Digital Extra: The Station Fire

01:52 AM EDT on Sunday, August 29, 2004

CRANSTON -- The Eternal Angel will watch over the graves of The Station nightclub fire victims at St. Ann Cemetery. Standing 13 feet tall and weighing 2 tons, the angel will be the centerpiece of a memorial for the fire victims buried at the cemetery.

Journal photo / Gretchen Ertl

The angel was carved by four Italian craftsmen in Carrara, Italy, and was donated by local monument maker A. Sciolto of Cranston. The memorial and burial plots were donated by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, which owns the cemetery.

The memorial has not been completed, but cemetery officials asked Anthony Sciolto Sr. to place the angel at the site in the interim.

Sciolto, his son Anthony Sciolto Jr., and nephew William Santosuosso delivered the statue to the cemetery on Friday.

They placed the angel on her perch. The elder Sciolto, 87, climbed the pedestal and removed a blemish from the statue's face with soap and water.

"She's so beautiful," he said.