It was an accident waiting to happen. And it never should have happened.
It’s February 20, 2003, and the rock band Great White is playing at a small venue in Warwick, Rhode Island. The place is packed, and Great White goes into their first song. Some pyrotechnics erupt behind the band, as is the plan for their stage show.
Sparks from the pyrotechnics catch onto some soundproofing material that was affixed to the rear of the stage. The place caught on fire. Over one hundred people died in the blaze, most of them from smoke inhalation or from the stampede to find the venue’s few exits.
It was one of the deadliest concert venue fires in history – and it was one of the most senseless and tragic death tolls in music history. There were four exits at the Station, but most people – by nature – ran to the door where they originally entered the building, and the billowing smoke from the fire made exit through that point nearly impossible.
The radio disc jockey that introduced the band that night died in the fire. Ty Longley, the guitarist for Great White, died in that fire. People who went out that night for the sole purpose of having a good time, drinking a few beers, and hearing the band whose hit single “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” was still getting some spins on rock radio stations – died in that fire.
Think about this for a second – when you go to a venue for a concert, do you ever look for an exit in case something horrible goes wrong? Not really. You’re more likely to notice the big red EXIT signs near the stage, but “noticing” and “remembering” in case of a fire or damage isn’t our human nature.
Nine years after a horrible, horrible event, the victims will be remembered in West Warwick. Their names will be read. A documentary is being filmed about the Station tragedy. There is an attempt to purchase the land on which the Station nightclub sat, hopefully to erect a monument to remember those who passed away.
God bless and remember the victims of the February 20, 2003 Station Nightclub fire. Honor their memories, embrace the survivors, and tell the stories so that nothing like this ever happens again.
Chuck The Writer 
Nice read, but since you censor your comments, I doubt this will make it to publish. First thing, you could do a little more research about this before writing. You can give these people some dignity and honesty as well. They DID NOT die “mostly” of smoke inhalation. If you watch the video and relate that to the eyewitness accounts, a new story emerges. At 1:31 a man exiting, his arm BURSTS into flame, then he looks at it in disbelief He was wearing a polyester cotton mix fabric with a self-ignition point of about 600F. Those people burned alive, and did not even stand a chance. People at the bar said, that the smoke/heat alone caused those plastic stools to BURST into flame. All the ceilings had roofing tar with plastic reflective pieces for the blacklights stuck in it. The drummers section was all soundproofed and there was more of it throughout the building because of one particular neighbor that complained about the noise. The fire marshal LET this happen. The state of Vermont ALONE is responsible for ALL of this. They murdered these people. The fire marshal murdered these people. He should be charged with negligent homicide AT THE LEAST.
And there is even more to it than that. They found a cash register behind the building with missing money.
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Um… Blue Box… with all due respect… I didn’t embed a video in my post, so there’s no video to search through, at 1:31 or otherwise. Also, why would the State of Vermont be responsible for the deaths of anyone, considering that the fire took place in Rhode Island? Wow…
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Responding to Blue Box’s comments: I read the grand jury testimony of the medical examiner who did indeed report that the primary cause of death for most of the victims was indeed smoke inhalation. She noted thermal burns with varying degrees of severity, but they were not listed as the cause of death. We can only hope that the majority of them had succumbed before they burned. Many who were responsible for this horrible tragedy were never punished, the fire marshall being at the top of the list.
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