PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – Private fire investigators have finished combing the site of The Station nightclub fire and are briefing civil attorneys on what they found, as lawyers try to determine who could be held responsible for the blaze.
Attorney Mark Decof said Tuesday the private investigators were in the process of identifying nearly 500 materials that were found.
Decof and other lawyers representing victims’ families and survivors of the fire are interested in materials, such as foam and carpeting, that may have contributed to the fire’s rapid spread and the toxic chemicals breathed in by clubgoers.
The Feb. 20 fire killed 99 people and injured nearly 200 more. The blaze started after a band’s pyrotechnics display set fire to foam that had been placed on the wall around the stage as soundproofing.
The fire engulfed the building within minutes.
Decof said lawyers were meeting with the experts to find out what role the materials played in the disaster and to identify the manufacturers, suppliers and distributors of them.
“There are some items we know the source of, but there are still many to identify,” Decof said. The manufacturers and distributors, he said, could be named as defendants in future lawsuits.
Decof, who has not yet filed any lawsuits, said the identification process would take about two weeks.
The items recovered from the site were expected to be moved to a West Warwick warehouse for storage on Thursday, Decof said. For now, they are being stored in a secured trailer at the nightclub site.
Meanwhile, the Workers’ Compensation Court announced it will hear arguments April 30 regarding the state’s decision to fine The Station’s owners more than a million dollars for failing to carry workers’ comp insurance. The decision has been appealed by club owners Jeffrey and Michael Derderian.
AP-ES-04-15-03 2154EDT
Send questions/comments to the editors.
