Digital Extra: The Station Fire

02:08 PM EDT on Wednesday, April 13, 2005

By TRACY BRETON
Journal staff writer

PROVIDENCE -- U.S. Magistrate Judge David L. Martin today deferred ruling on a motion by lawyers for victims of The Station nightclub fire to compel the state to turn over some of the polyurethane foam recovered from the ruins of the club so that they can test it to discover who manufactured it.

Martin told the lawyers representing fire victims that they should pursue their request with Superior Court Judge Francis J. Darigan Jr., who is presiding over the criminal cases brought against the club owners and the former tour manager of the rock band who set off the pyrotechnics in the club.

However, Martin said he would revisit the matter on May 16 if, between now and then, Darigan does not grant the victims' lawyers requests for foam samples.

Lawyer Stephen E. Breggia, who is representing several of the fire victims, told Martin that the victims' lawyers need the foam samples now because the testing process will take time and the statute of limitations -- the deadline for adding defendants to the civil lawsuits -- will toll in 10 months.

After that time, the victims' lawyers would be barred from suing any other parties in connection with the Feb. 20, 2003, fire. One hundred people died in the fire and more than 200 others were injured. Most of the victims' families and their survivors are seeking money damages from about four dozen defendants.

Breggia said the victims' lawyers want to perform tests on foam seized from the charred ruins of the nightclub in order to determine which company manufactured it.

The civil lawyers have already sued a few foam manufacturers -- Leggett & Platt, doing business as Crest-Hood Foam Company and Crest Foam; General Foam; and Foamex International which took over certain assets of General Foam's business in 2001 -- but need to pinpoint which firm manufactured the foam that lined the walls and ceiling of The Station.

``There will be enormous prejudice to our clients if we can't move forward now with this identification testing,'' Breggia argued. He noted that for almost two years now, the civil lawyers have been trying -- without success -- to get the attorney general's office to give them foam for testing but that the state has rebuffed their requests. As time passes, he said, more and more of this foam is being destroyed for testing in the criminal case, Breggia complained.

Lawyers in the criminal case are testing the foam to determine how fast it burns and whether it gives off toxic fumes.

Breggia's motion before Martin was opposed by several parties -- lawyers representing the foam manufacturers that have already been sued; Jeffrey and Michael Derderian, the owners of The Station; Daniel Biechele, the former tour manager for the Great White band; and the attorney general's office -- which is prosecuting the Derderians and Biechele (each on 200 counts of involuntary manslaughter) and representing the state of Rhode Island, which is being sued by the fire victims for its failure to police fire-safety code violations at The Station.

They said the proper forum for the motion to be heard was in Darigan's court, not in the U.S. District Court.