Death Toll Mounts in R.I. Nightclub Fire

At least 86 people were killed and more than 160 others were injured in a nightclub in West Warwick, R.I., late last night when a heavy-metal band’s fireworks burned out of control, destroying the wooden building and turning the concert audience into a frantic mob.
Witnesses said the band Great White had just begun playing when giant sparklers shot up and ignited acoustic material on the ceiling of the club, called The Station. Many of the dancers thought the fire was part of the show, but the fire quickly spread and billowing smoke choked the tiny room.
“The people trying to escape tried to leave the same way they came in, all at the same time,” West Warwick Fire Chief Charles Hall told ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “That’s basic human nature, particularly if it’s the first time you’ve ever been to a place. . . . The other three exits weren’t utilized as much as the front door.”
Rhode Island Gov. Donald Carcieri (R) was in Stuart, Fla., for a governors’ conference yesterday but he rushed back to the state this morning. He told reporters this afternoon that fire officials have pulled out 86 bodies but “we believe that is going to higher” as the search continues.
“[They] had no business putting off pyrotechnics in that building . . . ,” he said when talking to reporters this morning. “Somebody made a bad decision. It didn’t need to happen. It shouldn’t have happened.”
Authorities said most of the bodies were found by the front door, some burned, some trampled and some the victims of smoke inhalation. Rescue workers loaded as many as four victims into each ambulance. Many burn victims were taken to hospitals in the Boston area.
Great White’s lead singer, Jack Russell, said the lights went out, adding to the panic. “I started trying to douse it with a water bottle thinking I’m going to put it out,” he told the Associated Press. “The next thing you know the whole place is in flames.”
The reported toll rose rapidly this morning as firefighters picked through the charred remains of the building. At least four firefighters were injured, authorities said. Officials estimated that more than 200 people were in the club, which had a capacity of 300 and passed a fire-code compliance inspection on Dec. 31.
The disaster came just four days after 21 people were killed and more than 150 injured during a stampede in a Chicago nightclub that followed the use of pepper spray by a security guard.
The scale and quick succession of the tragedies can be expected to make nightclub safety a major focus for local and state governments in the months ahead. The worst nightclub fire in the United States was a fire at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston, which killed 491 people in 1942.
The West Warwick fire chief said the club did not have a permit for an indoor fireworks display from the town and said he had information indicating no license was issued by the state fire marshal. He said both were required by state law. Hall said the building did not have sprinklers and was not required to because it did not have sufficient square footage to fall under the law. Hall said an alarm system and the exits were working properly.
A cameraman for WPRI-TV of Providence, R.I., was at The Station to prepare a report on nightclub safety, and was taping when the fire began.
“At first, there was no panic,” the cameraman, Brian Butler, told ABC over the sounds of sirens. “Everybody just kind of turned. Once we all started, turned toward the door, and we got bottlenecked into the front door. People just kept pushing and eventually everybody popped out of the door, including myself.”
Butler said he went around to a back door and no one else was coming out, so he kicked in a side window. “That’s when you saw people stacked on top of each other, trying to get out of the front door. And by then the smoke was pouring out over their heads.”
Great White, which sold 6 million albums after emerging from the Los Angeles metal scene of the 1980s, has had hits that include “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” and “Rock Me.” The group was scheduled to perform at a club in Springfield, Va., tonight.
West Warwick, a town of 29,581, is an exit off Interstate 95, about 67 miles from Boston and 13 miles from Providence. Cotton mills and later synthetic fiber plants are the historic centers of industry in West Warwick, which keeps its ethnic roots alive with a huge St. Patrick’s Day Parade and an annual Portuguese Holy Ghost Festival, commemorating the generosity of Portuguese Queen Isabella.
Robin Petrarca, 44, was a concertgoer who survived the fire. “I never knew a place could burn so fast,” Petrarca told AP. “There was nothing they could do, it went up so fast.”