WEST WARWICK -- It doesn't take much to find someone impacted by the latest chapter in The Station nightclub disaster in this town.

Talk of the big news story of the day rose above the sounds of clanging dishes and waitresses taking orders during the noon rush at A.J.'s Restaurant on Main Street.

One of the voices above the crowd was that of Nancy Martone, of West Warwick, who sat with friends at a table in the front dining room.

"I think the attorney general caved," she said. "He caved and the state caved. It should have gone to trial. To me, it's a cop out."

Jeffrey A. Derderian and Michael A. Derderian, the brothers who owned the nightclub, agreed to plead no contest to involuntary manslaughter charges stemming from the Feb. 20, 2003 blaze that killed 100 and injured hundreds.

Martone's daughter, Melissa J. Minor, received burns to her face, arms and hands in the fire, but survived. To Martone, the penalty was too lenient when taking into account the lives changed by the Derderian brothers' decisions, she said.

"A lot of people got hurt and died because of their actions," Martone said. "I don't think that a few years in jail is really payment for all of their sins."

In exchange for a no-contest plea, Michael Derderian, 45, will serve four years in prison and his brother, Jeffrey, will serve none. Some said they felt more people should have faced criminal charges.

"How about the fire inspectors?" asked Brian Osberg, of Coventry, after he placed his order. "They're supposed to be up on all of the latest flammable materials. How can you inspect a place like that with that on the ceiling and that many restricted exits for the amount of people who were in there?"

Alfonso Reid, of West Warwick, sat at the restaurant counter just before 1 p.m. yesterday finishing his lunch before heading to work as a facility manager at Ocean State Job Lot. Reid's wife was an offduty paramedic who responded to the fire.

Reid disagreed with the sentence imposed on the Derderians, but said he hopes the brothers will use the probation and community service that comes with their sentences to reach out to the community.

"I hope they'd be trained to talk to other business owners and make them aware of the safety of their establishments," he said. "I'd hope it would be a long-term commitment for them to the people of the state of Rhode Island."

At the town municipal complex, Police Chief Peter Brousseau said he thought the Derderians should have received harsher sentences.

"I'd hoped both brothers would be sentenced to significant jail time for their responsibility for the tragic event that happened that night," he said. "That was their club and they should have been held more accountable."

The four years of jail time and community service may be of little consolation to the victims' families who were waiting for details to come out during the trial, Brousseau said.

"I sent my condolences to the families of the victims," he said. "I would have liked to see the trial go forward, but I still think the truth will come out. . . I don't believe the families will be completely shut out. It'll just be delayed before the true story comes out."

News of the agreement inundated West Warwick Fire Chief Charles D. Hall Wednesday night, he said.

"I was out with my wife and it was simultaneous," Hall said in the garage of the Main Street firehouse. "It was coming over the radio and my cell phone was ringing at the same time -- all about the same issue."

Members of the West Warwick Fire Department served as the first responders the night of the fire, pulling people from the burning building and trying to douse the flames. Eventually, the scene was declared a mass casualty incident and crews from across the state were called in.

The images, victims and survivors of that day are hard to forget, Hall said.

"We think about them more than they realize," he said in the truck bay of the firehouse. "We always keep those people in our hearts and minds every day. . . . It hit us all very hard, but none more so than the victims and their families. That's the real focus, not on us."

tbuford@projo.com / (401) 277-7378