Digital Extra: The Station Fire

The state is seeking to confirm information from an earlier analysis of flammable material from the walls of the nightclub.

01:00 AM EST on Thursday, February 24, 2005

BY TRACY BRETON
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- In preparing its criminal case against three men charged with the deaths of 100 people at The Station nightclub, the state has already had experts from California, Maryland and Texas test samples of the highly flammable polyurethane foam that covered the walls and ceiling of the club.

But now, as part of their preparations for trial, prosecutors want to do even more tests on some of the foam that was found in the basement of the charred ruins of the nightclub.

"Despite the high degree of confidence the state has with respect to tests performed to date, it is clear that, in attempting to meet its high burden of proof, the state cannot leave any element of proof subject to chance," prosecutors say in newly filed court papers.

The motion by prosecutors to perform further testing comes as lawyers for the defendants -- Michael A. Derderian and Jeffrey A. Derderian, the owners of the nightclub; and Daniel M. Biechele, the former tour manager for the rock band Great White, who ignited the pyrotechnics inside The Station that set the foam ablaze -- have been given court permission to have more tests done on the foam.

Lawyers representing the victims of the Feb. 20, 2003, fire in civil suits in federal court are also trying to get some of the six pieces of foam that were seized from the basement of the nightclub, so that their experts can conduct more tests.

The Derderians and Biechele each face 200 counts of involuntary manslaughter. All three men have pleaded not guilty.

The three men stand indicted under two theories of involuntary manslaughter: misdemeanor manslaughter and criminal negligence.

In the case of the Derderians, the alleged underlying misdemeanor is a violation of a state fire-code regulation that required them to use flame-resistant acoustic material in their nightclub. In the case of Biechele, the underlying misdemeanor is setting off pyrotechnics at The Station without the required permit.

According to court papers filed by the prosecutors, their experts have already tested some of the undamaged foam that was found in the nightclub basement as well as "exemplar" foam that matched the specifications of the foam bought by the Derderians as soundproofing for the club. Prosecutors bought the exemplar foam -- "charcoal gray, egg crate-patterned polyether polyurethane" material -- from American Foam, of Johnston, the same company that sold the nightclub foam to the Derderians.

Prosecutors say they hired Joseph Zicherman and his company, Fire Cause Analysis, of Point Richmond, Calif., to perform a "match flame test" on foam recovered from the nightclub's basement. This foam, they assert, was identical to the foam on the walls and the ceiling of The Station, and "failed the match flame test." Video and still photos were taken of the testing, and have been given to the defendants.

Prosecutors also asked Scott Dillon, a fire research engineer with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, to conduct a series of tests on the basement foam to determine how easily it ignites, the type of heat release it causes and the nature of the smoke produced during burning.

Each test compared the foam found at The Station with untreated wood and gypsum wall board. Rhode Island law prohibits the use of any interior finish materials that give off smoke or gases more dense or more toxic than that given off by untreated wood under comparable exposure to heat or flames.

Prosecutors say in their court filing that in tests performed by Dillon, "the foam consistently produced more smoke per mass or more smoke more quickly than the untreated wood and gypsum board." They also say that Dillon found that "the optical density of the smoke from the foam was greater than that of the untreated plywood."

Last month, at prosecutors' request, a third fire expert, Eric G. Hutchinson, of Omega Point Labratories, of Elmendorf, Texas, conducted tests on the exemplar foam that prosecutors purchased from American Foam. The tests showed that the foam "has a flamespread index that greatly exceeds that" prescribed under Rhode Island law, according to court papers.

Now, to confirm those results, the prosecutors want Hutchinson to perform the same test -- which measures the flame-spread index and the smoke-development index -- on a piece of foam that was taken from the basement of The Station.

They are also seeking court permission to perform additional tests to identify the gases that are produced during the burning of the foam seized from the basement of the club. Prosecutors say they want to do these tests "to compare the results of such tests with findings that the medical examiner made in connection with the autopsies of the 100 victims of the fire."

The criminal trial is still at least a year away.

Superior Court Judge Francis J. Darigan Jr. -- who gave defense lawyers permission last Friday to do some other testing on the basement foam -- will meet again with lawyers from both sides on March 4.