Posted 12:20 p.m.
PROVIDENCE -- The Superior Court judge overseeing civil cases stemming
from The Station fire today approved testing protocols for evidence
collected from the charred ruins of the former West Warwick nightclub.
Judge Alice B. Gibney also gave the go-ahead for victims' lawyers to
issue subpoenas to various parties for the production of documents which
the lawyers say they will use to help them decide who should be sued in
connection with the fire in which 100 people died and more than 200 were
injured.
Under the plan approved by Gibney at today's hearing, lawyers plan to
ask their experts to go to the Cranston warehouse where 717 pieces of
evidence are being stored and decide which tests should be conducted, in
what order, and what the best place would be to do the tests.
Mark Mandell, an interim lead counsel for the fire victims, said that
most, if not all of the testing, would be done at facilities outside the
warehouse. Mandell said that one of the things the experts want to learn
is why the fire spread so quickly.
Max Wistow, who with Mandell serves as interim lead counsel for the
victims, said that one of the first things he plans to do is re-subpoena
West Warwick town officials who possess documents such as building
permits which the lawyers could use to identify contractors who worked
on the building over the 50-plus years it was in existence before it
burned down.
He said he and other lawyers representing the fire victims want to
determine what materials were used in constructing the building over
time and the manufacturers of those products.
Wistow said the lawyers' task is complicated by the fact that Triton
Realty, the owner of the building where the nightclub stood, had owned
it ``for a relatively short period of time'' and that before it was a
nightclub, the wood-frame building had been used for various other
businesses over the years.
``We want to know who did renovations to the building, who did what
when,'' Wistow said.
Wistow said he in coming weeks, he also plans to issue subpoenas to
American Foam, the Johnston company that sold the highly flammable
packing foam to Michael and Jeffrey Derderian, the owners of the
nightclub, who used it as soundproofing on the walls near the stage.
He said he would also subpoena records from various parties that are
alleged to have promoted the concert by the band Great White, whose
pyrotechnics caused the Feb. 20 fire at The Station.
Those parties include: Anheuser-Busch, the St. Louis beer manufacturer,
and its local distributor, McLaughlin & Moran; Shell Oil Company and its
subsidiary, Motiva Enterprises; and Clear Channel Communications doing
business as radio station WHJY-FM. (All these alleged sponsors have
already been named as defendants in lawsuits filed by other fire victims
in Rhode Island and Connecticut.)
Wistow said he wants to learn from American Foam's records who
manufactured the foam that was on the nightclub's walls. ``American Foam
distributed it. The question is, who manufactured it,'' said Wistow.
Asked when he thought the testing of evidence would begin or how long it
would take, Mandell said he did not know. He also said he had no idea at
this point when the raft of lawsuits expected to be filed by a steering
committee of plaintiffs' lawyers would be brought.
Asked if the lawyers would wait to file suit until all of the testing is
done, Mandell said, "We don't know that yet.''
Under the testing protocols approved by Gibney today, any party that
wants to conduct or photograph a test, obtain raw data from test results
or have a say in how the tests will be conducted and under what
conditions, must identify themselves.
Triton, which on Wednesday filed objections to Gibney's entering orders
requested by victims' lawyers so they can gather more information before
filing suit, told the judge today that it was withdrawing its objection
for now.
