A rock band’s pyrotechnics show sparked a fire that quickly turned a popular concert venue into an inferno late Thursday, killing at least 96 people. Almost 200 more were injured.
As firefighters pulled bodies from the rubble, attention focused on members of the 1980s-era band Great White, who used pyrotechnic sparklers to open their show before a crowd of more than 350 fans. Moments later, flames leapt from the soundproofing foam at the rear of the stage and rapidly spread across the ceiling, engulfing the room in fire and black smoke and triggering a stampede of frantic patrons.
The fire consumed the nightclub in three minutes. Video showed people stacked horizontally at the front entrance, gasping for air as they struggled to get out.
Most of the dead were found near the front entrance, trampled, burned or overcome by smoke. Some had sought protection in bathrooms.
“All of the horrible things you could imagine have occurred here,” said Rhode Island Gov. Donald Carcieri, who called the tragedy “just unspeakable.”
The killer fire “should not have happened [and] didn’t need to happen,” Carcieri said.
An attorney representing the owners of The Station concert club said they had no prior knowledge that the band would use pyrotechnics as part of its performance.
“No permission was ever requested,” the attorney said, “and no permission was ever given.”
A club owner in New Jersey said Friday the band used pyrotechnics without club approval during a Feb. 14 concert.
Officials at Chicago-area nightclubs said they prevented Great White from using pyrotechnics in recent appearances.
Rhode Island Atty. Gen. Patrick Lynch said band members had been questioned by investigators.
Lynch would not speculate on possible charges, saying he is “dealing with a potential criminal investigation.”
Officials declined to say if anyone was in custody.
A statement from Great White, Manic Music Management and Knight Records said they were “deeply saddened as to what happened.” One of the band members, guitarist Ty Longley, was listed among the missing.
Hospitals in Rhode Island and Massachusetts reported 187 people were treated for injuries. At least three dozen were listed in serious to critical condition.
Families gather at hotel
About 300 family members of people reported missing gathered at a nearby Holiday Inn to await word on the fate of their loved ones. Carcieri met with some families to console them.
“You could sense in many of them hope dwindling rapidly,” he told reporters. “It’s heartbreaking.”
The nightclub fire marked the second such tragedy in less than a week. Twenty-one people were killed in a stampede early Monday at E2, a club on Chicago’s near South Side.
The proportions of the tragedy in this old Rhode Island mill town of 30,000, already struggling in a long-stagnant economy, were staggering.
More than one public official described West Warwick as a small town in a small state, and just about everyone would be touched by the event.
West Warwick Fire Chief Charles Hall said he knew one of the victims.
Some of those who survived told of panic, chaos and horror in the snug nightclub with a low ceiling. The dimensions of the club added to the danger. Patrons had 30 seconds, at most, to escape. The thick smoke obscured vision, preventing victims from reaching one of the four designated fire exits.
“I never knew a place could burn so fast. There was nothing they could do, it went up so fast,” Robin Petrarca, a 44-year-old survivor, told The Associated Press.
A Providence photographer was filming the concert as part of a report on nightclub safety. The video footage showed sparks jumping from the stage and igniting soundproofing material. Some in the crowd, knowing that pyrotechnics are often used in rock concerts, said they thought it was planned. No one rushed for fire extinguishers, witnesses said.
Singer tried to douse blaze
The band’s singer, Jack Russell, said he tried to put the flames out with bottled water. It was too late. “The next thing you know the whole place was up in smoke,” Russell told CNN.
The club had recently passed a state fire inspection. It did not have a sprinkler system, but state law did not require one.
Hall, the fire chief, said none of the required state and local permits to allow pyrotechnics in the club had been sought or granted. He insisted approval “absolutely” would have been denied had it been sought, citing the club’s low ceiling.
At the nearby Holiday Inn, members of victims’ families were registered and taken to a ballroom, and grief counselors met with some in private rooms.
Law-enforcement officials asked for photos and other family history information that might help them in their search. Stuffed animals were placed around the ballroom for young children of the families.
Karen Cousineau, 40, an office worker from Fall River, Mass., spent much of the day searching fruitlessly for information on the fate of her brother, who was missing after attending the concert. She said Donald Roderiques, a 46-year-old maintenance worker from Mashpee, Mass., had been talking about attending the concert since New Year’s Eve.
With no word from her brother and a companion of his lying unconscious in the burn unit of a Massachusetts hospital, Cousineau was sustained by a momentary image she had glimpsed on local television: a figure looking alive and well in the background of a camera shot of the initial chaos outside the club.
“This is a little bit of hope,” she said, clutching a list of all area hospitals and their phone numbers.
“I’ve called every hospital . . . They all told me he’s not on the list, he’s not on the list,” Cousineau said.
It was the deadliest U.S. nightclub fire since 87 people died at the Happy Land social club in New York in 1990. That blaze was blamed on arson.
The nightclub site resembled a black crater. Cranes were brought in to lift portions of the roof and other structures that collapsed under the searing heat of the fire. A charred scent hung in the air. As workers removed portions of the roof, they found more bodies.
“It’s one thing to see it on television,” said U.S. Rep. James Langevin, whose district includes West Warwick. “It’s another thing to see it in person, to see body bag after body bag in an endless stream. Terrible.”
Great White opened its current tour on Jan. 23 in the Chicago area, at Shark City Billiards and Sports Bar in west suburban Glendale Heights. About 300 people saw the show; the venue has a capacity of 975 people. “When they performed, we didn’t allow pyro. We didn’t need it,” said Dawn Smith, Shark City’s manager. “If we had an outdoor stage, maybe–but it wasn’t worth the scare of something. Jack and the band were fine with it. They were just super nice guys. Very low maintenance.”
In a Dec. 7 appearance at House of Blues, Great White played to a sold-out crowd–1,500 fans, according to the band’s Web site, but actually 1,300 fans, club figures show. Pyrotechnics were not allowed at the show.
Domenic Santana, owner of the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, N.J., where Great White played on Feb. 14, said he feels “somewhat responsible” for the Rhode Island tragedy.
“I did not forewarn the other clubs of their shenanigans of how they sneaked in, their attempt to do the show without the proper permits and jeopardizing the welfare of innocent people,” Santana said. “I feel very responsible and somewhat shocked and it has been a tough day knowing this could have been us.”
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Deadly U.S. club and dance hall fires
Some of the deadliest fires at U.S. clubs and dance halls before Thursday:
%% ESTABLISHMENT CITY DATE DEATHS
Cocoanut Grove club Boston Nov. 28, 1942 492*
Rhythm Night Club Natchez, Miss. April 23, 1940 198
Beverly Hills Supper Club Southgate, Ky. May 28, 1977 165*
Happy Land Social Club New York City March 25, 1990 87
Dance hall West Plains, Mo. April 13, 1928 40
Upstairs bar New Orleans June 24, 1973 32
Puerto Rican Social Club New York City Oct. 24, 1976 25
Gulliver’s Discotheque Port Chester, N.Y June 30, 1974 24
*Number of deaths vary among sources
Sources: World Almanac, InfoPlease Almanac, Facts on File, news reports
— Associated Press
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