Digital Extra: The Station Fire

Both sides agree that, for testing purposes, they will treat foam purchased on the open market as if it were foam taken from the club.

01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, October 15, 2005

BY EDWARD FITZPATRICK
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- State prosecutors and defendants in The Station fire criminal case reached an agreement yesterday that frees up 48 square feet of foam from the West Warwick nightclub for testing.

There is a limited amount of gray, egg-crate-patterned polyurethane foam remaining from the Feb. 20, 2003, blaze that killed 100 people and injured more than 200 others.

And lawyers in the criminal case and civil suits have been wrangling over access to the foam, which was used as soundproofing and ignited when the band Great White set off pyrotechnics.

State Superior Court Judge Francis J. Darigan Jr. had urged lawyers to reach a compromise. And yesterday lawyers from the attorney general's office and lawyers representing club owners Jeffrey and Michael Derderian agreed that, for testing purposes, they would treat foam purchased on the open market as if it were foam actually taken from the club.

"Since the quantity of Incident Foam is limited, the parties have agreed that not all tests conducted in connection with the trial of this case could be performed using Incident Foam," a written stipulation states. "The State of Rhode Island and Defendants, Jeffrey Derderian and Michael Derderian, have therefore agreed that the results of certain tests . . . shall be considered by the court, the fact finder and all parties as if the tests had been performed on Incident Foam."

After a court hearing yesterday, Assistant Attorney General William Ferland said, "We were seeking 48 square feet of the actual foam, and now we don't need it because we can do the Steiner Tunnel Test on the foam we bought."

Ferland said it's up to Darigan to decide whether that foam may now be tested by defense lawyers in the criminal case or lawyers involved in the civil suits filed by fire victims. "I don't know how it affects the civil cases," he said. "It's up to the judge as to what he does regarding the competing interests the civil and criminal cases. But we've made his job a little easier."

The Derderians and Daniel Biechele, the former tour manager for Great White, each face 200 counts of involuntary manslaughter, and they've been named as defendants in civil lawsuits.

Lawyers representing fire victims and two foam manufacturers that have been sued by the victims had asked Darigan to block prosecutors from performing further tests on the actual foam. Lawyers for the fire victims said they've been given just 4 square feet of the foam and need more of it for testing to determine who manufactured it.