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Thread: Station Nightclub fire in West Warwick, Rhode Island 2

  1. #1
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    Station Nightclub fire in West Warwick, Rhode Island 2

    The original thread had over 6,000 posts, so I closed it, and created this one.

    For those who would like to reference the original here's the URL https://findadeathforum.com/showthre...C+Rhode+Island

    Have at it.
    Last edited by cindyt; 05-19-2020 at 02:12 PM.
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  2. 06-24-2014, 03:14 AM
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  3. #2
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    Fire is bad!


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    I feel like I'm in the grieving stage. Farewell, Station Thread Part 1...




    Last edited by LLC; 06-24-2014 at 07:42 AM.

  5. #4
    weirdgurl Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by LLC View Post
    I feel like I'm in the grieving stage. Farewell, Station Thread Part 1...




    I kind of felt that way myself...

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    LLC - go back and look at all of the great work placed into The Station Fire Thread 1. We met a lot of great new people and maybe we'll have even more stop by.
    The reason a dog has so many friends is because he wags his tail instead of his tongue.

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    Go back and bookmark it, if you like, for future reading. When a thread gets too big it's hard for some browsers to download, so we close it and create a sequel. Oh, and it was back almost instantly after shut down.

    UPDATE: I posted the original's URL on the OP of this version for easy access.
    Last edited by cindyt; 06-24-2014 at 10:01 AM.
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    LOL I was just teasing really...and you're right Noelle! Just take a look a Part 1...awesome stuff.

    Oh I know, Cindy. I was surprised it got as long as it did... and thanks for linking it above! I was hoping it wouldn't get lost to newbies.
    Last edited by LLC; 06-24-2014 at 12:37 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Noelle1966 View Post
    LLC - go back and look at all of the great work placed into The Station Fire Thread 1. We met a lot of great new people and maybe we'll have even more stop by.
    New people would be great.


    * and Scott V.? Still a prick. Ya welcome Sheebs.
    Last edited by LLC; 06-24-2014 at 01:03 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by LLC View Post


    * and Scott V.? Still a prick. Ya welcome Sheebs.
    Why yes, he is Lynn. Yes, he is.

    I knew we'd get a new thread at one point. 6000 post. Wow. I hope we have a Memorial built before page 20 hits.

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    Quote Originally Posted by SheeBee View Post
    Why yes, he is Lynn. Yes, he is.

    I knew we'd get a new thread at one point. 6000 post. Wow. I hope we have a Memorial built before page 20 hits.
    I'll see your page 20 & raise you with page 52.

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    Wow, I freaked out for a second when I saw the thread was closed! Thanks for posting the link to the OG thread cindy!
    Well, first off, thanks for all the well-wishes gang...hopefully Hubs will be back on his feet again soon.
    I checked the info on that club on PropertyShark (a pretty cool site btw), and it was built in 1965. That's about all the info I could find so far. It's supposed to officially open today (the 25th), so we'll see how things go....
    Let's see how quickly we can run this thread out.
    "I was 12 going on 13 the first time I saw a dead human being" --Stand by Me

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    A new club where the old one was? That oughta be interesting.
    .

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    Quote Originally Posted by SomeChick View Post
    A new club where the old one was? That oughta be interesting.
    Weirds me out.
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  15. #14
    Mammy Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by SomeChick View Post
    A new club where the old one was? That oughta be interesting.
    No, they were talking about another older building elsewhere that has no windows and is opening up a club there. It looks like another deathtrap waiting to happen. A memorial will be where the Station was when the foundation gets enough money to build it.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mammy View Post
    No, they were talking about another older building elsewhere that has no windows and is opening up a club there. It looks like another deathtrap waiting to happen. A memorial will be where the Station was when the foundation gets enough money to build it.
    I'm still weirded out.
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  17. #16
    Mammy Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by cindyt View Post
    I'm still weirded out.
    Yeah, I wouldn't go in either of them.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mammy View Post
    No, they were talking about another older building elsewhere that has no windows and is opening up a club there. It looks like another deathtrap waiting to happen. A memorial will be where the Station was when the foundation gets enough money to build it.

    Ah I see. Yeah that's an accident waiting to happen and you'd think it'd be against fire codes. Or at least an insurance company would require it. Every club or public gathering place should have more than one fire exit. So many tragedies could be prevented if such laws were in place.
    .

  19. #18
    Mammy Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by SomeChick View Post
    Ah I see. Yeah that's an accident waiting to happen and you'd think it'd be against fire codes. Or at least an insurance company would require it. Every club or public gathering place should have more than one fire exit. So many tragedies could be prevented if such laws were in place.
    So many old places like that exist all over the country. There are definitely a lot of things that would be against fire codes if the places were inspected properly instead of inspectors being paid to look the other way by greedy business owners. The Station fire could have been totally prevented if the place was made to comply with fire codes and if they had sprinklers.

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    Yep.

    All public gathering places here are required to have sprinklers, regardless of who your rich daddy or inspector brother-in-law is. Fire extinguishers at all exits too. Even small businesses are required to have this. And many of the buildings here date back to the turn of the century. Many were also trashed by earthquakes at the turn of the century. Not many people hurt but lots of fires back then. I think that's why it's like that here now. So you'd think major cities or places where the same things have happened would take preventative measures to keep history from repeating itself. Hopefully nothing happens. But it sounds like people just aren't using their heads. No amount of money is worth risking people's lives for.
    .

  21. #20
    Mammy Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by SomeChick View Post
    Yep.

    All public gathering places here are required to have sprinklers, regardless of who your rich daddy or inspector brother-in-law is. Fire extinguishers at all exits too. Even small businesses are required to have this. And many of the buildings here date back to the turn of the century. Many were also trashed by earthquakes at the turn of the century. Not many people hurt but lots of fires back then. I think that's why it's like that here now. So you'd think major cities or places where the same things have happened would take preventative measures to keep history from repeating itself. Hopefully nothing happens. But it sounds like people just aren't using their heads. No amount of money is worth risking people's lives for.
    Those things should be required everywhere, but a lot of club owners who want to make as much money as possible and spend the least amount of money possible will always whine around about how they can't afford it. The Station owners spent twice as much on audio equipment and a sound system than sprinklers would have cost. Even when new requirements are made for operating these small clubs, the older clubs that already exist are grandfathered in and exempt from the new requirements and the owners don't care enough to willingly make the changes themselves without being forced to. It's money they don't want to spend. In this fire, they also didn't want to spend money on non flammable foam because it cost more than flammable foam, paid their employees in cash and didn't keep workman's comp insurance on them, managed to get the maximum capacity of people raised by the fire inspector to an insane amount of people for an old, tiny building, and let everyone there who paid to see the show inside even when they knew the building was already jammed with an over capacity crowd. The owners of these small venues seem to have the "it can't happen to me" mindset.

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    Since we are starting Part 2 of this epic thread, I thought it would be good to repost the Google drive links:

    https://drive.google.com/folderview?...Uk&usp=sharing - All written documentation, police/fire dispatch, photos, and miscellaneous info

    https://drive.google.com/folderview?...Fk&usp=sharing - Selected videos

    For those new to the thread, these files came from the Rhode Island Attorney General's (RIAG) office. When the legal case was active several years ago, these files from the investigation were posted on the RIAG website. Eventually they were taken down. Their website stated the files were still available if you sent them an external hard drive with 165 GB of available space. Some forum members tried to contact their office and didn't seem to be getting anywhere. In March of this year I lucked out and must have contacted the right people, and I successfully sent and received a hard drive with the files. I posted the most important files to two Google Drive accounts holding 15 GB each. The remaining 130 GB or so are mainly NIST fire test videos and video files of bands playing at the Station in the past, nothing critical to the case directly.

    Happy reading, especially for you newbies!
    Last edited by dionyzus; 06-25-2014 at 08:19 PM.

  23. #22
    Mammy Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by dionyzus View Post
    Since we are starting Part 2 of this epic thread, I thought it would be good to repost the Google drive links:

    https://drive.google.com/folderview?...Uk&usp=sharing - All written documentation, police/fire dispatch, photos, and miscellaneous info

    https://drive.google.com/folderview?...Fk&usp=sharing - Selected videos

    For those new to the thread, these files came from the Rhode Island Attorney General's (RIAG) office. When the legal case was active several years ago, these files from the investigation were posted on the RIAG website. Eventually they were taken down. Their website stated the files were still available if you sent them an external hard drive with 130 GB of available space. Some forum members tried to contact their office and didn't seem to be getting anywhere. In March of this year I lucked out and must have contacted the right people, and I successfully sent and received a hard drive with the files. I posted the most important files to two Google Drive accounts holding 15 GB each. The remaining 100 GB are mainly NIST fire test videos and video files of bands playing at the Station in the past, nothing critical to the case directly.

    Happy reading, especially for you newbies!
    Good idea posting it here!

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    Isn't it ironic that the D brothers spent a lot of money on a new sound system, yet the biggest argument from the neighbor was the amount of noise. Isn't it ironic that that the D brothers bought flammable foam from the neighbor to calm down the noise from the new sound system. If just someone would have made a different choice, there would have been such a different turnout.

    Maybe ask husband and son if deathtrap looking building built in 1965 has sprinklers........
    The reason a dog has so many friends is because he wags his tail instead of his tongue.

  25. #24
    Mammy Guest
    A hundred little things could have prevented the outcome. It all came together at that one time to create the perfect storm.

  26. #25
    tjh960 Guest
    Heyyy!! This place looks different now!!.... I hope everyone's doing great!

  27. #26
    Mammy Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by tjh960 View Post
    Heyyy!! This place looks different now!!.... I hope everyone's doing great!
    Good to see ya here!

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    I went to the other thread and saw it was closed. I was like, "WHAT?" and then noticed the second to last post and thought that was what got it closed. Glad to see a new thread was opened!

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    Quote Originally Posted by SLCer View Post
    I went to the other thread and saw it was closed. I was like, "WHAT?" and then noticed the second to last post and thought that was what got it closed. Glad to see a new thread was opened!
    Lol. That post was bizarre....

  30. #29
    Goldieannabelle Guest
    That was a very odd post lol. I was happy to see this new thread as well.

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    Scott V is still a prick! Still on page 1

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    Quote Originally Posted by tjh960 View Post
    Heyyy!! This place looks different now!!.... I hope everyone's doing great!
    Doing better now that I know you are ok,
    "When you help someone up a hill, you get that much closer to the top yourself."
    -Anonymous

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    Quote Originally Posted by TheDude View Post
    Scott V is still a prick! Still on page 1

    LOL! Nice work, TheDude.

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    Quote Originally Posted by LLC View Post
    LOL! Nice work, TheDude.
    Thought I'd mark it for history's sake, one day in the future, generations will look back at us with an inquisitive eye and I just want one fact to remain true all the way through the annals of time...Scott V is a prick.

  35. #34
    Quote Originally Posted by cindyt View Post
    The original thread had over 6,000 posts, so I closed it, and created this one.

    For those who would like to reference the original here's the URL http://www.findadeath.com/forum/show...k-Rhode-Island

    Have at it.

    Was this decision to close a thread I have followed for many years made solely by you?

    Did you seek opinion or just summarily make a judgment?

  36. #35
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    We close threads with 5,000+ posts. It's also not your concern what the staff does or doesn't do.

    Back on topic, people.
    Last edited by cindyt; 07-06-2014 at 05:36 AM.
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    I'm still trying to find on the Brian Butler video when it was stated that he stopped and allegedly blocked people's exit to the front door. I have been reading about it and I wonder when exactly it happened.
    The reason a dog has so many friends is because he wags his tail instead of his tongue.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Noelle1966 View Post
    I'm still trying to find on the Brian Butler video when it was stated that he stopped and allegedly blocked people's exit to the front door. I have been reading about it and I wonder when exactly it happened.
    This is a controversial point, and the reason WPRI was one of the defendants in the lawsuit/settlement. According to Butler's testimony he had his camera pointed back over his shoulder but was focused on getting out, he wasn't trying to stop to get a shot of the growing fire. He also claims he tried to move a table out of the front entranceway on his way out. In any event, the video shows that his progress with the crowd comes close to a stop as he approaches the front entranceway, just after the "30 seconds" caption appears on the version of the video with time captions. One can allege he slowed down to get a final shot before leaving. However on close review you can see the camera shift back and forth as he shuffles his feet, still moving toward the front door. If he wanted to set up a shot he would probably have planted his feet. In any event a few seconds after this he enters the front entranceway and makes steady progress out the front door from there.

    On another note, I found a critical part of Butler's testimony related to his kicking out an opening in the atrium. In his testimony, he says he saw the panels near the lower left outside of the atrium and stopped, thinking "breakaway panels." Then he kicked one in. The video bears this out pretty clearly. I had had my doubts because I had assumed it was glass he said he broke, not a panel. You can't hear breaking glass in the video. But the panel does appear to give way, and then you can see the smoke pouring out of the hole later when he comes back along that walkway. So it is clear to me Butler made the first opening for escape from the atrium, and saved lives.

  39. #38
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    I actually did go back and see where I think it is said that he stopped to film the stage. The key for me is to see Erin Pucino behind him. I think that she had very blonde hair. It is so hard to tell whether or not he really stopped to film because I always thought that he was moving slowly because people were in front of him.
    The reason a dog has so many friends is because he wags his tail instead of his tongue.

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    I don't think Butler realized the news value at that moment. He reacted way too fast and got out. I know he kept the camera rolling but I think he was on auto pilot. Just my opinion and I'm not him so I can't be sure.

    But this got me to thinking. His film was really important to the case and it is also important to the research. At the time the odds of having the tragedy on film was low. But today, with all of our cell phones the chances are great that we would have caught this from many angles. Also, how many more people would have been slowed down trying to escape because we were trying to catch it on our way out? I mean that most people didn't understand the urgency. So would we stop to film? I think so. I think we are just a spark away from another tragedy. The Brazil fire being a good example.

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    Interesting, SheeBee. I look at people who want to have their wedding photographs standing in front of a big tornado. Ummmmmm, people........ get out!
    The reason a dog has so many friends is because he wags his tail instead of his tongue.

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    But a phone is small. You can hold it up, facing backwards, record what is going on behind you, and still make a run for it. Maybe Butler did have the camera facing backwards. I see people trying to get out of there, paying Butler and the camera no mind, except for the occasional glance into the camera here and there. Nobody behind Butler yelled at him to move, cussed him and his camera out, or tried to knock it out of his hands.

  43. #42
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    Quote Originally Posted by Noelle1966 View Post
    Interesting, SheeBee. I look at people who want to have their wedding photographs standing in front of a big tornado. Ummmmmm, people........ get out!
    ...or people on the beach with their children ( some even in the water ) during a hurricane taking pics. Saw that just last week during the coverage of Hurricane Arthur.

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    Brian Butler should be commended for his actions at the Station that night, so he had his camera still filming as he focused his attention to going out the door, his camera light probably assisted people into seeing where to step and get out. Its luck that he managed to document such a tragic event. If anything his footage proved negligence on behalf of the Station's owners and gave more insight into what really happened.

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    I think that the biggest deal for the lawyers may be that it was a conflict of interest to have Brian Butler filming at Jeff Derderian's club. I agree, though - that videotape gave valuable information.
    The reason a dog has so many friends is because he wags his tail instead of his tongue.

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    I 100% don't believe Butler was at fault for anything. I wanted to make that clear that I wasn't backsliding on my opinion from thread 1. I couldn't believe they settled in the lawsuit. Sometimes I think it is easier not to fight. Probably cheaper also.

    I was saying that today there would have been many more people taking video. I think that the disaster would have been worse because people would clog the doorway or not respond as quickly as they did. Because they would have been using their cell phones. Our distraction level and electronics use are much higher now.

  47. #46
    weirdgurl Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Squishy View Post
    I see people trying to get out of there, paying Butler and the camera no mind, except for the occasional glance into the camera here and there. Nobody behind Butler yelled at him to move, cussed him and his camera out, or tried to knock it out of his hands.
    This is exactly why I believe that Butler did not block the exit while filming.

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    This is why I question the book so often. I was reading about the Hoogasians (sic). The book talked about how it was going through Mr. Hoogasian's mind about how his brother-in-law asked him how he could have his bachelor party at that deathtrap The Station. Both Hoogasians died in the fire, so how would anyone know that Mr. Hoogasian was ever thinking that? I need to find the page in the book.
    The reason a dog has so many friends is because he wags his tail instead of his tongue.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Noelle1966 View Post
    This is why I question the book so often. I was reading about the Hoogasians (sic). The book talked about how it was going through Mr. Hoogasian's mind about how his brother-in-law asked him how he could have his bachelor party at that deathtrap The Station. Both Hoogasians died in the fire, so how would anyone know that Mr. Hoogasian was ever thinking that? I need to find the page in the book.
    Maybe he told one of his relatives about wanting to have it at The Station

  50. #49
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    I just noticed the first thread was closed. I started that thread and was proud to see it grow to over 6000 entries. Like watching a child grow.

  51. #50
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    Quote Originally Posted by cash View Post
    I just noticed the first thread was closed. I started that thread and was proud to see it grow to over 6000 entries. Like watching a child grow.
    That is pretty amazing. I bet you had no idea when you started it.

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