PROVIDENCE — Even though the Station fire criminal investigation is over, lawyers representing the people who were killed or injured in the blaze are going to get an opportunity to question key players in coming months for the civil lawsuits brought by the victims in federal court here.

More than 300 people who lost loved ones or suffered injuries in the Feb. 20, 2003, fire — the fourth-deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history — have filed lawsuits seeking money damages against dozens of defendants, including the owners of The Station, the members of the rock band that set off pyrotechnics inside the club without a permit, and manufacturers of highly flammable polyurethane foam, a material that was installed as soundproofing on the walls and ceiling of the club. All told, there are about 90 parties that remain as defendants in the victims’ lawsuits.

Some of the defendants have offered to settle the victims’ claims — and as of last week, there was $19.5 million (including $1 million kept in a court registry from the band Great White ) that could be distributed to the plaintiffs. Senior U.S. District Judge Ronald R. Lagueux, who is presiding over the mass-tort case, last week approved the plaintiffs’ hiring a special master — Duke University Law School Prof. Francis E. McGovern — who will interview all of the victims and then devise a grid to apportion settlement proceeds among the plaintiffs. The court would still have to approve any settlements to make sure they were being offered in “good faith.”

Lawyers representing the victims say they hope more defendants will offer settlements and avoid what will be a protracted trial — which appears to still be several years away.

But even if everyone who sues decides to settle along the way — the pretrial discovery process in the civil cases will probably provide the only window into the still-unanswered questions surrounding the deadly fire — one that engulfed a wood-frame building within three minutes and left 100 people dead.

Lawyers for the victims and the parties being sued by them want a chance to question, under oath, Michael and Jeffrey Derderian, the owners of The Station, who installed the polyurethane foam to quell neighbors’ noise complaints; as well as Daniel Biechele, the former tour manager for Great White, who set off the pyrotechnics that started the blaze.

None of these people — who were targets of the criminal investigation — has yet given sworn testimony about the night of Feb. 20, 2003. And the West Warwick fire inspector, Denis P. Larocque, who inspected the club several times but never made note of the flammable foam on the walls or issued any citations ordering its removal, has yet to be subjected to cross-examination. The victims’ lawyers, as well as some of the attorneys representing parties who are being sued by them, want a chance to grill him as well.

In a hearing last week before U.S. Magistrate Judge David L. Martin, there was disagreement among the lawyers for the parties being sued by the victims over the breadth of what they should be allowed to cross-examine witnesses about at this point. Some of the defendants have filed motions for summary judgment, claiming they should be dismissed from the lawsuits now. Once those motions are all decided, the regular pretrial discovery process will begin with more depositions being taken, perhaps in greater depth.

Martin is expected any day now to issue an order spelling out the conditions under which the depositions will be taken and where they will be conducted. Some of the defendants, including the band members of Great White, don’t want to have to travel to Rhode Island from the western U.S. to be questioned and are asking the court to have the victims’ lawyers meet them in their home states for questioning.

The victims’ lawyers are asking the court for leeway to allow them more than the usual one-day, 7-hour limit that is provided for under federal rules for depositions in civil cases. But lawyers representing those who will probably be questioned are objecting to expanded time limits.

Since the documents released by the attorney general’s office leave many questions unanswered, the sworn testimony taken by the civil lawyers may provide the only avenue for the public — and the fire victims — to get a complete picture of what happened.

tbreton@projo.com