Everett "Tommy" Woodmansee, who died in The Station fire after pushing his girlfriend out a window, is remembered by the union with a lifesaving award.

11:39 AM EDT on Tuesday, August 26, 2003

BY MARK ARSENAULT
Journal Staff Writer

CRANSTON -- With The Station nightclub burning down around him, local electrician Everett "Tommy" Woodmansee pushed his girlfriend, Ashley Poland, to a window and got her out, before the deadliest fire in state history overcame Woodmansee, and he perished.

His brother electricians in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers last night ensured that the union would never forget Woodmansee's sacrifice last Feb. 20, and honored him with the national union's lifesaving award, the first ever for the 820-member IBEW Local 99, said Allen P. Durand, the local's business manager.

The national union gives its lifesaving award whenever one of its members saves a human life, he said. "It's quite an honor."

Journal photo / Steve Szydlowski PAYING TRIBUTE: Phyllis Woodmansee, right, is consoled by her children, Cheryl Haines and Gerry Woodmansee, after receiving a lifesaving award for her son, Everett "Tommy" Woodmansee, while Kevin Haines and Nicole Cahoon watch.

James D. Fraser, an IBEW international representative based in Massachusetts, presented a commemorative plaque to Woodmansee's family in a short ceremony at the union office in an industrial park off Comstock Parkway. A similar plaque will hang in the union building.

Durand applied for the award for Woodmansee on March 1. He learned early this month that his application was successful.

Woodmansee's family briefly thanked the electrical workers crowded into the union meeting hall last night. The union members responded with several standing ovations.

Poland, whose father is also a member of Local 99, told the crowd: "I'm the one Tommy saved that night. I thank you for being there for Tommy. He loved everything he did with the union. I heard about it all the time."

Poland and Woodmansee had attended the Feb. 20 show by the hard-rock band Great White at the West Warwick nightclub, which ended in disaster when the band's pyrotechnics ignited flammable packing foam installed around the stage as soundproofing. The fire spread in seconds, killing 100 people.

Woodmansee, 30, graduated from Chariho High School and the New England Institute of Technology, before becoming a union electrician in Local 99.