Digital Extra: The Station Fire

01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, July 15, 2004

BY ZACHARY R. MIDER
Journal Staff Writer

WEST WARWICK -- A candidate for Town Council says it's unfair that a report evaluating various agencies' response to The Station nightclub fire contains no mention of her efforts while praising those of her opponent, Councilman Leo J. Costantino Jr.

The report, commissioned by Governor Carcieri and released Tuesday by the private company that prepared it, devotes more than a full page of its more than 250 pages to Costantino's efforts to help local families who lost loved ones in the fire, on Feb. 20 of last year.

"He didn't do any work," Democrat Filomena Gustafson charged yesterday of the Republican. "He befriended one person... I did more than him. Is it fair? It's not fair."

Gustafson came to The Providence Journal's West Bay news bureau yesterday with a statement describing her efforts on behalf of the fire victims.

She belongs to the Vince Lombardi Order of Sons of Italy Lodge, and after the fire she collected about $1,500 from Sons of Italy lodges throughout the state and gave the money to the West Warwick Senior Center, she said. She said the money ended up as part of the Station Nightclub Fire Relief Fund.

Costantino, who was elected to the Ward 4 council seat in 2002, took time off work during the fire's aftermath and helped families with various problems, such as replacing house and car keys lost in the fire and arranging transportation to hospitals for visitors. The report goes into detail about Costantino's friendship with a Pennsylvania man whose son was killed in the fire.

Apprised of his opponent's comments yesterday, Costantino said he wasn't about to question Gustafson's contribution. The praise he received in the report came as a surprise to him, he said.

"There were certainly plenty of people who did more than I did," he said, although he said he wasn't aware of Gustafson's efforts.

The candidates agree on this point: the fire produced many heroes who have never gotten proper recognition. Both candidates mentioned Thomas V. Iannitti Sr., the director of the town's Senior Center, as a key figure in the town's efforts to provide services to fire victims.

The report mentions Iannitti's contributions repeatedly, although he is not singled out for praise the way Costantino is. Iannitti's organization "performed an important step in the review process to ensure every possible need faced by those suffering from this tragedy had been adequately met," the report states.

Gustafson said Senior Center staff members were disappointed that their agency did not receive a mention in yesterday's Journal coverage of the report. "Whoever wrote this report forgot some of the real heroes," she said.

In another statement, Gustafson said that Pasco Raimondo, proprietor of Pat's Service Station, was an unsung hero for towing as many as 60 cars from the nightclub without charge. She said he lost as much a $9,000 for devoting a week to the recovery effort. After the fire, Raimondo was recognized for his efforts with a plaque from the Rhode Island Public Towing Association.