Night police reporter Karen Lee Ziner knew something was up by the tone of the dispatcher's voice, and she was sure when the next radio call came through: "Send all available rescues."
The Station nightclub in West Warwick was on fire. It was just after 11 p.m., Feb. 20, 2003. As ambulances from three states converged on the tiny town of West Warwick, The Journal began marshalling its resources. Ziner and three other reporters and a photographer were sent to the scene. Page One was redesigned twice. And the deadline for the latest edition was pushed back, from 1:40 a.m. to 2 a.m.
The late editions the next morning featured a two-line banner headline across the top of Page One, with a detailed story and seven photographs. The Station fire would remain on Page One for the next 23 days, falling off on March 17 and again at the end of the month when the Iraq war started. During the first 30 days, The Journal published 396 stories about the fire and 380 pictures.
One month after the fire, The Journal published a special section, profiling the 99 people who had perished by then, remembering them for how they lived, not how they died. The section also saluted the rescue and hospital personnel who treated fire victims.
The Journal's coverage was guided by a question posed by Executive Editor Joel P. Rawson: Who died, who lived, and why?
Throughout the year, more than 60 reporters interviewed more than 200 fire survivors, plus experts in fire science, safety codes and burn treatment.
The Journal published several series: on fire survivor Gina Gauvin's struggle to recover; on polyurethane foam, the "solid gasoline" that helped the Station fire spread quickly; on the causes and impact of the fire, including a dramatic narrative recreation of what it was like inside the fire.
Columnist Mark Patinkin followed perhaps the most severely injured victim of the fire. When she died May 4, the 100th life claimed by the fire, he took readers into her hospital room as her parents said goodbye.
The Journal also used computer-assisted reporting techniques to determine how many people were inside the club -- at least 440, more than its capacity -- and to model the evacuation. The model showed that the addition of a rear exit or changes at the front exit could have saved nearly everyone who died.
The Journal entered its work for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for public service. The jury that screens entries, in three informal votes, selected it as the best in the category, word of which was leaked to The Journal. When the Pulitzer Prize Board met, it rejected the three finalists submitted by the jury and awarded the prize to The New York Times, a finalist in a different category.
