Tally of patrons at Station night of fire climbs by 3 to 430
Phone calls and e-mails to The Journal since the list of occupants ran in the Sept. 21 newspaper has raised the total higher than any past estimates.
01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, October 5, 2003
The Providence Journal has added three names to the list it has compiled
of people who were inside The Station nightclub Feb. 20 when a rock
band's fireworks ignited a fire that claimed 100 lives.
That raises the total number inside the building to 430.
The total 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 that officials have said were
in the club when it burned. In public comments just after the fire,
Governor Carcieri estimated the crowd at 350.
On Sept. 21, The Journal published a list of 412 people who, according
to legal documents, survivors, relatives and hospital officials, were
inside the West Warwick nightclub at the time of the fire. The newspaper
received e-mails and telephone calls in response to that list
identifying other survivors. A reporter was able to confirm 15 of those
additional names, which were published on Sept. 28.
No one on the list of 427 contacted The Journal to say the list was
wrong.
Since Sept. 28, a reporter has spoken to one more survivor and confirmed
two others by speaking to a relative.
The survivor interviewed by The Journal is Arthur Raymond Zanfagna Jr.,
33 on the night of the fire, of Johnston.
The two confirmed by speaking with a relative are Bethany J. Andrade,
39, and Joseph J. Andrade, 40, both of Warwick.
DIGITAL EXTRA: Get the complete list of 430 names:
http://projo.com/cgi-bin/include.pl/
extra/2003/stationfire/20031005_firelist.htm
