A Journal investigation places the number of people inside higher than the governor's estimate and more than the occupancy limits set by the West Warwick Fire Department.

01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, September 21, 2003

BY PAUL EDWARD PARKER
Journal Staff Writer

An investigation by The Providence Journal has identified 412 people who, according to legal documents, survivors and others, were in The Station nightclub when it caught fire on Feb. 20, killing 100 and injuring more than 200 others.

The number exceeds all of the various limits on the club's capacity set by the Town of West Warwick. Those limits ranged from as low as 253 to as high as 404, according to town documents.

The total is also greater than the number officials have said were in the club when it burned. In public comments just after the fire, Governor Carcieri estimated the crowd at 350.

While officials have disclosed the names of the 100 who died, the state has not provided the names of survivors. The Providence Journal has filed suit to compel the governor's office to release its information about who else was inside The Station at the time of the fire. That matter is pending in Superior Court.

With no official list, The Journal set out to identify the survivors and count the number of people who were inside the club at the time of the fire.

Journal reporters -- more than 60 were assigned to the project -- tried to contact survivors to confirm that they were at the nightclub when the fire broke out. In cases where survivors could not be contacted, The Journal verified their names in other ways.

The 412 names include:

100 who died in or after the fire.

192 survivors interviewed by The Journal.

57 identified by other survivors.

49 identified by lawyers.

7 identified by relatives.

5 confirmed by hospitals.

2 who took pictures inside the club.

CASEY C. GRANT, assistant chief engineer at the National Fire Protection Association, said that enforcing the capacity limit for a building can be a matter of life and death.

"It's a very important number. It's one of the prime factors in making sure people can get out safely," said Grant. "If we're exceeding that, we're flirting with danger."

Grant said occupancy limits are calculated to be the "worst-case" scenario of how many people can escape safely in an emergency. Overcrowding can lead to a "cascade" of problems for crowds: tripping, pushing and finally collapsing into a heap.

Under the fire code that governed The Station, inspectors could use three different formulas to determine the capacity, according to William Howe, chief of inspections for the state fire marshal. Howe discussed the fire code without commenting directly on The Station.

Under the code, according to Howe, areas with tables and chairs are allowed one person for every 15 square feet of floor space. For example, seven people would be allowed in a room of 105 square feet -- just over 10 feet by 10 feet or about the size of a small bedroom.

Under the code, areas that are more open are allowed one person for every seven square feet. In the example of the 105-square-foot room, that would be 15 people.

Areas designated in the code as "standing room" or "waiting space" are allowed one person for every five square feet, said Howe. That would be 20 people in the example of the 105-square-foot room.

"At five, you're basically shoulder-to-shoulder and shuffling," he said.

ABOUT TWO YEARS before the fire, according to town records, West Warwick Fire Marshal Denis P. Larocque calculated the capacity of The Station using a blend of the 15-square-feet and 7-square-feet formulas.

Larocque set the nightclub's normal capacity at 253 people, but allowed 317 people if certain tables and chairs were removed, according to a memo to Fire Chief Peter Brousseau on Dec. 30, 1999.

Three months later, in March 2000, Larocque revised those numbers -- to 258 with tables and 404 without.

Town records suggest that Larocque changed the way fractions were rounded in raising the capacity limit for the club to 258 when the tables and chairs were in place.

Larocque raised the club's high-end capacity -- when the tables and chairs were removed -- from 317 to 404 by applying the fire code's "standing room" formula to the entire club, according to records.

While Howe would not comment specifically on The Station, he said he had never before heard of an entire building classified as standing room. He said those areas, usually "right near the front door," are for short-term use, such as waiting for a table at a restaurant.

He noted that state statutes do not define the terms "standing room" and "waiting space."

"Nobody really knows what they meant by that," he said.

LAROCQUE ATTACHED two conditions to the 404 limit, according to another memo, dated March 2, 2000, to Fire Chief Brousseau: all tables and chairs had to be removed, and a uniformed firefighter had to be hired.

The nightclub owners acknowledged Larocque's work, according to a memo in town files that is printed on The Station letterhead and dated March 21.

"We have spoke with Fire Chief Laroch and are crystal clear as to the amount of patrons we are allowed to have," the memo says. "We have also been in agreement that on certain evenings a detail from both the Fire Dept. and the Police Dept. will be utilized."

Although the club's owners cleared out most of the chairs and tables on Feb. 20, they did not hire a firefighter.

Without a uniformed firefighter, based on the town memos, the club would have been limited to one of the reduced capacities: either 258 -- the lower limit in the March memo -- or 317 -- the upper limit in the December memo.

The 317-capacity is close to the number who survived.

THE FIRE at The Station began at about 11:07 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 20, moments after rock band Great White shot off fireworks to punctuate its opening number. The chaos that followed was captured on video by a televison cameraman shooting footage for a story on building safety. Concertgoers reacted slowly -- many told reporters they thought the flames were part of the show.

The four exits were not enough for the crowded club at 211 Cowesett Ave. A door by the kitchen was hidden from the view of most patrons. Patrons said a bouncer steered them away from a door by the stage, a door that became engulfed in flames after a handful of people made their way out. A door in the bar area was not easily accessible to most patrons. And the main exit became useless as patrons tripped, then piled up on each other.

In the days after the fire, as more and more of the dead were identified, the governor's office announced their names at a series of news conferences.

On Feb. 26, more than nine weeks before the last of the 100 victims would die, a grand jury was convened to decide whether anyone should face criminal charges.

The state has kept all details of the fire secret, including the number of people at the fire and their names, claiming that making the information public would violate the privacy of people who were at The Station.

On March 4, the first civil lawsuit was filed. Soon after, teams of lawyers and fire investigators swarmed over the ruins, searching for evidence that had not already been seized by criminal investigators.

On the night of the fire and in the days and weeks following, Journal reporters interviewed survivors at the scene and elsewhere throughout Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

The first step in The Journal's effort of counting who was in the fire was to assess what the paper already knew. Lists were assembled of names that had appeared in The Journal and other media. Reporters were asked to comb their notebooks for the names of additional survivors. Names were added from documents, including a roster of survivors distributed at the state's family assistance center in the days after the fire.

That exercise yielded the names of 308 potential survivors, which had to be confirmed or eliminated individually.

On June 2, more than 60 reporters were assigned groups of names to track down. This first round of searching took a month. In the following two months, smaller teams of reporters pursued elusive names.

As the search progressed, some names were crossed off the list. Some were found not to have been at The Station. Others had left before the fire. And others were on the list twice -- such as one woman who was listed under her maiden and married names.

Names were also added, as survivors identified others who were there with them.

More than 180 victims and survivors of the fire are represented by lawyers who are part of a steering committee. The lawyers advised their clients not to speak to reporters. The Journal arranged for the lawyers to collect information from their clients and provide it in writing to the newspaper.

Reporters for The Journal have interviewed 192 Station fire survivors. In some cases, those interviews lasted hours and went into great detail. Other interviews were extremely brief, with survivors confirming they had been in the fire, but declining to say more.

Many survivors identified others who were in the fire, and reporters were assigned to find them. For 57 such people, reporters were unable to talk to them, but they are included on the list because other survivors identified them.

Another 49 survivors were identified by lawyers, either directly to the newspaper or through lawsuits in state and federal courts or claims filed with the Town of West Warwick. They include survivors identified by clients of the steering committee lawyers.

Seven survivors who could not be reached are included on the list because relatives told reporters those survivors were in the fire.

Five survivors who could not be reached are included on the list because hospital spokesmen identified them as survivors after a reporter asked for information about the survivors by name.

Also included on the list are the Channel 12 camerman, Brian Butler, who shot video inside the burning club, and a concert-goer, Dan Davidson, who sold photos he took inside the club to Rolling Stone magazine.

The Journal also identified several people who had left the nightclub minutes before the fire. Some of them were even heading back in as the crowd began fleeing the burning building. They are not included on the list.

There were also 31 names that reporters were never able to confirm. They are not included on the list.

Jeffrey B. Pine, the lawyer for Station co-owner Jeffrey A. Derderian, declined to comment for this story.

Kathleen M. Hagerty, the lawyer for Derderian's brother, the other co-owner of the club, Michael A. Derderian, did not return a call seeking comment.

With extensive reports by staff writers Mark Arsenault, Tracy Breton, Michael Corkery, Cathleen F. Crowley, Edward Fitzpatrick, Jennifer Levitz, Michael P. McKinney, Zachary R. Mider, Tom Mooney and Jessica Resnick-Ault.

Paul Edward Parker can be reached at station@projo.com and at 277-7360.

DIGITAL EXTRA: Look back at coverage of The Station fire disaster and its aftermath, view a memorial to its victims, and more at:

http://projo.com/extra/2003/stationfire/