duncan228
09-03-2008, 12:20 PM
The club this happened in, The Station, was a 5 minute walk from where I lived when I was a teen. It was a restaurant when I lived there, I never saw the club. But the fire touched me, it's my hometown. I've followed the fallout since it happened. I didn't know anyone that died personally, but RI is a small state and I know a few people that lost family members and friends.
I saw the site about a year after it happened, it was quite an experience. The building was gone of course, but crosses had been made for the victims out of some of the floorboard that had been left. The memorials were impossible to read and take in without tears. It was eerily silent, even though it's on a fairly busy street. It felt like hallowed ground. Maybe it is.
Great White Reach Settlement In Nightclub Fire Case (http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2008/09/03/great-white-reach-settlement-in-nightclub-fire-case/)
Great White have reached a settlement with the families of victims and survivors of the 2003 Station nightclub fire that claimed 100 lives. The band agreed to pay a combined $1,000,000 to the more than 300 defendants. As part of the settlement, the band deny any wrong doing in the February 2003 fire, which was the fourth-deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history and took the life of guitartist Ty Longley when pyrotechnics ignited cheap soundproofing foam. While band members were never charged with any crimes, Great White manager Daniel Biechele served half of a four-year jail sentence after pleading guilty to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter. The state of Rhode Island and town of Warwick also settled with defendants last month for $10 million. Chris Fontaine, whose son was killed in the fire, said she thought the band was “getting off easy” with the $1 million settlement and said the band faced a much steeper verdict had the case gone to trial. No settlement money has been distributed yet, with a Duke University law professor placed in charge of deciding how to properly dole out the money to each defendant.
I saw the site about a year after it happened, it was quite an experience. The building was gone of course, but crosses had been made for the victims out of some of the floorboard that had been left. The memorials were impossible to read and take in without tears. It was eerily silent, even though it's on a fairly busy street. It felt like hallowed ground. Maybe it is.
Great White Reach Settlement In Nightclub Fire Case (http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2008/09/03/great-white-reach-settlement-in-nightclub-fire-case/)
Great White have reached a settlement with the families of victims and survivors of the 2003 Station nightclub fire that claimed 100 lives. The band agreed to pay a combined $1,000,000 to the more than 300 defendants. As part of the settlement, the band deny any wrong doing in the February 2003 fire, which was the fourth-deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history and took the life of guitartist Ty Longley when pyrotechnics ignited cheap soundproofing foam. While band members were never charged with any crimes, Great White manager Daniel Biechele served half of a four-year jail sentence after pleading guilty to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter. The state of Rhode Island and town of Warwick also settled with defendants last month for $10 million. Chris Fontaine, whose son was killed in the fire, said she thought the band was “getting off easy” with the $1 million settlement and said the band faced a much steeper verdict had the case gone to trial. No settlement money has been distributed yet, with a Duke University law professor placed in charge of deciding how to properly dole out the money to each defendant.