Holding up what’s left of her right hand and left arm, Gina Gauvin didn’t know if any amount of money could be sufficient for the lives and body parts lost at The Station nightclub five years ago.

Diane Mattera, mother of victim Tammy Mattera-Housa, said a settlement will add to her grandson’s college fund, but won’t bring Nathan’s mother back.

And Paul Vanner, the stage manager that February night who escaped without any physical injuries, said yesterday’s tentative agreements with the state and Town of West Warwick, for $10 million each, “sounds like a lot,” but not when it will be divided more than 300 ways.

“I’m not for or against it,” Gauvin said. Her frizzy red hair now covers most of the burn scars on her head. “I am very glad that people are attempting to settle. I really didn’t want to wait that long.”

With two children still at home, Gauvin, of Johnston, says she gets by with “a little here and a little there.” A disability check, child support, food stamps, church donations and occasional assistance from the Station Fire Family Fund keep her “afloat.”

“I’m surviving,” she said, while her teenage daughter, Shayna, asked with a smile to meet a boy at the gas station. “We’re not homeless.”

And Gauvin is more self-sufficient these days. Her eldest daughter still comes by to help, but not daily anymore. She also does things completely on her own, like the garden in her backyard. She plucked a zucchini, something Shayna doesn’t like or eat, and smiled over her green tomatoes.

Gauvin was one of the most severely injured survivors of the blaze, spending 133 days in the hospital. On the night of the fire, Gauvin had found herself trapped under several unconscious people and suffered burns over about 70 percent of her body.

The West Warwick fire — the deadliest ever in Rhode Island — killed 100 people and injured more than 200. A special master and the court will decide how much money the victims’ families and the survivors will receive from the recent agreements.

“Nobody’s going to be happy with any dollar amount,” Gauvin said. “What amount could you give for a life, body parts or burned skin? I don’t think I’m qualified to say how much.”

She also said she didn’t think the town or state could give what “most deserve” and didn’t believe the money would arrive this year. Gauvin said she hopes the experts — lawyers, judges and special master — use “good judgment.”

Mattera, of Warwick, couldn’t get past the fact that, if approved, settlements by the town and state “[clear] them of everything” and leave her family with unanswered questions. Why did West Warwick officials let the old wooden roadhouse “slide under” fire codes and inspections? Didn’t the inspectors see the bad exits, lack of sprinklers and flammable soundproofing foam illegally glued to the walls?

“Why were they given immunity?” Mattera continued, while sitting at her kitchen table with a picture of Tammy in front of her. “You can go after the president of the United States, but not them. … Everybody needs to be held accountable.”

She said she was livid when the lawyers, in earlier court proceedings, called the blaze “an error” and “an accident.”

“No,” she said, shaking and holding back tears. “It took less time to kill them than to make a bag of popcorn in the microwave. I don’t know how they sleep at night. I still don’t sleep at night. I take pills to sleep and function.”

She continued,” None of us will be the same.”

Mattera and her husband, Raymond, are raising their grandson Nathan. This week, he is participating in “hell week” for the Warwick Vets freshmen football team. Nathan is barely more than 100 pounds and 5 feet tall, but Grammy — as he calls her — says he is “real good.”

She told him recently that Tammy, who loved the Patriots, is “smiling down on him.”

As she spoke, a radio station called for comment. She told her eldest daughter to take a message because it’s important to speak with media and answer the hard questions.

“If you don’t, [the victims are] going to be forgotten,” Mattera said. “I don’t ever want them to be forgotten. I don’t want my daughter to be forgotten.”

The family talks about Tammy daily. It comforts them, but Mattera would “love to know what closure is” because she doesn’t believe it exists. She said the settlement, and the amount announced yesterday, certainly isn’t closure.

“West Warwick and the State of Rhode Island decided [the victims and survivors’ lives] are worth only $10 million,” she said. “That’s really lousy. That’s pretty rotten. How little people think of the families suffering.”

Nathan doesn’t even talk on holidays, particularly Mother’s Day. Mattera said he just withdraws from the world.

“They give a few dollars and then they are off the hook,” she said. “Here’s X amount of money. Go and be happy. What good is the money? All these people are going to get away with murder. That’s what it is — murder. And all I get is a dollar. I don’t want that dollar. A dollar is not a Band-Aid. You can’t hug a dollar. Dollars don’t replace.”

apina@projo.com