Digital Extra: The Station Fire

02:25 PM EST on Monday, November 7, 2005

Associated Press

PROVIDENCE -- The salesman who sold flammable foam to the owners of The Station nightclub, where 100 people died in a 2003 fire, said it was the company's policy to not warn customers about the dangers of the product they were selling, according to newly filed court documents.

Barry Warner, a salesman for the American Foam company in Johnston, made the claims in an eight-page anonymous letter faxed to state prosecutors in May 2003. He apparently admitted sending the fax in an interview last week with state police and prosecutors.

"Don't educate the customer, was often spoken," reads the letter, which was turned over last week to defense lawyers preparing for the nightclub owners' criminal trial.

"If they warned the potential customer they may lose the sale," it continues. "If they put a warning tag on the foam (it may scare the customer away)."

The fax could support defense claims that brothers Jeffrey and Michael Derderian, owners of The Station nightclub, were unaware that the foam they installed inside the West Warwick building was flammable and in violation of the state fire code.

The Derderians and Daniel Biechele, former tour manager for the Great White rock band whose pyrotechnics are blamed for spreading the blaze, face 200 counts of involuntary manslaughter. All three men have pleaded innocent.

Authorities said the Feb. 20, 2003, fire at the club spread quickly after sparks from Great White's pyrotechnics display ignited the foam, which the Derderians used as soundproofing material and installed on the walls and ceiling.

"We now have information that, according to Barry Warner, his policy and the policy of the company was to not even warn the customers or educate them in any way about the dangers of the foam," said Jeff Pine, a lawyer for Jeffrey Derderian.

In Superior Court on Oct. 26, defense lawyers argued for the dismissal of the half the manslaughter charges against their clients. As part of their arguments, they pointed to previously secret grand jury testimony by Warner, who lived behind the nightclub and sold the foam to the Derderians.

Warner, lawyer Kathleen Hagerty said, testified that the Derderians had asked to buy "sound foam" from him -- which she said should have been flame retardant. She said Warner testified that he never told the Derderians that they'd purchased "cheap, inexpensive foam" and that there was an option to buy flame-retardant foam instead.

Hagerty also said Warner, a foam salesman for 26 years, testified that the foam delivered to the Derderians had no safety warnings on it and contained no label listing its properties.

Assistant Attorney General William Ferland countered at that time that "ignorance of the law is no excuse" and that simply because the Derderians didn't know the fire code or what they were buying doesn't excuse their actions as nightclub owners.

-- With Journal archival reports