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Extra: The Station Fire

Service marks anniversary of nightclub fire

07:07 AM EST on Saturday, February 16, 2008

By Paul Edward Parker

Journal Staff Writer

A service tomorrow marking the fifth anniversary of the Station nightclub fire will include unveiling the winning design for a memorial at the site of the deadliest fire on Rhode Island soil.

The service will begin at 1 p.m. at 211 Cowesett Ave., West Warwick. The service will include songs, readings and a recitation of the names of the 100 people who died as a result of the Feb. 20, 2003, tragedy.

The Station Fire Memorial Foundation conducted a one-year search for designs for a memorial. Besides announcing the winning design at the service, the foundation will announce the contributors who submitted it.

Jessica Garvey, president of the foundation and sister of fire victim Dina Ann Demaio, said the schedule for building the memorial is uncertain because the land is still tied up in the lawsuits stemming from the fire. Garvey said the owner of the land, Triton Realty, has agreed to donate the site. In September, Triton was among five defendants that tentatively agreed to pay $13.5 million to settle their parts of the lawsuits. That agreement is awaiting court approval.

Garvey said the foundation is in the process of calculating the construction budget for the memorial, taking into account offers to donate materials and labor to the project.

She said the foundation set four criteria for the design:

•It must include individual areas for each of the 100 people who died, just as the temporary memorial at the site has crosses dedicated to each victim.

•It must include a tribute to the emergency workers who responded to the fire and the medical professionals who treated people who were injured.

•It must include a way for survivors to tell their stories, if they wish.

•It must incorporate parts of the temporary memorial.

Garvey said the people who submitted designs — including the winners — also included a fifth element: a building that allows for gatherings in inclement weather.

“It will be a great tribute to the victims,” she said.

In other Station fire anniversary observances, two productions connected to 18-year-old fire victim Nicholas O’Neill will be available to wider audiences.

They Walk Among Us, a play by O’Neill about teenagers who die and return as guardian angels, will be broadcast on Cox Cable Channel 71 at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, the anniversary of the fire.

Also, 41, a documentary movie about O’Neill, will be released for local theaters and on DVD the first week of March. Tara Chantal Silver, a spokeswoman for production company NEHST Studios, said screenings are still being negotiated.

pparker@projo.com

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