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My band played this club often back in the 90s. The neighbors were always bitching about the noise so the owners covered the back of the tiny stage, which was more like a box grafted onto the straight outside wall, with foam insulation panels. That same insulation covered the face of the outside wall which that "box" was attached to and it went up into the ceiling. Apparently the insulation was basically solid gasoline and it went off like throwing a match into a puddle of gas when the pyrotechnics sparked it off.

The morning after the fire my phone was ringing off the hook with folks calling to make sure I was still alive. I knew a handful of folks who made it out alive and uninjured - they were all guys who played in the club and knew the layout like the back of their hands. I casually knew one guy, a drummer who used to buy gear from my uncle, who died in the blaze. He never had a chance because he was a cripple. Also knew the house soundman who was working the club and whose life was destroyed by the horrible things he witnessed that night.

The drummer in my band was a fire fighter. He was called there the next day as part of the cleanup and investigation crew. What he described to me made my knees weak and my stomach churn. Just horrifying.

I now live in Italy and have a recording studio there. I have similar, Auralex-type insulation on the walls, here and there. One day, after a memory of the Station fire popped into my head, I decided to try lighting a piece of it in the kitchen sink to test its flammability. I could not light it, even with a kitchen blowtorch. I was greatly relieved.