Digital Extra: The Station Fire

Photo by Anthony Baldino III The Station in West Warwick, before the February 2003 fire. The mural -- with images of Janis Joplin, Steven Tyler, Elvis, Jimi Hendrix and Ozzy Osbourne -- was painted by Anthony Baldino III during the summer and fall of 2002.

WHJY marathon raises more than $140,000: When DJs Paul & Al signed off at 10 this morning at the end of their 28 1/2-hour rock'n'roll marathon, the station announced a tentative total of $140,894 had been raised for the the The Doc Fund and the Station Family Fund.

The preliminary auction total was $13,304.

Donations are still being accepted by telephone at (401) 224-1994

WHJY auctioning tickets, trips, memorabilia till 9 a.m. Friday: Tickets to a Red Sox / Yankees game, Bruins games and a Godsmack show, celebrity golf games, Kid Rock in Vegas, Bowie in Boston, Everlast at the Playboy Mansion in L.A., Lynyrd Skynyrd at PPAC, and vacations in the Bahamas are among 28 items on the auction block right now to benefit the The Doc Fund and the Station Family Fund.

Among the souvenirs offered are a baseball bat autographed by Hall of Famer Willie Mays, a Superbowl XXXVIII Football autographed by Adam Vinatieri and another autographed by Vinatieri, Damon Huard, Joe Andruzzi, Matt Light, Matt Chatham, Dan Koppen & Christian Fauria.

Signed instruments and a drumhead signed by Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, posters, CDs and more fill out the lot. (Here's the complete list.)

Straight pledges are welcome, too.

Donations are accepted by telephone at (401) 224-1994 and online. Those pledging more than $25 will receive a white short-sleeve T-shirt that reads, 94 HJY "In Memory of The Doctor"/ Paul & Al Rock & Roll Marathon. (WHJY DJ Michael J. Gonsalves -- aka "The Doctor" and "Dr. Metal" -- was among those who died at The Station.)

Those pledging more than $94 (the station is at 940 on the AM dial) will receive that T-shirt plus a 94 HJY long-sleeve thermal T-shirt, a Paul & Al Biggest Hits CD, and an "In Memory of The Doctor" patch.

Daily news:

USA Today Special Report: Looking For Answers in the Ashes
A year after the horrific nightclub fire in Rhode Island, life is utterly changed

(Survivor Gina Russo) also vows to make sure something like this never happens again. "The politicians have forgotten this," she says. "They want it to go away." But what she really wants -- of the Derderians, the band, and the local inspectors--is this: "I just want one of them to say, `I'm sorry, and we screwed up.' "

Rolling Stone: Survivors of the Rhode Island club disaster struggle to regain their lives

Getting out didn't mean going back to normal. Some of the survivors of the Station fire will never work again, breathe properly, feed themselves or tan on a beach. Widowed, they raise children on disability checks that don't reach poverty level, and they contemplate bankruptcy. Skin grafts make them itch, like junkies attacking their scabs -- if their fingers work at all. Then there are the nightmares, over and over again, of marching flame and smoke. People stare at them in public, at the bandannas that cover their hairless heads, at their red, clawlike hands, their lack of certain facial features, their melted ears. They're depressed, guilt-ridden and angry, and to most Americans outside the small, insular state of Rhode Island, they're invisible, forgotten casualties of a forgotten brand of rock & roll. They are a collection of blue-collar music fans -- contractors, Wal-Mart workers, strippers, struggling musicians -- who made the mistake of turning up on February 20th, 2003, to see a washed-up boogie band, Great White, ignite outsized pyrotechnics, talismans of a long-gone glory, on a tiny stage ringed by cheap, flammable foam. ...

Providence Phoenix:

One survivor’s story: Although Donovan Williams was able to escape from the cataclysm at the West Warwick nightclub, the impact of the event will always be with him

Beyond dark days: Musicians and club owners on the fallout of the Station fire.

Stars from BB King to Rudy Giuliani donate to auction: Late last month, we reported on an auction of Phish memorabilia to benefit the Station Family Fund; it raised $7,500.

John Langenstein, security director for several bands including Phish and The String Cheese Incident, has teamed up once again with David Shulman, founder and executive director of The Mimi Fishman Foundation, to raise money for the fund. (The late Mrs. Fishman was the mother of Jon Fishman, drummer for the band Phish). From the press release:

The auction include items donated by the likes of Neil Young, BB King, Enya, Phish, String Cheese Incident, Ozzy Osbourne, Lisa Marie Presley, Bonnie Raitt, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Rodney Dangerfield, Brian Boucher, Widespread Panic, Steve Winwood, Def Leppard, Shania Twain, Firehouse, Pearl Jam, and many others.

Roadie.net has a list of the items. In addition to autographed posters, there's quite a range of contributors and items, among them:

BB King "King of the Blues" / 4 CD Box set / autographed
Bonnie Raitt Autographed Road Tested Cd / dvd / songbook / baseball cap
Neil Young Silver & Gold dvd / autographed
Earth Day 2000 Concert Poster / autographed (4/22/00, only 10 signed) <Al Gore, James Taylor, Leonardo DiCaprio, Carole King, Clint Black, Chevy Chase, Edward James Olmos, Melanie Griffith, Third Eye Blind David Crosby, Bill Nye, Keb Mo',>
Pete Rose Autographed 1st edition book "My Prison without Bars"
Graham Nash Original Nash edition /photo of Joni Mitchell w/ "Our House" lyrics signed by Nash.
Mr.Rudy Giuliani Poster / Autographed / Steel Standing / World Trade Center
Gloria Steinem Autographed book

The auction begins Friday, Feb. 20 at the foundation's auction site.

Related: The Fender Stratocaster guitar signed by Great White lead singer Jack Russell and guitarist Mark Kendall raised $500 on eBay for the Station Family Fund.

Daily news:

USA Today: A year later, R.I. nightclub fire memorial remains stalled
Related: Station Fire Memorial Foundation, Memorial Site Petition

Quincy (Mass. Patriot Ledger: Pain is all he can feel: A year later, fire victim fights to approach normalcy. (The photo below is by Mary Murphy of the Providence Journal.)

John Van Deusen walks along the hospital hallways and smiles at the nurses, even though he cannot walk the way he used to. His arms and hands don't swing the same and his step is still tentative. But he knows he must keep walking.

So he does.

It's 11 a.m. in the whitewashed corridors of New Bedford Rehabilitation Hospital, and Van Deusen is going to his daily session with an occupational therapist.

He knows the hour of exercises will bring excruciating pain, but he also knows pain is the only thing he can still feel. The fire took away everything else....

Taunton (Mass.) Gazette: Victim of Station fire honored.

TAUNTON -- Thomas Marion, a 27-year old Westport resident and music enthusiast, was one of the 100 people whose lives were tragically cut short in the Station nightclub fire last Feb. 20.

Nearly one year later, Marion’s former employer -- the Raynham Wal-Mart -- is taking steps to ensure that his spirit and love for music will live on though a partnership with Triumph Head Start and the South Shore Conservatory.

Thanks to a generous contribution from Wal-Mart, Triumph Head Start is hosting a new music appreciation program for young children called "Joy of Music" in Marion’s memory. Local musician and South Shore Conservatory faculty member Joan Pimental visits the Triumph Head Start locations in both Taunton and Raynham each week, playing guitar as children ages three to five excitedly dance and sing along....

Boston.com: Blaze left orphans with uncertain future. Nearly 70 children lost a parent in the fire.

More than half of these children have moved in the year since the fire, according to the nonprofit Family Service of Rhode Island, often starting in entirely new households and new schools.

And many children like Zoe remain in limbo. Their names are scattered through probate and family court cases, as judges agonize over who should receive permanent custody and who should receive visitation rights.

In the aftermath of the fire some harsh demographic realities have surfaced: Out-of-wedlock births, teenage parents, and divorce were common in the lives of these heavy-metal fans who came out a year ago this Friday to hear Great White, a band at least a decade past its prime. The pyrotechnics display that went awry killed dozens of parents. Many were single, in their 30s, struggling to raise children with the help of nearby family. ...

More links: The Rhode Island Station Nightclub Fire

Nearly one year ago, Bill Long lay in a Rhode Island hospital, his hands a painful mass of black blisters, in need of skin grafts.

The former North Syracuse resident had escaped from the deadly fire at The Station, a nightclub in West Warwick, R.I., where 100 people died and more than 200 were injured when pyrotechnics started a fire during a concert by the heavy metal band Great White.

Long - the manager for a band that was touring with Great White - suffered second- and third-degree burns on his hands, wrists and back. He worried that he might never be able to use his hands again.

Today, Long is working a job where having sure, fast hands is a requirement. He is a blackjack dealer at Foxwoods Resort in Mashantucket, Conn.

He wears special flesh-colored compression gloves to protect his burned hands. ...

Claude Schlieff has learned to come home to an empty apartment again. He has learned to cope with the quiet of his evenings, to sleep in the solitude of an empty bed. In rooms he decorated with his girlfriend, he has learned that to move a piece of furniture is to erase a memory of her, to let her presence slip away.

‘‘One of the toughest things was those first days coming home from work,'' said Schlieff, 43, whose girlfriend, Kristine Carbone of Stoughton, died in The Station nightclub fire. ‘‘She had always been there when I got home. I would see her silhouetted in the dark of the kitchen. She just radiated warmth.''

In the year that has passed since the Feb. 20, 2003, fire in West Warwick, R.I., Schlieff and other friends and relatives of victims say they have learned to live with the sorrow of their loss, even if it hasn't gotten any easier....

When John Bond and Skott Greene met at a worship service in the fall of 2002, they hit it off like they’d known each other for years.

A patrolman on the Woonsocket police force who played bass guitar in his spare time, Bond was impressed by Greene’s talent for singing and songwriting -- passionate sidelines for the professional tattoo artist. Bond, who was already jamming with Bill Senior, a fellow patrolman on the force, urged Greene to join them as their frontman.

Greene jumped in with both feet, writing songs in a spiral-bound notebook. Soon a rehearsal was arranged with the policemen musicians at Bond’s house in East Providence.

Then it happened.

"I don’t think it was more than a week after he showed me his notebook, The Station burned down, " recalled Bond. "Skott died in the fire."

Of course, it wasn’t just any fire. The inferno that destroyed the legendary West Warwick nightclub on Feb. 20, 2003 -- one year ago next Friday -- was one of the worst in U.S. history. Greene, 35 years old, was just one of 100 victims whose lives were eventually lost.

But thanks to Bond and Senior, the creative spirit that burned in Greene will live on.

Working from the West Warwick resident’s spiral-bound notes, the two policemen finished Greene’s lyrics, setting them to original music that they have recorded on a six-song compact disc. Calling their collaboration "Doors of Perception" -- after Greene’s tattoo studio -- the musical tribute will be aired on radio station WHJY-FM on Feb. 22 as part of a promotion to raise funds to help victims of the fire.

...Although the cop rockers didn’t set out seeking attention, their musical ode to Greene turned out so much better than expected that their thoughts soon turned to getting some airplay. Knowing that WHJY-FM had also suffered a loss in The Station, they pitched their song "No Need to Cry" as a balm for souls grieving from losses suffered in the blaze.

The next thing they knew, deejay Big Jim had agreed to play the song as a promotion for The Doc Fund, named for the late disc jockey Michael "Dr. Metal" Gonsalves, another fire victim. Proceeds from the sale of the disc, $5 each, will go to the fund. The disc will soon be on shelves at Kool and Unusual Guitars, 425 Diamond Hill Road; Spinz Performance Systems, 118 Main St.; and The Goddess Shop, 1 Social St. It can also be obtained by emailing doorsofperception2004@yahoo.com....

Great White will continue to tour and raise money for the victims' families. To mark the anniversary, (lead singer Jack) Russell says he'll go to church Feb. 20 "for the first time in probably 20 years. I'm going to pray for the families, victims and friends we lost. I hope as time goes by, we all find some peace."