Digital Extra: The Station Fire

In July, a consultant faulted the state medical examiner for its response to the fire at The Station nightclub that killed 100 people in West Warwick in February 2003.

09:54 AM EST on Tuesday, December 28, 2004

BY EDWARD FITZPATRICK
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- The medical examiner's office was faulted for workplace conditions four months after a consultant found fault with the office's response to The Station nightclub fire, which claimed 100 lives.

In July, a Station fire after-action report by a homeland security consultant said that "despite early and repeated warnings that this was an event with significant fatalities, the OME [Office of Medical Examiner] never marshaled the necessary investigative and transportation resources."

The Titan Corp. report praised the medical examiner's office for doing an extraordinary job in completing forensic identifications and performing autopsies on 96 burn victims in less than five days.

But the report also said the chief medical examiner, Dr. Elizabeth A. Laposata, did not show up at the scene of the February 2003 blaze despite several calls from the head of the state Emergency Management Agency and West Warwick's police chief. The report said the one medical examiner's investigator sent to the scene was "clearly overwhelmed."

Titan's vice president said the medical examiner's office had the expertise to handle a big emergency but didn't use it that night. Laposata, a pathologist with 25 years' experience, led more than 200 autopsies after the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 off Nantucket in 1999.

Laposata has not spoken publicly about the Titan report. When interviewed for the Titan report, she said she didn't remember getting calls from officials asking her to come to the scene. Later, the state health director said Laposata told her she didn't go to scene so she could concentrate on organizing her office to deal with the dead as quickly as possible so that families could be notified.

After the Titan report came out, an investigator in the medical examiner's office confirmed that most of the bodies had no tags or numbers when they were taken to the morgue from the fire scene. Typically, an investigator would make a grid and write on tags to indicate where in the grid bodies were found. The location of bodies is important in determining the cause of death and prosecuting any crime. The club owners and a band manager have been charged with involuntary manslaughter.

Earlier this month, union officials handed Laposata a list of 47 employee complaints, and one item stated: "During the Station fire, bodies were received at the office with no identification tags on them to indicate location found within the building."

Another of the 47 complaints stated that staff at the National Violent Death Reporting System "felt a child-abuse case was overlooked during the Station fire and Dr. Laposata refused to investigate."

Health Department spokesman Robert J. Marshall said, "We know of no case that fits this description." He said the medical examiner's office is familiar with every child death in the state and works closely with the National Violent Death Reporting System to evaluate child deaths.