Station Nightclub Fire: 100 Die at Great White Concert

Great White’s tour manager lit two gerb-type pyrotechnic devices flanking the stage at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island, on the night of February 20, 2003. The sparks ignited polyurethane soundproofing foam on the walls and ceiling. Within 90 seconds, the entire stage area was engulfed. Within five and a half minutes, the building was fully involved. One hundred people died and over 200 were injured in the fourth-deadliest nightclub fire in American history. The Station was a single-story wooden building with a legal capacity of 404 people. Estimates suggest 462 were inside when the band began its set at 11:07 PM. The club had four exits, but most of the crowd instinctively headed for the front entrance they had used to enter. A bottleneck formed almost immediately in the narrow corridor leading to the front door. People fell, were trampled, and became wedged in the doorway. Many of the deaths occurred within 15 feet of the exit. The pyrotechnics had not been approved by the club’s owners or the local fire marshal. The soundproofing foam, which had been installed without fire-retardant treatment, produced dense black toxic smoke that reduced visibility to zero within seconds. The building had no sprinkler system — an exemption allowed under Rhode Island law for buildings under a certain size. A local television cameraman who had come to do a story on nightclub safety captured the fire on video, and the footage became one of the most widely viewed fire safety documents in history. Club co-owner Michael Derderian was sentenced to four years in prison. His brother Jeffrey received a suspended sentence. Tour manager Daniel Biechele, who had set off the pyrotechnics, pleaded guilty to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter and served less than two years. Families of the victims considered the sentences grotesquely inadequate. The Station fire transformed fire safety codes across the country: Rhode Island and dozens of other states mandated sprinkler systems in all nightclubs, banned indoor pyrotechnics without permits, and required that soundproofing materials meet fire-resistance standards — laws written in the names of a hundred people who should still be alive.