02:47 PM EST on Friday, November 7, 2003

The first police officers arrive at The Station even before the first fire engine. They radio for backup.

Patrolman Sean Duffy: "We are fully engulfed. Fully engulfed building. We have people on fire inside. Fire apparatus is on scene. . ."

Patrolman Stephen Vannini: "We need as many personnel as possible down here. . . ."

Duffy: "We got some injured all over Kulas Road wandering around. We need some help up here."

Neighboring police departments offer help.

East Greenwich dispatcher: "Yeah, it's East Greenwich. You need any more cars over there?"

West Warwick dispatcher Tanya Nieblas: "Yeah. Send 'em. Send 'em."

Later:

Cumberland dispatcher: "Are you still strapped? You still need this?"

West Warwick dispatcher Carlos Arenas: "Yeah, we're still asking for anybody we can get."

Minutes after the fire begins, the police get their first call from the press:

Karen Lee Ziner: "This is Karen Ziner at The Journal. What's the name of this club that's on fire?"

Dispatcher: "It's called The Station."

KZ: "The Station?"

D: "Yup. The Station. It's a concert venue on Cowesett Avenue."

KZ: "How many people are we talking about?"

D: "Probably, I don't know. A lot. A lot. Like 300 to 400 people."

KZ: "300 to 400 people?"

D: "Something like that. Well, I don't know if there's that many still inside the club, but there were a lot of people there to see the concert."

KZ: "What was the concert?"

D: "Great White."

KZ: "Great White?"

D: "Yeah."

KZ: "And how bad is the fire?"

D: "They're saying it's fully engulfed right now."

KZ: "Thank you."

D: "OK"

The investigation into the cause of the fire begins almost immediately. A detective calls dispatcher Carlos Arenas for help.

Detective Capt. Catherine T. Ochs: "Carlos, Kevin Beese . . . something like that . . . go in to check, he's the manager of this place. See if you can get a hold of him, find out who the owner is. Have him in here if they're not already here, to come down here."

Arenas: "OK."

Other police departments seek information as they weigh their response.

Providence detective: "What the hell happened over there tonight?"

West Warwick Capt. J. Stephen Boulton: "No idea. There's a fire in the Filling Station lounge. I don't know what's going on."

Detective: "They say there's a bunch of people dead."

Boulton: "You know, I don't know. We called the medical examiner, so someone is. I don't know if it's someone inside or someone outside or what. Something bad happened up there."

Moments later, a lieutenant at the fire scene fills Boulton in on the unfolding disaster.

Lt. John Magiera: "Hi, Cap."

Capt. Boulton: "How you making out up there?"

M: "Yeah, it's kind of crazy, I figured on no one's been touching base with you."

B: "No."

M: "They got, um, so far, so far they got one count of at least 25. There's still a whole bunch of people being treated, and out and about."

B: "25 dead people?"

M: "So far, yeah."

B: "What, they get burned up?"

M: "I guess."

B: "What kind of fire was it?"

M: "They don't know, but apparently Channel 12 had a news camera right in there, and I guess they were doing like explosions or whatever with the band. This is preliminary right now. And supposedly that's what sparked it off. But they got footage of that starting and everything. We got the tape of that. But Tony Bettencourt got through to his wife. All our guys are OK, it seems like all the firemen are OK. . . ."

B: "The building is on the ground?"

M: "It is."

B: "Collapsed right in?"

M: "Yup. . . ."

B: "Where are the dead people?"

M: "We don't know yet."