PROVIDENCE — A local television station has tentatively agreed to pay $30 million to the victims of The Station nightclub fire, representing the largest settlement to date related to the 2003 West Warwick blaze that killed 100 people and injured more than 200 others.

The tentative agreement, confirmed by Channel 12 (WPRI-TV) yesterday, follows allegations that the station’s cameraman, Brian Butler, paused in an exit to film the chaos as patrons were trying to escape.

Lawyers for roughly 300 survivors and victims’ families said the delay increased the death toll.

Butler and the station do not accept blame in the settlement. They have consistently denied that Butler paused to film the blaze.

“We did then, and still do, vehemently deny this allegation, which is disproved by the video itself,” said WPRI general manager Jay Howell in a statement released yesterday. “This suit resides in the hands of our insurance companies, which made the decision to settle.”

The settlement, which would apply to Butler and WPRI’s parent company LIN TV, is subject to “the plaintiff’s and the court’s approval,” according to Howell’s statement.

Lawyers for the victims reached yesterday said they would not comment at this point, preferring to make their statements in court.

Butler was in The Station nightclub the night of Feb. 20, 2003, to record footage for a WPRI story on safety in public buildings. He was working with Channel 12 investigative reporter Jeffrey Derderian, also a co-owner of the nightclub.

More than 450 patrons gathered inside the wood-frame club that night to see the rock band Great White. Butler’s camera was rolling when pyrotechnics ignited the soundproof foam that lined the ceiling and walls around the stage.

Flames consumed the nightclub within three minutes.

The lawsuit states that Butler was personally responsible for “deaths of and severe personal injuries to plaintiffs.”

“Butler filmed both before and after the instant when the fire ignited polyurethane foam on the stage of The Station. Rather than leaving the building or assisting patrons of The Station to escape, Butler stood within the building, directly in an egress route, and filmed distressed patrons trying to leave the nightclub,” the suit reads.

Butler’s videotape represented a key piece of evidence in the civil and criminal cases brought immediately after the fire.

Criminal cases were settled against club owners Jeffrey and Michael Derderian, as well as the former Great White tour manager Daniel Biechele, who ignited the pyrotechnics that caused the blaze.

Michael Derderian is serving a four-year prison sentence that began in September 2006. The state’s Parole Board last month ruled that he could be released one year early. Jeffrey Derderian was spared prison time, sentenced to community service.

Biechele, meanwhile, was sentenced to four years in prison as well, but is due to be released on parole next month, after serving 22 months.

And while the criminal cases have been settled, the civil trials are far from over.

Butler and the television station are among more than 40 defendants named in one sweeping lawsuit slowly moving through U.S. District Court. A handful of the defendants have individually agreed to settlements — Butler and the television station now join that list — but dozens of companies and individuals still face civil charges that may end up in court unless both sides agree on a settlement.

Those named in the largest civil case include the Derderians, the State of Rhode Island, foam manufacturers, and band members.

All the defendants appear in the same lawsuit brought by a group of nine lawyers on behalf of the families of 90 people killed and 176 injured in the nightclub fire. The group represents about 90 percent of the nightclub fire victims and is the biggest of nine lawsuits that have been brought on behalf of the surviving spouses, parents and minor children of people who died or were injured in the catastrophic blaze.

The fire was the fourth-deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history.

With reports from Journal staff writer Tracy Breton.

speoples@projo.com