The leader and the tour manager for the band Great White, whose pyrotechnics sparked the deadly 2003 blaze in The Station nightclub told the police they had permission from the West Warwick nightclub to use the pyrotechnics.

Jeffrey Derderian, one of the two brothers who co-owned the club, however, wrote in a three-page witness statement to the West Warwick police that neither he nor his brother, Michael, granted such permission to Great White.

Those conflicting statements are part of the massive release of material related to The Station nightclub fire by the Attorney General’s Office this morning. The material -- including the nearly unprecedented release of 4,878 pages of grand jury testimony, 609 witness statements totaling 5,207 pages and seven videos -- provides new insight about what happened before, during and after the February 2003 fire that killed 100 people and injured more than 200.

Much of the information has never before been made public since the three defendants who were indicted after the fire -- the Derderians and band tour manager Daniel Biechele -- all pled to the charges against them before any trial began.

The state’s chief medical examiner at the time of the fire told grand jurors what would have killed those trapped in the burning building. Video shows the chaos of the fire. The owner of the company that sold the highly flammable polyurethane foam to The Station, which the Derderians used as soundproofing material, told the grand jury he doubted the product the Derderians bought came with a safety sheet explaining the hazards associated with the foam.

The release of the material follows a public records' request by The Providence Journal, The Associated Press and the Boston Globe. The material is associated with the criminal investigation into one of the state’s deadliest fires and one of the worst nightclub fires in the country’s history.

Here are some of the highlights:

One year after the fire, American Foam put a warning on the state's invoice for foam

The president of the company that sold the polyurethane foam to The Station is fairly certain his company did not give the owners a written warning about the flammability of their product.

Aram DerManouelian, president of American Foam in Johnston, told the grand jury his company did sell fire-retardant foam to schools. And he said the company would supply a safety sheet when requested by a buyer.

But DerManouelian said he doubted the company included an MSDS safety sheet with the order. He said that was not the company's practice.

DerManouelian did read for the Grand Jury a fax from Michael Derderian on June 9, 2000, ordering the foam.

"Please accept our order for 25 blocks of sound foam. If you have any questions, please give me a call..."

The price was $580.75. (DerManouelian testified that the fire-retardant foam would have cost twice as much.)

Four years later, American Foam sold the state attorney general 50 sets of this same foam for $1,161.

There's a warning notice attached to that invoice. "POLYURETHANE FOAM IS FLAMMABLE. Do not expose polyurethane foam to radiant heat, open flames, space heaters, burning operations ... "

Band leader says Great White had permission for 'effects'

In a brief hand-written statement to the West Warwick police, Jack Russell, leader of the band Great White, said his band was given permission to use special effects for the show.

"I came on stage at 11 p.m.," Russell wrote. "Effects in first song caught foam wall on fire. Obviously not up to speed as flame retardent. Were told by venue it was okay to use effects but the place burned. I tried to get some people out but couldn't see to get in."

In another document, written by a police officer, Russell told the police he could feel heat behind him after he took the stage and started singing. He turned, saw fire and tried throwing water on it from his bottle.

He then left the building through a stage exit, found that his sound man had been injured and tried getting him help.

Biechele says Derderian OK'd pyro

Great White tour manager Dan Biechele told the police Station co-owner Michael Derderian had given him permission to use pyrotechnics before the Feb. 20, 2003 fire that claimed 100 lives.

"He said yes we could use them," Biechele wrote in a nine-page statement to the police at 7:13 a.m. Feb. 21, 2003.

He also wrote, in an initial statement, that Jeffrey Derderian was standing near the stage as the pyrotechnics were being set up before the show.

In the initial statement to the police at 1:21 a.m. Feb. 21, 2003, Biechele wrote that he had called Jeffrey Derderian and ended up talking to his brother Michael. (In the later statement, he wrote that the call would have been on Feb. 13 or 14.)

He said they went over details of the show, including times, crew, equipment, catering and using gerbs.

"I asked if we could use the gerbs and told him they were fired twice in the show," Biechele wrote in the statement.

Biechele wrote that he explained that they were like sparklers used in July 4th celebrations. He said he told Derderian they would spray about 15 feet for about 15 seconds.

On the night of the show, Biechele wrote, "Jeff Derderian was at the side of the stage multiple times while the gerbs were … wired."

After the gerbs were set off and finished, Biechele wrote, he noticed the foam on the back wall of the stage caught fire. Biechele tried putting it out with water, but he said it spread quickly. He then went to "look for a fire extinguisher on the side of the stage and found none."

"The whole building caught flame very rapidly," he said.

At the end of the statement, he wrote, "I had spoke to Mike Derderian regarding the pyro. He said nothing about requiring ... licenses, permits, demonstrations or .... a fire marshall on hand."

Derderian says pyro was not OK'd

Station co-owner Jeffrey Derderian, in a statement to the police, said neither he nor his brother, Michael, gave permission for pyrotechnics to be used by Great White.

"At no time did I or my brother authorize or OK the use of any sparkle material or pyro by the band Great White," Derderian wrote in a 3-page witness statement for the West Warwick Police Department.

Derderian acknowledges that his brother had several conversations with Great White's tour manager about topics such as playing time, hotel rooms and food, but he makes no mention of pyrotechnics.

Biechele claimed that Michael Derderian gave him permission to use pyrotechnics during a telephone conversation about a week before the tragic night.

Biechele also said Jeffrey Derderian was standing near the stage while the pyrotechnics were being set up.

Derderian wrote that he was working at the main bar when the club caught fire. He said the band started playing around 11 a.m., and he saw flames coming from the stage shortly after they started.

Derderian said he grabbed a fire extinguisher, handed it to someone then "went to the entrance to help people get out of the building."

The club owner wrote that he believed the club's capacity was 350 to 400. He wrote that there were 250 to 260 people inside the building when he checked the club's door clicker some time around 10 p.m.

In a February 2004 report, the Journal established that 440 people were inside the club. The club's capacity, set by the town, was 404.

Biechele trained by a guy named Hutch

The man who set off the fireworks that sparked The Station nightclub fire had no formal training in using pyrotechnics.

About five years before the fire, Daniel Biechele got just an hour of instruction from a guy named Hutch in Los Angeles.

Biechele couldn't even remember Hutch's last name when investigators questioned him after the fire.

But by the time Biechele, Great White's tour manager, set off the gerbs that ignited The Station nightclub, he had been using pyrotechnics for four to five years and had developed a familiarity and comfort level with the fireworks that turned deadly on the night of February 20, 2003.

"I've used these countless times before and never had a problem with them," Biechele said in an interview with investigators released in transcript form today by the Rhode Island Attorney General's Office.

He said somebody could stick their hand in front of one of the lit devices and "the sparks just bounce off."

In May, Biechele was sentenced to serve four years at the Adult Correctional Institutions. He had earlier pleaded guilty to 100 counts of misdemeanor manslaughter, a charge imposed when a petty crime results in someone's death.

In a March 2003 interview, prosecutor William Ferland asked Biechele if he'd ever received training in using pyrotechnics.

"Not formally, no," Biechele answered.

Biechele went on to say that he did receive instructions from "a guy by the name of Hutch."

Ferland said, "And you, you don't know his real name, I take it?

"Not offhand, no," Biechele said.

Biechele was working for another band, Wasp, at the time. He said the instruction was at a Los Angeles rehearsal studio called Bill's Place.

Another prosecutor, Gerald Coyne, later pressed Biechele for details on Hutch and his training.

Biechele said, "Hutch basically showed me how to use it and what uh -- how it worked. Just -- you put the match in like such."

Coyne asked, "Did he discuss the safety aspects of using these devices?"

"To an extent, but we didn't go into any formal detail of it," Biechele replied.

Coyne asked, "What exactly did he say?"

"I don't recall," Biechele said.

Coyne asked Biechele how long the training session lasted.

"He was probably there for an hour, demoing various different pyrotechnic materials for the band," Biechele said.

Biechele said he didn't receive any other training with respect to safety of devices, aside from operating instructions on them.

Biechele said Michael Derderian had given him permission to use the pyrotechnics in a telephone conversation about a week before Great White's concert. He figured that meant the building was safe. He also said he relied on the venues to get any necessary permits when he set off pyrotechnics.

Under Ferland's questioning, Biechele acknowledged that he didn't formulate a written plan on how the pyrotechnics would be used or safety precautions. Biechele also acknowledged he didn't check to see whether the material surrounding the stage was fire or flame retardant.

"That's not something that I'm qualified to judge," Biechele said.

Ferland said, "You could've maybe lit a match and seen if it went up, right? Just for basic practical -- "

"I could've, but that wasn't something that - honestly, I think if somebody had lit a match and stuck it to that wall, the whole building would have gone up, as it did, at -- uh from what I saw at the fire," Biechele said.

Bouncer says no one blocked the back door

Mario Giamei, a bouncer at The Station the night of the fire, told the grand jury that no one prevented patrons from escaping through a door behind the stage.

Q: You testified that you actually pushed Dan Biechele through the door, is that correct?

A: Yeah.

Q: I think your fear was that he was blocking the door?

A: He was -- he was looking up at the stage which I now presume that he was looking for Ty Longley but the whole band, he was kind of funneling them out, you know, pushing them through. He was looking at the stage. I said, "you've got to get out of this dooway" and I pushed him through it.

Q: But you're implying that he was trying to block people from exiting that door?

A. No. No. Nobody, nobody was near that doorway trying to block anybody. It was all a matter I think he was trying to find Ty Longley.

Channel 12 video not released

Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch did not release a video today that was shot by a Channel 12 camera operator at the West Warwick club the night of the fire, even though Lynch had planned to do so.

"We were prepared to release the Channel 12 video, but we had a conversation with a lawyer for the [TV] station's parent company, and he specifically asserted the copyright privilege, and we thought it wise to respect that privilege," Lynch spokesman Michael J. Healey said last week.

Late last year, Lynch released dozens of other videos that had been copyrighted by professional broadcast media. Those included NBC's Dateline, a Discovery Channel documentary about the fire, CNN's Larry King Live, Channel 6 coverage of the fire and news stories that one of the nightclub's owners had done when he worked as a reporter at a Boston television station.

The medical examiner told grand jury how the victims died

Dr. Elizabeth Laposata, the former chief medical examiner for the state who performed autopsies on the victims of The Station nightclub fire, told the grand jurors:

"In most fire deaths what people die of is not the actual flame by they die of the atmosphere...They die of inhaling various things in the atmosphere and then their bodies can be severely burned and damaged after death so those are the things we look at in looking at a fire death."

"The second thing is there is carbon monoxide and this is usually the big killer in most fires...In a fire that is very rapidly and completely burning, it uses up all the oxygen in the atmosphere ... You can take about four or five breathes of an oxygen-depleted atmosphere and you'll become unconscious. The other thing in the atmosphere is it's very, very hot and when you inhale superheated atmosphere, your larynx can close off and you can die very rapidly."

Asked by Asst. Atty. gen. William Ferland why she thinks 100 people perished in the fire and about 300 people were able to get out alive, the medical examiner said "factors of human behavior" played a role.

"If you look back at some of ..the big sort of historic fires, the Coconut grove fire, people are having dinner in one room and they saw another room burning ... Some people may say, 'oh, gee, it's a fire. I'm getting out.' Other people say, 'well, maybe someone else will put it out. I'm going to listen to the band or finish my dessert."

At the conclusion of her testimony, one of the grand jurors asked Laposata if her office was able to determine where each body was found inside the nightclub.

Laposata said investigators did have general ideas and "I can tell you who was found in the doorway areas, in the front areas and in the hallway there were about 30 there. Then there were about 10 more found in the main stage area and the rest were in the other areas of the--of the club."

The grand juror then asked: "Were the 20 that showed evidence of cyanide in their lungs, were they pinpointed or do you have any idea of where they were?"

"They roughly correlated with being in the stage and like dance floor area. They were not the ones in the front door area," the medical examiner said.

Bouncer Scott Vieira heard Biechele take responsibility for the fire

Scott Vieira, who lost his wife in the fire, remembers hearing Dan Biechele, Great White's manager, take responsibility for the fire.

In an interview with the State Police, he says after the fire started Biechele said: "Boy, I [expletive] this one up. I [expletive] it up."

Vieira said he saw the clicker and he estimated there were 410 to 420 people in the club when the fire started. "And that's a hard number," he told the state police.

The club was licensed for a maximum occupancy of 404.

During the night, Vieira said he saw his wife working near the stage. He wasn't asked about where she was after the fire started.

Vieira told the police that immediately after the fire started he tried to direct people to the back door.

"I went, yelled into the pool room area trying to get people out, to come that way, and everybody was rushing towards the front door, and I was screaming, 'Come on people, you gotta come that way,'" Vieira said in his witness statement.

"And then I went to the back door and then I seen it wasn't as bad as it ended up being, so I went in and I called some more people and I got, like I said, maybe a dozen, 15 more people out that I know wouldn't have made it out unless I went back in and got them. There's no way they would have made it out."

After he got out, Vieira said he worked to pull people out of the pile at the door.

Bartender grabbed the cash drawer

Julie Ann Mellini, identified in witness statements as a shot girl and bartender, was behind the bar when the fire started.

She told investigators stage manager Paul Vanner ran by her and told her: "Julie, get the hell out. Get the hell out now. The place is goin' up."

She said she then grabbed the register drawer and the tip jar and told the people around her to follow her out the kitchen door. She said about 20 people followed her.

Then she went around the front of the burning club. She said she ran into "my boss,'' Jeff Derderian, who took the cash drawer.

When she turned back to the front door: "I just seen piles of people trying to get over each other."

West Warwick police video of the scene

The Station fire evidence released this morning included several videos.

The West Warwick Police Department video shot on the night of the fire, Feb. 20, 2003, and the next morning, shows the charred shell of the nightclub, inside and outside. Many firefighters and police officers remain on the scene.

The attorney general's office has edited this video, for privacy and sensitivity, so that it does not depict victims of the fire. It was edited again for length by projo.com.

Video shows firefighters working scene

A video shot by Gregory Best includes close-ups of firefighters working steadily at the door and calling for sheets and a stretcher. The building, destroyed, is still in flames, and smoke pours from it.

The attorney general's office has edited this video, for privacy and sensitivity, so that it does not depict victims of the fire. This video has been edited for length and explicit language by projo.com.

Photographer's video captures flames, sirens

Photographer Daniel Davidson was there the night disaster struck The Station nightclub. In addition to photos, he was able to shoot some video of the overnight fire, showing the smoke and flames rising above the club and capturing the sound of sirens.

Davidson, a producer at Cox Communications, was the subject of a recent Sunday Journal story on his experiences, which included a slideshow of some of the photos he shot that night.

Video of chaos during the fire

A comprehensive 32-minute video by Steven McLaughlin of the Feb. 20, 2003, Station nightclub fire was released. McLaughlin was described as a passer-by the Attorney General's Office.

In its first 10 minutes, which begin at 11:18 p.m., the video shows electrical wires outside the Station cracking and sparking, the fire fully raging, and only one fire hose streaming onto the door. It shows a fleet of emergency vehicles stretched up Cowesett Avenue. A voice asks, "Anybody got more stretchers? They need stretchers up there."

The video continueswith someone calling for "Bridget!" An empty stretcher is wheeled by. A firefighter in a crane streams water over the blaze. The door and the structure around it stand, the rest of the building is destroyed. A firefighter breaks into a car, perhaps to silence its alarm.

In the last 10 minutes of the video, which end at 12:33 a.m., smoke pours through where the roof was on either side of the door. There are a lot of people in the parking lot. A firefighter from Hopkinton stands ready with an empty stretcher. The wall of blown-out windows to the right of the door falls. A firefighter walks into the parking lot, drops his hat and spits, then turns his back and puts his hands on his hips. He picks up his hat and rejoins his colleagues. A car alarm continues to sound, mercilessly. A fleet of ambulances stands, lights flashing.

The Attorney General's Office edited this video, for privacy and sensitivity, so that it does not depict victims of the fire. Explicit language has been edited from this video by projo.com.

Bouncer addresses back door problem

Bouncer Scott Vieira told the police there was a problem with the back door the night of the fire.

First, there was no doorknob on the door, which was behind the stage, he said.

Prosecutor: "Um, was there a doorknob on that, do you know?"

Vieira: "No, there's no doorknob on the inside door."

Prosecutor: "What, what is it, how do you -- "

Vieira: "The hole."

Prosecutor: "You have to put your hand in the hole to open it?"

Vieira: "Yeah."

Vieira acknowledged the door had been flagged during fire inspections. West Warwick fire marshal Denis Larocque later said he didn't notice flammable soundproofing foam on the door because he was so angry club owners hadn't removed it.

"I guess when they had the inspection there was a problem with a door being covering the fire door," Vieira says. "And the door was taken off the hinges ... And I guess when they did pass code they re -- they put the door back on."

Michael Derderian heads to lawyer's office

The wife of Station co-owner Michael Derderian's told the grand jury that Derderian went to his lawyer's office even before going home after returning from vacation the day after the fire.

Kristina Link said she and Derderian were in Florida the night of the Feb. 20, 2003, fire. They flew back separately, she testified in her grand jury testimony released today, and she picked up Derderian at the airport at 5 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 21.

"And when you picked him up, where did you bring him?" the prosecutor asks Link, who is now Kristina Derderian.

"We took his son to his father's house and then we went to his lawyer's office," she said.

"And when you say you went to the lawyer's office, which lawyer was that?" the prosecutor asks.

"Kathleen Hagerty," Link says.

"So you and Michael went to Kathleen Hagerty's office and that was on Friday evening?" the prosecutor asks.

"Yes."

Later in her testimony, Link says that Jeffrey Derderian and his wife, Linda, also attended the meeting in Hagerty's office. Besides Link, no one else was there, she says.

"And are you prepared to talk about the substance of what was discussed at the meeting?" the prosecutor asks.

"On the advice of counsel I refuse to discuss or divulge what was discussed at that meeting because it involves confidential attorney/client communications," Links says.

Derderian's wife says nightclub regularly paid employees in cash

In more than 200 pages of her grand jury testimony released today, Michael Derderian's wife -- formerly known as Kristina Link -- tells prosecutors that The Station regularly paid employees in cash.

Link, now Kristina Derderian, worked as the office manager for The Station and sometimes paid employees directly with cash, according to her testimony.

Link was asked about Irina Gershelis, a club employee known as "the shot girl" because she carried around a tray of alcoholic shots.

"Did she get cash or was she on the payroll?" a prosecutor asks in one 89-page file of grand jury testimony.

Link: "Cash."

Prosecutor: "But not on the payroll?"

Link: "I don't think so."

Derderian's wife denies removing evidence

Michael Derderian's wife -- formerly known as Kristina Link -- tells the police that she didn't remove any files from Derderian's home in Narragansett in the days before police searched the Tern Road building, which also doubled as a business office for The Station.

She also denied seeing any mention of pyrotechnics in the contract between Great White and The Station.

Link, now Kristina Derderian, worked as the office manager for The Station. She was with Derderian in Florida the night of the fire. And she spent time in the office in the days immediately afterward.

She initially cooperated with the police investigation, but following her marriage had filed a motion claiming spousal privilege, which would allow her to avoid testifying against Derderian.

In her 41-page statement to police, she denied removing any files -- at that time the Great White contract was missing -- and said that the contract, which she had reviewed, included no mention of pyrotechnics.

Link also told police that she was in charge of paying the bills and said she didn't remember any bill for pyrotechnics.

"Okay," a police questioner says in the statement recorded on Feb. 28, 2003. "We need to ask you this: Did you remove any files from the office before the police got there?"

Link: "No."

Police: "At no time, from the time you arrived back from Florida until the time the police arrived with the search warrant, at no time did you remove any records at all from the office?"

Link: "No."

Police: "Didn't shred any records?"

Link: "We don't have a shredder."

Police: "Didn't destroy any records?"

Link: "No."

Police: "Didn't give them to anyone?"

Link: "No."

AG’s statement

Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch issued the following statement this morning:

"Shortly before the disposition of The Station fire criminal cases last September, I promised the victims' family members and loved ones that once the cases were disposed, I would move to release as much information about this tragedy as I could, as quickly as I could. Although it has presented high hurdles in the intervening months, I am very proud of the fact that to this day, my Office is fulfilling this promise. Our continuing efforts have brought to pass two prior disclosures of a significant volume of case evidence and today's historic disclosure of more than 10,000 pages of grand jury testimony and witness statements.

"I firmly believe that our disclosures of information have served the public interest and public good, but I have no illusions about the high costs they have privately exacted upon The Station fire families. I understand that the release of case information -- and particularly today's information, which describes and depicts the events of Feb. 20, 2003, in vivid detail – could well be very traumatic and painful, and I want the victims' families and the survivors to know how much I regret any further sorrow this causes them. As we have done from the start of this process, we are trying our utmost to balance their sensitivities and feelings with our obligations pursuant to Rhode Island's open-government laws.

"I would respectfully ask anyone who truly cares about this case to read everything we are disclosing today before forming an opinion about it. Unfortunately, experience has recently shown that a limited view of information, or the presentation of a limited point of view about information, can actually result in misinformation. I would also remind the public that although a grand jury has broad powers, it is impaneled for a very narrow purpose: to review the adequacy of evidence, and then, based on the existing laws of the State -- not the laws that somebody might wish could be applied to a case -- to decide whether or not to indict a suspect. A prosecutor who fails to keep a grand jury focused on its purpose is misusing and even abusing his powers.

"With today's disclosure, we will have released many of the records relating to The Station fire. More information, however, is to come. We will assess how many records remain to be released and we will continue meeting this task in the most diligent, professional, and dignified manner possible."

A final note about the release of the material

All of the materials -- which also include three videos shot by amateurs the night of the blaze, three videos of bands that played in The Station before the night of the fire and one police crime scene video -- were edited for privacy and sensitivity, according to the Attorney General's Office.

The office released the evidence to the media on computer hard drives. The grand jury testimony is also posted on the attorney general's Web site.

The Attorney General's Office plans to release another batch of evidence following today's release, though no date has been set.

-- With reports from projo.com staff writers Steve Peoples, Jack Perry, Andrea Panciera, Peter Phipps, Mike McDermott, Maria Caporizzo and Kate Bramson and Journal staff writers Paul Edward Parker, Tracy Breton and Tom Mooney