal Denis Larocque was not charged by the grand jury, as a state law prevented charges against fire marshals without proof of bad faith. Lynch told 48 Hours that his investigation found that the fire spread quickly due to the foam the Derderians installed in The Station's walls and ceilings in response to noise complaints. Victims' families have also cited overcrowding in the venue as a cause for the casualties during the fire. Larocque had set various capacities for The Station in the years before the fire based on whether pool tables and other items could be moved. The capacity for the Station was either 258 or 404, depending on how the building was being used. The final tally by The Providence Journal of people inside the Station during the fire was 462. ==Criminal trials==

Daniel Biechele The first criminal trial was against Jack Russell's Great White's tour manager, Daniel Michael Biechele, 26, from Orlando, Florida. This trial was scheduled to start May 1, 2006, but Biechele, against his lawyers' advice, pleaded guilty to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter on February 7, 2006, in what he said was an effort to "bring peace, I want this to be over with." Darigan remarked, "The greatest sentence that can be imposed on you has been imposed on you by yourself." Biechele was released in March 2008. The sentence drew mixed reactions in the courtroom. Many families believed the punishment was just; others had hoped for a more severe sentence. Support for parole and aftermath On September 4, 2007, some victims' families expressed their support for Biechele's parole. Leland Hoisington, whose 28-year-old daughter, Abbie, was killed in the fire, told reporters, "I think they should not even bother with a ‌just let Biechele out[...] I just don't find him[...] guilty of anything." Biechele's parole and probation expired in March 2011. Michael and Jeffrey Derderian Following Biechele's trial, The Station's owners, Michael and Jeffrey Derderian, were to receive separate trials. However, on September 21, 2006, Judge Darigan announced that the brothers had changed their pleas from "not guilty" to "no contest", thereby avoiding a trial. Michael Derderian received fifteen years in prison, with four to serve and eleven years suspended, plus three years' probation—the same sentence as Biechele. Jeffrey Derderian received 500 hours of community service. In a letter to the victims' families, Judge Darigan wrote that he accepted the deal because he wanted to avoid "Public exposition of the tragic, explicit and horrific events experienced by the victims of this fire, both living and dead." He added that the difference in the brothers' sentences reflected their respective involvement with the purchase and installation of the flammable foam. ==Civil settlements==

As of September 2008, at least $115 million in settlement agreements had been paid, or offered, to the victims or their families by various defendants: • In September 2008, The Jack Russell Tour Group Inc. offered $1 million in a settlement to survivors and victims' relatives, the maximum allowed under the band's insurance plan. • Club owners Jeffrey and Michael Derderian reached a settlement of $813,000 with survivors and victims' families in September 2008. • The State of Rhode Island and the town of West Warwick each agreed to pay $10 million as a settlement, due to the negligence of the fire marshal in the performance of his duties. • Sealed Air Corporation agreed to pay $25 million as a settlement. Victims' lawyers said that Sealed Air made the polyethylene foam that was installed at the Station in 1996 in the drummer's alcove. This sat behind the subsequently installed soundproofing foam used throughout the larger area of the club, and produced toxic gas when it burned during the fire. • In February 2008, Providence television station WPRI-TV and its then-owners LIN TV made an out-of-court settlement of $30 million as a result of the claim that their video journalist Brian Butler obstructed escape and did not sufficiently help people exit. • In March 2008, JBL Speakers settled out of court for $815,000. JBL was accused of using flammable foam inside their speakers. The company denied any wrongdoing. • Anheuser-Busch has offered $5 million. McLaughlin & Moran, Anheuser-Busch's distributor, has offered $16 million. • Providence radio station WHJY-FM promoted the show, which was emcee'd by its DJ, Mike "The Doctor" Gonsalves (who was a casualty that night). Clear Channel Broadcasting, WHJY's parent company, paid a settlement of $22 million in February 2008. • American Foam Corporation, which sold the insulation to The Station nightclub, agreed in 2008 to pay $6.3 million to settle lawsuits relating to the fire. In 2021, 48 Hours described the total civil payments to the victims and families as $176 million. ==Memorials and benefits==

Thousands of mourners attended an interfaith memorial service at St. Gregory the Great Church in Warwick on February 24, 2003, to remember those lost in the fire. Another memorial was later that night at the West Warwick Civic Center. A benefit memorial concert was held in February 2008 at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence and featured performances by Tesla, Twisted Sister, Winger, Gretchen Wilson, and John Rich. The event raised at least $25,000 in donations for the Station Family Fund, and was broadcast in March by VH1 and VH1 Classic. Station Fire Memorial Park The site of the fire was cleared, and a multitude of crosses were placed as memorials left by loved ones of the deceased. On May 20, 2003, nondenominational services began to be held at the fire site for several months. Access remains open to the public, and memorial services are held each February 20. A permanent memorial at the site of the fire has been erected and named the Station Fire Memorial Park. In August 2016, the site was reported to have been being used as a PokeStop in Pokémon Go, much to the strong disapproval from the victims' families. In response, the stop was removed from the game by developer Niantic later that month. In June 2003, the Station Fire Memorial Foundation (SFMF) was formed to purchase the property to build and maintain a memorial. In September 2012, the owner of the land, Ray Villanova, donated the site to the SFMF. By April 2016, $1.65 million of the $2 million fundraising goal had been achieved and construction of the Station Fire Memorial Park had commenced. The memorial dedication ceremony took place on May 21, 2017. ==Aftermath==

Great White, Jack Russell, and Mark Kendall Russell considered disbanding Great White after the fire but reconsidered when he decided to embark on a benefit tour. The band raised $185,000 for the Station Family Fund during the tour. The band initially retired "Desert Moon", the song they were performing when the fire began, from their concert setlist. Two years to the day after the fire, band members Russell and Kendall, along with Great White's attorney, Ed McPherson, appeared on CNN's Larry King Live with three survivors of the fire and the father of Longley, to discuss how their lives had changed since the incident. Russell left Great White in 2010. In the years following the fire, Great White split into two separate groups, one led by Russell and the other by Kendall. When Russell launched his version of the band in 2012, Kendall's group responded that Russell had no right to use the name. By 2013, Russell's group had resumed playing "Desert Moon". Russell performed a benefit show in February 2013 in Hermosa Beach, California, commemorating the tenth anniversary of the fire. Russell raised about $180 from the concert, but the Memorial Foundation refused the donation, a decision supported by Kendall. In 2013, Kendall told The Providence Journal that he maintained amicable contact with some survivors, victims' families, and the Station Fire Memorial Foundation. Russell died on August 7, 2024 from complications of Lewy body dementia. Others 41, a documentary about Nicholas O'Neill, the youngest victim of the fire, was screened at Rhode Island theaters in 2008. 41 and a film based on O'Neill's play They Walk Among Us were aired by Rhode Island PBS in February 2013 in conjunction with the tenth anniversary of the fire. Gonsalves was inducted into the Rhode Island Radio and Television Hall of Fame in 2013. The Derderian brothers conducted their first television interview about the fire in 2021 for 48 Hours. It is left for each state or local jurisdiction to legally enact and enforce the current code changes. A training curriculum for crowd managers was developed with the participation of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, focusing on preventing and preparing for fires and other emergencies. Legislation Inspired by the fire, the Fire Sprinkler Incentive Act has been proposed in the United States Senate and House of Representatives since 2003. The legislation would create a tax incentive for property owners to install fire sprinkler systems. It was last introduced in the House in 2015 by then-U.S. Reps. James Langevin of Rhode Island and Tom Reed of New York. ==See also==