PROVIDENCE -- The Superior Court judge overseeing civil cases stemming from The Station fire yesterday approved testing protocols for evidence collected from the charred ruins of the former nightclub.
Judge Alice B. Gibney also gave the go-ahead for victims' lawyers to issue subpoenas to various parties to produce documents that lawyers say will help them decide who should be sued in connection with the fire that killed 100 people and injured more than 200 others.
Under the plan approved by Gibney at yesterday's hearing, lawyers plan to ask their experts to go to the Cranston warehouse where 717 pieces of evidence are stored and decide which tests should be conducted, where they should be conducted, and in what order.
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. Among the things experts want to know is why the fire spread so quickly, Mandell said.
Max Wistow, who with Mandell serves as interim lead counsel for the victims, said that one of the first things he had planned to do was re-subpoena West Warwick town officials who possess certain documents such as building permits. Lawyers could use those documents to identify contractors who worked on the building during its 50-plus-year history.
But late yesterday afternoon, Wistow said town lawyers agreed to have the town's department heads voluntarily bring the records that were being sought to Wistow's office July 23.
Wistow said he and other lawyers representing the fire victims want to determine the materials that were used to construct and refurbish the building and the manufacturers of those materials.
Wistow said the lawyers' task is complicated by the fact that Triton Realty, the owner of the building that housed the nightclub, had owned it "for a relatively short period of time" and that 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 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. 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 Co. and its subsidiary, Motiva Enterprises; Clear Channel Communications doing business as radio station WHJY-FM. [All these alleged sponsors are already named as defendants in lawsuits filed by other fire victims in Rhode Island and/or 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," Wistow said.
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.
Also, Mandell said he does not know whether the lawyers would wait to file suit until all the testing is done.
Under the testing protocols approved by Gibney yesterday, 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 yesterday that it was withdrawing its objection for now.
