Fire disaster at The Station nightclub

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The fire disaster in the nightclub The Station occurred on February 20, 2003 shortly after 11 p.m. in the small town of West Warwick ( Rhode Island ) on the northeast coast of the USA . At a performance by the announced band Great White , the pyrotechnics used caused a fire with serious consequences . Although rescue workers reached The Station nightclub within minutes, the rapidly spreading fire and the local structural features of the nightclub building on the southern outskirts of West Warwick killed 100 people and injured a further 230 people.

After the fires in the Iroquois Theater (602 dead), Cocoanut Grove Nightclub (492 dead), Brooklyn Theater (285 dead), Rhythm Nightclub (209 dead), Rhoads Opera House (170 dead), Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus (168 Dead) and Beverly Hills Supper Club (165 dead), the disaster at The Station is to date the eighth worst fire accident in the history of the United States to occur during a public theater, dance or music event.

In March 2016, Great White founding member and guitarist Mark Kendall stated that not the band Great White, but only lead singer Jack Russell's solo band (original sound: "Jack Russel's version of Great White" ) on tour and had been booked. Kendall himself would have been there that evening, but would not have known the other band musicians present. Great White, however, had been announced in order to sell more tickets. Great White would never have used pyrotechnics at concerts.

Fire outbreak and course

The fire started at 11:07 p.m. in the back of the elevated stage while the band Great White played their opening song Desert Moon . Daniel Biechele, the tour manager, had burned down pyrotechnics in the form of a spray of sparks. The fireworks were located in the back of the stage in the middle of the floor and sprayed in three fountains about 2 meters high in a fan shape upwards and diagonally to the left and right. The outer pyro fountains ignited the polyurethane foam mats wall and ceiling cladding of the nightclub within a few seconds.

Although the rising flames could already be clearly seen from the beginning of the show, many visitors did not initially perceive them as a danger, but as part of the stage show and so initially only a few people turned away from the stage and headed towards the exit. Only when there was a strong development of fire and smoke, there was a general escape movement towards the main entrance, initially slowly, then increasingly panic.

35 seconds after the 20-second stage fireworks began, the band interrupted, the singer responded with the English words "oh, that's not good ..." and jumped off the stage with his musicians. Just 60 seconds after the first flames, the stage was in full fire and the club's fire alarm sounded. Although a total of four exits were available, a large part of the audience streamed to the main entrance, known to them, through which the building had previously been entered. The majority of the fatalities were later found in the narrow hallway behind the main entrance. The crowd and the resulting panic had already led to an irreversible blockade of the exit after a few seconds. The guests were wedged and stuck on top of each other in the entrance area, so that there was no escape for the following refugees. Simulations and experiments by the NIST showed that all rooms in the club were completely smoky within one minute of the outbreak of fire, and that the flammable smoke gases were ignited and flashed over within 120 seconds of the outbreak of fire.

The first fire fighters arrived a few minutes after the fire broke out, but could no longer prevent the building from burning down completely.

Of the 462 people present in the club, 100 died from fire and smoke inhalation or were trampled on by the crowd during the mass panic , 230 were injured, and the remaining 132 guests escaped unharmed. Among the fatalities was Great White's guitarist Ty Longley , who, according to eyewitness reports, was still trying to smash the club's windows with his instrument. Jeffrey Rader (former Great White, Tesla , Poison and Alice Cooper roadie ) was also killed in the fire.

Commemoration of the Victims and Memorial Station Fire Memorial Park

Memorial on the site of the former night club (until 2015)
Entrance to the memorial (2018)
Part of the "Memorial Walk" with individual memorial stones (2018)
Refuge in the memorial (2018)

On February 24, 2003, several thousand mourners attended a ceremony in memory of the victims at Warwick Church. Five months after the devastating accident, the band Great White started a charity tour, part of the proceeds of which were donated to the Station Family Fund , a foundation of relatives of the deceased.

In honor of the radio DJ Michael J. Gonsalves alias "The Metal Doctor", who also died in the flames, a funeral mass was held, to which several thousand people appeared. His show Metal Zone , which he hosted for 17 years, was the longest-running metal radio show in the United States.

The former property of The Station lay fallow for a long time, crosses erected in the rear area of ​​the square reminded of the victims of the tragedy, parking was no longer permitted on the site. In the parking lot in front of the former building directly on the main street, the old advertising board was still there, but it was falling into disrepair, so that ultimately only the frame and rods were left. Relatives had announced that they would buy the property and erect a permanent memorial. In the spring of 2015, the area of ​​the former nightclub and the parking lot was fenced in, straightened and largely cleared and both the crosses and the billboard removed in order to build the Station Fire Memorial Park . The official opening ceremony of the memorial at the exact location where the fire broke out in the nightclub in February 2003 took place on Sunday, May 21, 2017.

Legal consequences

There were several court hearings as a result of the fire. Great White's tour manager, Daniel Biechele, was primarily responsible for setting the fireworks down. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 15 years in prison, four of which were imprisoned. He was released on March 19, 2008. Previously, several relatives of the deceased had campaigned for Biechele to be released - among other things, he had written letters to the relatives of all 100 victims in which he assumed responsibility.

The two owners of The Station nightclub , Michael and Jeffrey Derderian, were also sentenced, among other things, for the installation of the flammable soundproofing material: Michael to the same sentence as tour manager Biechele and his brother Jeffrey to 13 years probation and 500 hours of social work. Michael Derderian was released early on parole in June 2009 due to good conduct.

Film recordings from the night of the fire and role of the reporter

There are film recordings of the concert and the outbreak of the fire, which were made by a reporter from the TV station WPRI-TV. The recordings were valuable from the point of view of the fire investigators, as they documented both the cause of the fire and the course of the fire. Ironically, on the night of the fire, the TV station was working on a report about accidents in discotheques, the owners of "The Station" had given permission to shoot. In February 2008, WPRI-TV paid US $ 30 million out of court to the survivors of the victims after allegations were made that the reporter's filming blocked passage and did not help to get people to safety.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Great White - We Didn't Start the Fire (VIDEO). Retrieved April 21, 2017 .
  2. ↑ NBC 10 NEWS: Great White guitarist says band did not perform at Station nightclub. Retrieved July 29, 2016 (American English).
  3. ↑ http://www.trbimg.com/img-5107eb39/turbine/hc-fire-starting-in-the-nightclub-20130129/500/500x375
  4. ↑ http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7koFQwV2jZg/ULUhwJniMKI/AAAAAAAABWM/nMMLGUjf4y4/s1600/Station+Nightclub+Fire+%28Daniel+Davidson%29.jpg The sound-absorbing material is ignited
  5. ^ Matthias Breusch: The fire disaster of West Warwick, Rhode Island - scenes from a horror film. In: Rock Hard. Volume 21, No. 192, May 2003, pp. 66-67.
  6. ^ Station Fire Memorial Foundation. Retrieved May 3, 2017 (American English).
  7. ^ Station Fire Memorial Park. Retrieved April 27, 2017 .
  8. ↑ Shaun Towne: Memorial park dedicated to victims of Station Nightclub Fire. In: WPRI 12 Eyewitness News. May 21, 2017. Retrieved May 26, 2017 .
  9. ↑ John Bender: Offcial Opening Date For Station Nightclub Memorial Park Finalized . ( ripr.org [accessed April 27, 2017]).

Web links

Coordinates: 41 ° 41 ′ 3.6 ″  N , 71 ° 30 ′ 39.1 ″  W.