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Three days after a deadly fire ripped through a West Warwick, R.I., nightclub, rescue officials say they have recovered 97 bodies from the rubble. As of Sunday afternoon, only 31 had been positively identified.
“The agony [the victims' families] have been going through for the last 48 hours almost has turned into what you’d expect,” Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri said yesterday in a national press conference. “[They are asking]: ‘Why did this happen? Did it have to happen? What caused it to happen? Did some individuals cause it to happen?’” He added, “We’re asking all the same questions.”
The governor said by Monday night he expects the medical examiner to have looked at all the remains, and added that an investigation was underway into the particulars of the fire.
A pyrotechnics display during a concert given by the band Great White at West Warwick’s The Station nightclub ignited foam tiles in the suspended ceiling overhead and quickly spread flames over the crowd of more than 300, according to eyewitnesses. The entire building was engulfed in three minutes, fire officials told CNN.com.
Although spokesmen for Great White have gone public with a statement alleging they had official permission for a pyrotechnics display, the owners of The Station deny giving the rock band permission to use the fireworks.
“It was a total shock to me to see the pyrotechnics go off when Great White took the stage,” Jeffrey Derberian, the club’s co-owner, said between tears in a news conference this weekend.
Patrick Lynch, the Rhode Island attorney general, said he aimed to convene a grand jury to pursue criminal charges, although it was unclear at whom the charges would be levied.
“The criminal investigation will continue,” Lynch said of investigative efforts on the site. “We must not rest, nor will we rest until we make a determination if charges should be brought.”
Carcieri echoed Lynch’s statement in a press conference this weekend.
“It shouldn’t have happened,” Carcieri said. “Somebody made a very, very bad decision and it’s cost an enormous human tragedy here. And that is just a terrible thing.”
Ed McPherson, a lawyer for Great White, warned yesterday against a premature assignment of blame.
“Everybody wants to point fingers,” McPherson said to the Boston Globe. In reference to Derberian’s press conference, he added, “it’s unfortunate that people are coming out and giving statements that are not true.”
Fire officials told the Boston Globe they had recovered some pyrotechnic material in the wreckage, but it has yet to be fully analyzed. They said the heat and the of the fire would make it difficult to determine the exact cause of the devastation.
However, the intensity of the blaze has been wideley attributed to the structure of the building, and the lack of an internal fire sprinkler system.
West Warwick Fire Chief Charles Hall told reporters for CNN at the site Friday afternoon, “If there were sprinklers in this building, we would not be here right now.”
The one-story wood building, which was at least 60 years old, was not required to have a sprinkler system because it was “grandfathered” under a 1976 requirement, according to MSNBC.com.
Fire authorities have also suggested that a buildup of clubgoers at the central exit could have contributed to the high death count.
“The main concentration of victims was at the front door,” Hall said. “Many people who came to this concert last night, it was their first time at The Station club. Being creatures of habit, people would have a tendency to try to get out the same way they came in, not being cognizant of the fact that we had three other operating fire exits.”
Outside the remains of the nightclub, a makeshift memorial has been constructed.
A formal memorial service was planned Sunday night, described by organizers as “prayer unplugged,” and mourners were encouraged to bring acoustic guitars to honor the victims.
Ty Longley, the guitarist for Great White, remains among the missing.
The Rhode Island show was part of the band’s nationwide tour. Great White used pyrotechnics during three other shows — Feb. 7 at the Pinellas Park Expo Center near Tampa, Fla.; Feb. 13 in Allentown, Pa.; and Tuesday at Russell’s in Bangor — without discussing it with promoters or the venue, according to MSNBC.com.
An estimated 250 people turned out on Odlin Road Tuesday night to see Great White at Russell’s. A recent article in the Bangor Daily News said the same fireworks used in Rhode Island were used in Bangor. Fire officials are investigating.
