Many are disappointed that the document holds no one responsible; others see it as leverage to get laws changed.

01:49 PM EST on Friday, March 4, 2005

BY TOM MOONEY and MICHAEL CORKERY
Journal Staff Writers

PROVIDENCE -- Diana Shaughnessy carried a picture of her brother, Benjamin Suffoletto Jr., and his wife, Linda, both of whom are now dead, to the Marriott yesterday and listened as federal investigators offered preventions to avert another Station nightclub fire. She'd heard it all before.

She left with her need for accountability still unfulfilled.

"What good is all this knowledge if they don't enforce it?" she said. "The West Warwick people -- the fire inspector, the fire marshal -- they're to blame for this, to what happened to our families. They should have enforced the safety [laws]."

Investigators with the National Institute of Standards and Technology briefed about two dozen victims and relatives of victims of the Station fire at the hotel before releasing their two-year study of the fire to the public.

For many, like Shaughnessy, of Johnston, who now helps care for her brother's 20-year-old son, the report provided some consolation.

They hope advocates for tougher fire codes will find it useful in convincing legislators to do the right thing, they said.

But it offered little, they said, in the way of documenting blame.

NIST investigators said they did not focus on the inspections process at the club because they have no jurisdiction over local fire codes.

But for Eileen DiBonaventora, of North Dighton, Mass., who lost her 18-year-old son, Albert, finding fault is vital. And much of the blame, she said, rests with West Warwick fire inspectors.

She wondered how fire officials who inspected the club on at least three occasions in the months prior to the fire never once cited the club's owners for the highly flammable foam used illegally as soundproofing on the walls.

"That place was covered in foam. It was a clear and present danger. If we are to believe it was incompetence, then why are these people still working today, still refusing to acknowledge their role in the fourth-worst nightclub fire in [U.S.] history?" asked DiBonaventora.

"What kind of message does that send?" she said. "History will repeat itself if the people are not held accountable."

Amanda Decesare, 39, of Coventry, survived the fire.

She left the briefing satisfied with the recommendations the NIST made. "Now it's pretty much up to the people who are elected to enforce what they recommended."

Sarah Mancini, of North Kingstown, who lost her son, Keith, in the fire, said the report offered some solace.

"It makes us feel like we are not alone," Mancini said. "Now we as a group have to keep after our governor, keep after our legislature to get these recommendations passed."

"The law grinds exceedingly slow, and it has no emotion. We can't bring the kids back but we can hope it doesn't ever happen again."

Jeanne Roderiques, of Fall River, lost her son, Donald "Inky" Roderiques, 46, in the fire. She said it helped to learn from federal investigators about the science behind the fire. "It gave us a feeling about what exactly took place."

But Roderiques said the report missed the point the families care most about. "I don't think they have accomplished what they need to, which is to investigate the fire inspectors," she said. "And to get more reliable people in that job."

Richard Lapierre, who lost his 29-year-old son, Keith, in the fire, has been battling Rhode Island prosecutors, demanding that they hold the fire inspectors accountable. He said the NIST report gives him comfort, knowing that a federal agency is also calling for change.

"I feel like I have an ally," Lapierre, of Oxford, Mass., said yesterday. Still, he recognized that the federal government's reach is limited.

"It's all up to the state to take these recommendations and go with them," he said.

Lapierre doesn't have much hope. He believes the fire inspectors are being protected: "I would be embarrassed to live in this state."

William Grosshandler, one of the study's authors, said he sympathized with the families. But he said the purpose of the study was not to place blame. "We're not John Wayne," he said in an interview.

"It's the folks who are angry who are going to have to make a difference, through the political system."

William Bonardi, of Lincoln, is realistic about the likelihood of lasting change. "You have to understand the politics of Rhode Island. They move very slowly, and in some cases they don't move at all."

He and his wife, Dorothy Bonardi, have been going to meetings like these for two years, since their only son, William, 36, died in the fire. "We go through agony," he said.

At 78, Bonardi walked out of the Marriott yesterday wondering whether he would see anything change.

"You have criminal and civil cases. This could go on forever," he said. "Time goes on and on. I don't think my wife and I will see this to a conclusion."