PROVIDENCE -- One of the lead lawyers representing victims of the fire at The Station, in West Warwick, has issued a subpoena to the state's fire marshal asking him to produce all reports of inspections done at the site of the former nightclub.
The subpoena issued by Max Wistow, an interim lead counsel for the fire victims and their families, orders Fire Marshal Irving J. Owens to appear with the inspection reports at Wistow's Weybosset Street law office the morning of July 29.
Wistow and lawyer Mark Mandell are court-appointed interim lead counsel for the fire victims. They want Owens to produce all fire-inspection reports done at 211 Cowesett Ave., West Warwick, over the 50-plus years that a building stood at that site, not just during the relatively few years that it was used as a nightclub.
Wistow is also asking Owens to produce any reports in the possession of the state fire marshal's office relating to the Feb. 20 fire which killed 100 people and injured more than 200 others.
Wistow is issuing the subpoenas in an effort to collect information that he and other victims' lawyers can use to help them decide who should be sued in connection with the nightclub fire.
Owens has already been named as a defendant in civil lawsuits filed by other victims' lawyers in Rhode Island and Connecticut.
The fire at The Station erupted after the rock band Great White set off pyrotechnics which ignited highly flammable packing foam that had been installed by the club's owners as soundproofing.
Records released by the town thus far show that for three consecutive years, West Warwick inspectors failed to make note of the packing foam affixed to the club walls. The people who do inspections for their local fire departments are deputized by Owens -- and are considered assistant deputy state fire inspectors -- but do not work directly for him.
Lawyers for victims who have already sued Owens allege that the State of Rhode Island, through Owens, had a duty to properly train all fire inspectors in the state's 39 cities and towns and failed to do so. The lawsuits also allege that the state did not hire enough fire inspectors to make periodic inspections; allowed The Station to store highly toxic materials on its premises; and permitted "unsafe numbers of people on the premises during the performance" by Great White on Feb. 20.
Other allegations are that Owens and the state failed to require sprinklers at The Station and that they should have known that pyrotechnics were being used at The Station and should have prevented such use.
Asked what he hopes to gain by subpoenaing inspection records in Owens's possession, Wistow said: "To see to what extent they have anything relating to inspections prior to The Station fire and what their investigation showed relating to the fire."
Wistow recently issued subpoenas to a host of West Warwick town officials for municipal records. The town's lawyers have agreed to voluntarily produce whatever records are in their possession, at Wistow's office next Wednesday.
Lawyers are hoping to use town documents to help them identify contractors who worked on the wood-frame building during the past half-century and to get fire-inspection records kept by the town.
The victims' lawyers also 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 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.
DIGITAL EXTRA: Find copies of recent inspection reports of The Station nightclub, view other key reports, fire and safety site links, recent coverage and more:
http://projo.com/extra/2003/stationfire/
