Posted on 02/21/2003 12:30:55 AM PST by kattracks
WEST WARWICK, R.I. (AP) -- A huge fire engulfed a Rhode Island nightclub during a rock concert's pyrotechnics display, causing at least 10 deaths and dozens of injuries, authorities said.
Fire Capt. Russell McGillivray said an estimated 10 to 20 people died. More were likely trapped inside.
McGillivray said many of the victims were found in the front door area after they apparently frantically rushed to the exits.
The blaze broke out at about 11 p.m. Thursday during a pyrotechnics display during a Great White concert at The Station in West Warwick, about 15 miles southwest of Providence. The club quickly went up in flames and little was left of the one-story building early Friday.
The blaze trapped several patrons in the building, and those who escaped were seen staggering out of a triage center, some of them scorched by the heat. Rescuers carried dozens of people on stretchers.
Paul Vanner, the club's sound technician and stage manager, said one person from the band was missing.
WJAR-TV of Providence reported a total of about 150 injuries.
Jack Russell, the lead singer of Great White, told the station he checked with the club's manager before the show and the band's use of pyrotechnics was approved. He said he felt the heat of the flames while on stage.
"This place went up like the Fourth of July," he said.
Town Manager Wolfgang Bauer couldn't speculate on the specific cause, but said a flame from the pyrotechnics display hit styrofoam in the ceiling.
"Everbody knows there were pyrotechnics used in there," he said. "We found people in a corner of the building. So there are dead people in there."
Hundreds of firefighters and police from across the region and dozens of ambulances were on the scene. Rescuers were pulling badly injured victims from the fire as ladder trucks poured water over the flaming skeleton of the building.
"The place went up within a matter of two minutes," John Kudryk of Southeastern Massachusetts told the Providence Journal. "Two of our friends, we can't find them" because they were seated near the front, and it appeared they didn't have time to get out.
Great White is a 1980s heavy metal band whose hits include "Once Bitten, Twice Shy" and "Rock Me." The concert also featured the Canadian group Fathead.
The fire comes four days after 21 people were killed and more than 50 injured during a stampede in a Chicago nightclub that began when a security guard used pepper spray to break up a fight.
Police said the incident occurred at the Station Club, which they described as a performance club with a stage featuring several bands. Television footage showed scenes of pandemonium as flames shot out of the building.
"There have been fatalities," the police spokesman said, without providing specific numbers.
A fire department official estimated the number of injuries at about 100, and said the fire had been brought under control.
Police said the injured had been taken to at least two Rhode Island hospitals.
Television stations said the fire broke out in the club during a pyrotechnics display around midnight.
The Rhode Island blaze occurred less than a week after 21 people were killed in a stampede at a Chicago nightclub when they tried to escape pepper spray used to break up a fight and were crushed behind blocked doors, officials said.
. . .sad, and unbelievebly stupid; but then stupidity is like that. It happens. . .
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