Digital Extra: The Station Fire

03:24 PM EDT on Monday, October 3, 2005

The Associated Press

PROVIDENCE -- Prosecutors asked today for permission to test pieces of the flammable foam blamed for spreading a 2003 nightclub fire that killed 100 people.

Prosecutor William Ferland said the state expects the test to reveal "critical data" about the egg-crate polyurethane foam, which was used as soundproofing material and recovered from the West Warwick nightclub after the fire.

Ferland said the Steiner tunnel test, in which a material is stretched out inside a tunnel and set on fire, will show the foam's flammability and measure the rate at which the flames spread.

Kathleen Hagerty, a lawyer for club owners Jeffrey and Michael Derderian, called the test useless and a waste of foam.

"It is highly questionable whether this test has any validity," she said.

Superior Court Judge Francis Darigan did not immediately rule on prosecutors' request.

The Feb. 20, 2003 fire, which began during a pyrotechnics display by the rock band Great White, killed 100 people and injured more than 200 others.

The Derderians and Daniel Biechele, the band's former tour manager, are each charged with 200 counts of involuntary manslaughter. The three men have pleaded innocent.

Prosecutors say the Derderians violated the state fire code by affixing the flammable foam to the walls of the nightclub.

The foam is also seen as important evidence in an ongoing civil lawsuit brought by fire survivors and their relatives against several dozen defendants.

A magistrate judge has ordered pieces of foam sent to an Illinois laboratory for testing. Foamex International, a foam manufacturer named as a defendant in the civil suit, argued that the testing should not proceed because the company had filed for bankruptcy and was entitled to an automatic stay.

But Magistrate Judge David Martin said today that the testing will take place as scheduled later this month.

The Derderians filed for bankruptcy late last month, saying their debts were greater than $100 million and they could no longer pay their creditors.

They identified several hundred creditors in court filings today, including the estates of fire victims, lawyers, Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch and several banks.

The lawyer handling their bankruptcy proceedings, Christopher Lefebvre, did not immediately return a call for comment.