Station Nightclub fire in West Warwick, Rhode Island 2

[subarctican]

It's not The Guest List, but here's an interesting documentary/re-enactment TV episode about the fire that was just recently uploaded: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvWkoNS-muQ

Haven't gotten around to watching it yet other than skimming through it a bit but it looks interesting. Several survivors interviewed.

[billoween]

Subarctican - I believe this is the same Canadian show that RodentLady just tipped us off to a few posts ago. No worries, I just like seeing that nothing escapes our group efforts.
Brandon Fravala told me he sat for this production crew almost 2 years ago. And that they told him he would be compensated for his time. He never heard from them again. I forwarded this to him and it was the first time he’d seen it. So Brandon thanks you RL.

[subarctican]

Yes it is, looks like I totally missed that post somehow!

[bustakita]

Thanks Subartican and RodentLady for sharing this documentary. I have always wanted to hear from other survivors since we have always heard from the same survivors.
NOTE: NO disrespect meant to any of the survivors or victims - I care about them all. ♥️♥️ I just ALWAYS wanted differing points of view from other people who experienced and lived through this as well.
I am watching now and will come back to see you guys' opinions.

[billoween]

Michael Shapiro, 32, was the lead singer and guitarist for the opening band, Trip. Before Great White took the stage, Shapiro and his band dedicated their final song to Ty Longley.

"This one's for Ty," Shapiro had announced. And with that, Longley came out on stage and the two musicians played Shapiro's guitar together. Longley created the cords while Shapiro did the strumming. In a little over 45 minutes Ty Longley would be dead.

Afterwards, Shapiro stopped in the dressing room and then came out and meandered through the crowd. By the time Great White began, Shapiro was near the soundboard chatting with GW's sound engineer, Bob Rager.


Shapiro left the building just as the pyro began and got on the tour bus, alone, to make some hot tea to soothe his throat. Soon he heard screams and thought maybe a fight had broken out. He ran off the bus, saw billowing smoke, and then realized the whole club was on fire.

Shapiro: "Outside, it just took my breath away. The stench was just terrible."
He then made his way toward the club, but said he was unable to budge the pile of bodies he found there. He saw people unconscious from the smoke and lying on top of conscious people who were struggling to break free.
"They were so buried in the front door, you couldn't pull them out," he said later.

The next day, Trip's members (minus injured road manager Bill Long) heeded the advice of RI's attorney general and flew out of town to avoid any possible retaliation.
That ended Trip's first national tour; it had been just one month and 21 shows.

More recently, the now 51 year-old Shapiro (below) has led "Reckless in Vegas," a power trio playing Vegas-style classics at various lounges in Las Vegas. At many of the shows, $5 of every ticket purchased went to St. Jude's Hospital.

[billoween]

Hi gang--I want to share something before snow removal becomes the priority here.


On Butler's video, when we see the flow of people approaching the first pinch-point bunch up, it gets harder and harder to tell who's who.

Barylick makes it sound easier than it really is to spot survivor Erin Pucino. But here she is, somewhat behind Butler.



And here she is the next day, minus her glasses.



Pucino told one reporter that she really wanted to meet the unknown man who pulled her out of the front-door pile.
"I'd do anything for that man," she said. "I [only] saw his arms, not his face." And all she saw were arms covered with tattoos. Eventually, she went and got her own arms tattooed with flames and crosses.


Now for the longest time I'd thought that maybe this woman in front of John Fairbairn was Erin Pucino. But no, as Fairbairn recently confirmed, this gal is actually his now ex-wife, Andrea Fairbairn.



John also told me that both he and Andrea had felt quite claustrophobic from the crowd pressing forward just before Great White came out. Andrea had been ready to leave the building right then and there. But John had suggested that they stay for one song.

[Noelle1966]

I think that I read about this in “Killer Show.” John Fairbairn got out the band door and he ran around the front of the building to pull Andrea out of the front.

[billoween]

Noelle - Oh I know who you’re thinking of.
You’re thinking of Al Prudhomme grabbing his wife Charlene. She’s front and center on Butler as they emerge from the hallway and have to choose between the ramp and the stairs.

[Noelle1966]

Oh, that’s right. Al Prudhomme was the one in the cowboy hat pointing to the stage door. His wife, Charlene, thought that the music was too loud so she hung out up at the front. You were talking about the Fairbairns now being exes. I was hoping that Al and Charlene were still together.

[RodentLady]

Bill, can John Fairbairn join us here on this forum? He seems okay sharing with strangers in the comments under the video. For example, he told someone that he was sad to learn one of his rescuers died in 2015.
-------------------------------------

I just got a non-answer to my question about blurred footage in The Guest List from the official trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCyPPhnWLc8&lc=

Question: Is it your style choice to blur the footage, or is the TV channel doing it for liability reasons?

Response: These are guidelines in which the film is adhering to, and out of respect - not a creative decision either way.

[cigardaddio smoke]

Hey guys Hope all is well The 19th anniversary is coming up and I'll likely be there within a day or two of the memorial to pay my respects / check on the Veterans flags, want them standing proud for them. I read in the comments of the video tease " The guest list " that it was premiering on the 20th Feb. date on Reelz Channel. Is this true ?? It was put in comments by Reelz marketing. Any info would be appriciated ( also thanks rodentlady for the link to the video ). Take care & God bless Jimmy D

[billoween]

Hiya Jimmy - hope to see you again this anniversary. I plan on being around for half of the 19th and all of the 20th.

RodentLady - first, thanks for that weird story about the guy with insurance on his wife. Damn.

And you're right, John Fairbairn would probably be a good fit here; and, yeah, he's never been shy about commenting on Station Fire videos or about correcting any inaccuracies along the way. So, for starters, I could at least get him to start reading the forum. After that he probably won't be able to help himself. It's cool that John doesn't repress what he went through; it's like his therapy has come more from embracing the tragedy.

I know several survivors who are friends of John's, but I only sought him out recently when I came across information he claimed he wanted to know: namely who the heck the couple was who drove him and Andrea to nearby Kent Hospital that night.

See, it turns out that it was Kevin Pulley and Robin Tanzi, who were actually the very first people to leave via the stage door. It was before anyone else, even band members. Pulley just went for it early, before any staff could react and stop him. He figured out the 2-door system pretty fast and dragged Robin behind him. (See Mario Giamei's testimony.)

Kent Hospital is just a few miles north of Cowesett Avenue. And once Pulley and Tanzi had dropped the Fairbairns off at the emergency room, they returned to the fire scene to look for their friends, Gary Roy and Michael Malardo. Malardo was severely burned.

Robin Tanzi-Testa (below) died of cancer on 5/16/15.

[ZaraP]

I'm new here! I'm from Boston and have followed the Station story since it happened (I was 12 at the time). Fortunately I didn't discover the full Butler tape until roughly 2012 because I don't think I could have dealt with it as a child. It was after watching it that I became truly obsessed (when something really frightens me I tend to fixate on it and try to learn as much as I can)

Anyway, I got to visit the memorial back in December. We drove down to Warwick to pick up two kittens and the pickup location was literally an 8 minute drive from the Station site in West Warwick. It was almost surreal finally getting to see it.

We didn't have much time to spend there since we didn't want to be late for the kitten pick up, so we were only there for about five minutes but it was a very meaningful five minutes.

It was a bit chilly and we arrived at the end of a beautiful orange sunset.

There must have been a fireplace nearby because the site smelled eerily of smoke, which got stronger as we approached the main structure. My mom wondered if perhaps the smell was intentional to add atmosphere, but I thought that sounded too ghoulish. That night I messaged the Station Memorial Facebook page and Miss Gina Russo herself confirmed that it was likely a fireplace.

I would have loved more time to read the timeline panel. There was so much stuff on it. I noticed it seemed to have some water damage. I also didn't have time to visit each little memorial circle.

I wish there was real grass instead of astroturf but I also understand that the park is run solely on donations and they need to funnel that money towards repairing damaged monuments, etc.

Lastly, I would like to mention something that has probably been mentioned here already but that I feel I should mention because it really bugs me. Right down the street from the Station site, literally like two or three blocks away, is a Juice Bar that's called Fuel Your Fire Nutrition, LLC. I messaged them on Facebook asking if they'd considered a name change. I never received a reply. I'm definitely not a Karen-type nor am I a snowflake, but that really irks me. Surely they must know what happened right down the street from them.

[RodentLady]

Welcome aboard, ZaraP!


@cigardaddio smoke:

Yes, the website confirms the premiere for February 20th-https://www.theguestlistfilm.com/


*Eye roll* Even the actual guest list is mostly blurred out on that page! I think that watching the movie is going to be an exercise in frustration more than anything.

[cigardaddio smoke]

Hey guys
Billoween - I am trying for the 20th but it may be a work day so it may be the day before or day after / hope to see you there
Welcome ZaraP - That does seem to be a n insensitive name but you wouldn't believe how many probably move into that area years later and don't know what happen there / coming up on 20 years next year
RodentLady - I seem to think the same for some parts that have to be limited but overall I hope it helps healing and informs folks of their need for support / it may be a contractual thing to blur some info
I'll be park in front of the TV - I know I got Reelz on my tube somewhere !!
Keep warm - Take care - Supprot survivors & family Jimmy D

[billoween]

ZaraP - Welcome to you. Guess you'll have to pick up more kittens soon so you can visit the Memorial again.
Yeah, "Fuel Your Fire" does sound bad that close to the site. I sure hope it was unintentional. Almost makes me glad that there are no "wood-fired" pizza places next door.

Jimmy Cigar - It doesn't look like we'll have to bring shovels this year. And the weather looks like it will be sunny and chilly, but at least not frigid.

Carpenter - Hey, are you coming this year for Becky? Hope to see you.


Why am I not more excited about "The Guest List"? Isn't it the same documentary that Jack Russell was involved in producing? The one that Gina Russo and others refused to appear in? But then there's always the lure of new interviews and information....

Well, here's something brand new at the Memorial. Someone in the Tom Fleming family must have stepped up and taken action in early December. I'll try to find out how it came about at the anniversary.


This is how it used to look.


This is how it looks now. You can see the fresh silicone adhesive around the edges. The corrected date is now November 9th, 1972, as RodentLady recently mentioned.

[RodentLady]

Ooh, nice update on the memorial, billoweeen! Thank you. I'm glad the foundation has the money to do that. It can't be cheap.

I remember some gossip that "The Guest List" wanted to have a dramatic ending with a survivor meeting JR and forgiving him on camera. I forget which site I was reading, but the commenters sounded credible.

I always wonder if industry folks bringing attention to this tragedy are in fact celebrating it. I'd never heard of the Reelz company before last month. Their latest Guest List commercial on youtube left me in no doubt: The intro is animated flames with a loud hissing sound. Then an overlay of fake black smoke is added to the footage.

[cigardaddio smoke]

Well I did get the chance to visit yesterday - it was cold but peaceful. Everything looked clean & neat as always / big props to the Recreation Parks workers, they do a great job ! There were a few people walking thru, it was evening but those lights are fantastic. Had a meal across the way at the Inn, that place never changes - it's like a time capsule.
Sorry I miss you Bill, work constraints as always these days. Hopefully the rest of the weekend goes well and folks gather and heal, family can feel their loved ones there and at peace.
I'll be ready to watch Guest List and see how they do with it, I hope it's done tastefully and with compassion towards family and friends of the victims. You never know with all the sensationalism these days. God bless & Never Forget !!
Jimmy D

[CommanderAmander]

Thinking of all the victims and their families today, and always. I will definitely be checking out The Guest List tonight as well. Here’s to hoping it does everyone justice- minus those who are to blame.

[Amazee-Dayzee]

I went to a part yesterday that was for a woman as a sort of pre-engagement party (she is getting married in April). Her sister is dating Kelly and Scott's daughter. Since I see them like every ONCE in a blue moon I wasn't gonna ask about it. Though she did seem distracted. She has a tattoo of her mother's face on her leg.

Plus I always get the date mixed up. I thought it was the 22nd, not today. I wish I could have gone to the memorial. I didn't know until it popped up in my news field. My mother didn't know until I told her. Its crazy its 19 years and the memorial itself is only a few years old.

[bustakita]

In response to your last post, Rodent Lady, The Reelz Channel has been around since I had dish network back in 2012. They actually have a lot of documentaries about music related incidents and stars as well as actors and actresses. You should definitely check it out...it has a lot of good programming. I've been a fan for ages and watch it all the time. One of the series I have come to enjoy is the Autopsy show where they they have an actual mortician use the autopsy reports to decipher just how a famous person died. I wanted to explain further about the channel since I watch it frequently.

I am about to watch the show now...I hope to learn new information or hear from different survivors. Hope you will watch as well so we can all talk about it!!!
Much love to ya and have a great week!! ♥️♥️

Added: On a very eerie note, they are replaying The Guest List at 11 pm, which means it will be playing at 11:17 pm, which is the time the fire started. I wonder if that is intentional or coincidence.

[dionyzus]

I watched The Guest List tonight. Much like the 48 Hours episode last year was a companion piece to the Trial By Fire book, The Guest List is a companion piece to Killer Show, and long overdue.

My first impressions are very good. It got across most of the important points from Killer Show about the several people who shared responsibility for this tragedy, yet only 3 people were criminally charged. And although Jack Russell got airtime to make the case that his life has been impacted negatively, survivor Victoria Eagan shot back that Russell is just playing the "poor me" card and she feels no sympathy. So I think all important valid positions were allowed to be heard.

The segments on Joe Kinan and his family were heart wrenching, and his bravery in the face of his devastating loss was inspiring. And it also featured Dee Snider and his role as one of the organizers of the benefit concert. And yes Barylick is also featured, mainly to get important legal points across.

We do get to see some clear excerpts of the Butler tape, but some of them are blurred, mostly for effect to highlight individuals like Joe Kinan and the duo of Jimmy Gahan and Mike Ricardi. But I wish we had gotten more unblurred footage.

Overall I was happy with the documentary. It's unbelievable it's taken this long to get released, but for me it was worth the wait.

By the way it's still February 20 in my time zone on this late evening, so my thoughts are once again with the victims, survivors and their families on this anniversary.

[dionyzus]

Wow, I thought there'd be more reviews of The Guest List by now. But I think the problem is it's not actually streaming, so not many saw it. You had to watch it live, just like the good old days! However I understand it will eventually be on a streaming platform in the coming months.


To expand on Jack Russell's part in it, it's not all about him but yes he gets a more sympathetic treatment than he has before. There is a rebuttal that I mentioned by survivor Victoria Eagan, but he also gets his two cents in, I guess. And to elaborate on RodentLady's mention, there is a brief scene of JR with his arm around Linda Fisher. She makes a brief comment, I forget what it was, but was forgiving in nature. But again, just a brief scene. As a whole this documentary is certainly not a whitewash of JR, like Trial by Fire was a whitewash of the Derderians' significant role in the fire.


Finally big thanks to Billoween, he tipped me off to a brand new rock video Stand by Dee Snider, and the video shows a bunch of scenes from The Guest List. It's sort of promoting it, but it also "stands" alone as a tribute to the victims and families. And not a bad song either! Well done Mr. Snider and David Bellino, who directed both The Guest List and this video.

https://youtu.be/VP8Wc4bQYd4

[subarctican]

Unfortunately we don't have Reelz up here in Canada so I have to wait until the documentary is available on a streaming platform to be able to see it. Hopefully that will happen in the relatively near future, as I've been looking forward to its release for quite a while.

[billoween]

Hi all --

As soon as I returned from the 2022 anniversary, real life and taxes caught up to me. But finally, over the next few days, I want to report back on the experience. Which, for someone as obsessed as me with this fire, was a real head-spinner. So it's going to take a few installments to convey it all.

People who I got to talk to for the very first time included John Arpin, Paula Gould, John Fairbairn, survivor Ken Campagnone, survivor Tawnya Kelly (Ed Corbett's date), survivor Greg Dufour, and first responder Susan Carpenter.

The people whom I was lucky enough to talk to even more this year included Gina Gauvin, Gina Russo, survivor Dave Brennan and his wife Sue, Geno Goguen, Lee Karvonen, Theresa Labree, Donovan Williams (and his daughter), Linda Fisher (and her husband), Deb Wagner (and her husband), Dave Fravala, Brandon Fravala, Brian Loftus, Mike Vargas, Paul Pelletier, Jim Paolucci (owner of the Cowesett Inn), Joe Silva (a vocalist and drummer who played the Station with numerous local bands), and Pete, a retired Sitcuate fire captain.

Then there were the friends and family of the deceased:
Karla Bagtaz's sister-in-law, Sarah Telgarsky's brother, Linda Suffoletto's sister (Susan Rezendes), a friend of Robert Croteau's, Tracy King's mom, Thomas Medeiros's niece, Jason Morton's sister-in-law, Skott Greene's brother Fred, several co-workers and friends of Louis Alves, several old friends of Chris Prouty, Patrick O'Donnell (brother of Katie's), Skott Greene's wife, Al DiBonaventura's mother and grandparents, Dave Kane (Nick O'Neil's father), friends of Tina Ayer, Vincent DeMaio (Dina's brother), several friends of Dr. Metal, a friend of Jude Henault's, friends of the Hoogasians, a friend of Tom Marion's, and a friend of Tracey Romanoff's. Whew, right?

(to be continued)

[Noelle1966]

Billoween - that sounds like an amazing visit! 😎. In September, we had a fire at an animal shelter in Orlando. The shelter needed food, supplies, and money to build a new shelter. I setup one of those Facebook birthday fundraisers for the shelter and Gina Gauvin donated to it. I know that she is an animal lover and most certainly had a tragic event at The Station fire. I thanked her so very much. She has also helped me a lot with my bearded dragons.

[billoween]

(cont.'d)

John Arpin confirmed to me that it was indeed his white '93 Buick Skylark (with a red interior) that was parked facing the main railing at the front doors. So it took one hell of a beating that night, from people--like P.O. Mark Knott--landing on its hood, to temperatures hot enough to bubble and blister the car's exterior. Arpin called it a total wreck.



Arpin also clarified the steps taken to rescue his girlfriend (now wife), Paula Gould, from inside the burning club.
She had shown up just as Trip was finishing its set, and stood near the back bar. Minutes later, in the fire, rescuer Joe Barber was peering in from the bar door when he spotted Paula, stranded in the main bar. but there was no way he could enter under those deteriorating conditions and get her.
So Barber ran around to the front where he was able to reach her from a bar window.


Joe Barber

He needed to continue to grab patrons from the bar windows, so he passed her on to Mike Kaczmarczyk who led her away from the chaos--as seen on Butler at 4:01. Then Mike "Kaz" got her to Dave Fravala who then walked her back to the Station's sign near the road. Then, when Dave had to help more, Brain Loftus took over and waited with her until Arpin showed up.
Arpin right away got her into an ambulance which took her to RI Hospital, where she would spend the next 32 days. She was treated for lung injuries and severe burns that Arpin described as running "from her armpits to her finger tips."

[CWC67]

Went to my niece's today to see her 5 month old baby.....
Litterally feet from the memorial.
I am stunned right now.

[billoween]

CWC - at least there are no more noise complaints from the neighbors.

I’ve got way more to tell, but I have to travel for 2 days. ☹️

[CommanderAmander]

CWC - at least there are no more noise complaints from the neighbors.

I’ve got way more to tell, but I have to travel for 2 days. ☹️

Can't wait to hear about all the people you got to talk to, Bill!

[billoween]

Some random notes on survivor John Fairbairn.

--His Irish surname "Fairbairn" is pronounced "Fair-BEAR-in."

--John thinks his long-sleeved dungaree shirt saved him from more serious burns. Underneath it, he was wearing a T-shirt with "Prisco" on it. (Prisco is a chemical supply company familiar to printers, like John.) That T-shirt, with its "melted tar spots," still lives in the bottom of one of his dresser drawers.

--His scars from the fire mostly show themselves in the summer months. They stay white then, while the rest of his skin will tan some. This would include a black-rain scar running down the side of his nose and more scars scattered around his arms, hands, and fingers.

--He remembers hearing a woman yelling, "I have two children! I have two children! I can't die like this!" Now we know this was Cathy Sagesta, who later told the police that she had been repeatedly yelling about her kids.

--John blames one person for the fire: Fire Marshal/Fire Inspector Dennis LaRocque.

--Apparently, John tugged at several hands once he and Andrea were free. His memory is hazy regarding these rescue attempts, but when he was introduced to fellow front-door survivor Kerrie Rock at a Poison concert in Providence some months after the fire, she started crying in gratitude. As she'd told her uncle, she was saved from the front pile by a red-haired man.

--Also occurring sometime after the fire: John, Linda Fisher, and Donovan Williams went to a new (and safer) club in Coventry called "Rock Junction." They were seeing the 80's band, "Lizzie Borden," when a smoke machine set off an overly-sensitive fire alarm. They all got triggered by that, briefly.

--Lizzie Borden, the Fall River axe-murderer, was Andrea’s mother’s great-great aunt.

--John's Boston grandmother--probably because of the Cocoanut Grove Fire--had continually warned him about attending small nightclubs.

--John's uncle is William Lydon, who's been an underworld fugitive for years. He was one of the robbers in the 2.8 million-dollar Brink's truck heist in Montreal in 1976. He is said to be still hiding out somewhere in Thailand.

[dionyzus]

So I've been checking the Reelz website, and I see they're going to replay The Guest List less than 2 weeks from now. It will show on Thursday night April 7 at 9 pm Eastern, and again 4 hours later at 1 am Eastern. Here is the webpage showing that day's schedule - https://www.reelz.com/schedule/?date=Thu+04%2F07%2F2022

Just like the first airing, it looks like you have to watch this live, you can't stream it yet. And I believe to watch live programming you need to download the Reelz Live app. You have to sign in with your cable/satellite/streaming provider to watch content, but otherwise it's free. And I believe it's also available as the Reelz channel on various cable networks like DirecTV, Dish Network etc. Unfortunately for those like subarctican, it's only available in the U.S.

[billoween]

Ken Campagnone of North Providence was 29 when he survived the fire. I met him at the Memorial the day after the 19th anniversary. He's a concert lighting technician who worked at Foxwoods for approximately fifteen years. He came to The Station in 2003 with his fellow tech friend, Anthony Kolosa, and Anthony's girlfriend, Katrina Buchka.

Ken and friends spent that entire night at the main bar, a mere 5 feet from the exit door on the east side. They got out after the first wave of black smoke.

But Ken is still a little guilty over surviving the fire unscathed and with relative ease--at least compared to what so many others at the show went through. He almost lost it though when he returned to West Warwick on that February 22nd to pick up his '97 Saturn. The car next to his in the towing-service yard was all scorched. But what really got to him was seeing a blackened baby carrier in the back seat. He even got a little emotional while recounting this detail, nineteen years later.

He said that Anthony Kolosa and Katrina Buchka got married after the fire, but that it didn't last long.

Katrina was a nurse who ended up helping victims at the Cowesett Inn. In her initial statement to police she said this: "I sat with three people and comforted [them] while they died."

She soon got called back in to elaborate on that comment. And she explained that she didn't actually see these people die; they were just in such bad shape that she could only assume that they would die soon.

[subarctican]

Just found some of the clearest and highest quality Butler footage yet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU634009IUs

It's a 19-minute news report just after the fire happened. It's higher quality with better color saturation than any youtube video I've seen, and the segments of the Butler tape that it shows are much longer than you normally see on typical news reports. I've noticed a number of small details I've never seen before.

A few noteworthy points:

-3:36: slow motion of Brian Butler rounding the corner into the exit hallway
-9:24: the start of the fire and the beginning of Butler's evacuation
-11:26: a slightly different segment from the start of the fire - the clearest view of band members getting off stage that I've seen so far
-12:20: fire at the entrance of the club and Dan Biechele pulling on the fire hose - I can clearly see people climbing and falling off the front rail, something I've never noticed before

It also features a rather lengthy interview with Jack Russell on the scene that I had never seen before, and has lots of little bits of the fire video peppered in throughout the entire news report.

[pkstracy]

Wow so much on that video I havent seen, reading the ticker at the bottom , saw something about the search for Laci Peterson...I was like wow..

[JXG999]

Great post! If you think it's a candidate i will give it a go at restoring that one like i did with the other version I found. Still looking for the 'original', that has been rumoured to have been uploaded in the past, i've never found it though

[billoween]

Subarctican - Wow, that news report had so much color I thought I was tripping.

JXG - Refresh my memory...did you ever restore the pre-show? I still mostly rely on your restorations, like, for instance, the one coming up here.


So, Ken Mariorenzi told me that his friend, Felipe Delaroca, died on 2-14-22, of liver cancer. (Age 46) Like Ken, he was also a dealer at Foxwoods, and they drove to the Great White show together in 2003.



Delaroca can be seen leaving the building the same time as Jay Gates.



He's referred to as "Phillip" Delaroca in the RI Attorney General materials, but for all I know that was his preference. His parents were Guatemalan.

[Lush]

i noticed a new video on youtube about the fire. shows what happened at the E2 nightclub stampede, a few days before the station fire and the reason why the cameraman was there.

[dionyzus]

Don't forget The Guest List airs again tonight at 9 pm Eastern, and again 4 hours later at 1 am Eastern on Reelz Live.

Subarctican, great find on the new video from CNN which aired shortly after the fire. That's the most clear footage from the Butler video I've ever seen. JXG, if you can clear it up even more that would be wonderful!

[JXG999]

Hi all

No I did attempt the pre-show but the quality is just so poor i wasn't really worth it.

I'll have a go at the news report!

[RodentLady]

@Lush: It's too bad the youtuber fell so hard for Scott James' imaginary story of the fire. I left some corrections two weeks ago and Bill just added more.

@Bustakita: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLmUKdoB5i8
The first seven seconds of this Reelz promo. I'm not even religious, but the word that came to mind when I saw and heard it was "satanic."

------------------------------------------------------------
In February, survivor Adam F. left this comment under a video I had posted of him that was made around 2006 when he visited the site with a local reporter. He got out of a bar window very late in the fire:


It was like a slow stage whisper, a woman’s voice , in my left ear “Shhh….Its ok to die here, don’t be afraid, you’re going to be alright” The most beautiful feeling I have ever had. I was no longer paying attention to the flames, the smoke, the screams, the burning. Quiet and extremely peaceful. I didn’t feel as though I was being attacked or hurt or forced to die, more like I was going to LEAVE this body because it was no longer going to be adequate to live in. I felt I was going up, like if you were to slowly stand on your tippy toes, forward and up.

I didn’t realize people were getting stuck and going to die, I thought everyone was going to get out and when I thought “Wait a minute if I’m the only one who dies in here it’s going to look pretty suspicious, I’ll disappoint the family. And THAT’S when I said out loud, “ God I’m not gonna die in here, I’m gonna get out, I’m NOT gonna die like this!”

That’s when it all hit me, the burning, the screams, the incredible dry heat in my lungs, the burning smell. And I started to go towards where I knew the windows were, someone ran into me, knocked me down, my glasses fell off, was going to look for them, then thought “Forget them! You can get new ones! Get up and get out!”


Before I got around to sharing the comment with all of you, another commenter warned me that Adam is on the s. offender registry. I looked it up and it is true. He was convicted on a charge of CP in January of 2019. I'm sorry if this news is inappropriate to publish. Years ago, some other forum member announced that survivor Eric R. was convicted of domestic violence and cocaine charges, so there IS precedent.

Adam was the most tortured human being I had ever met in real life. He stated on his public MySpace page that the only thing stopping him from doing himself in was his Catholic fear of Hell (where he would burn forever in an eternal Station Nightclub fire? Hmm...)

Ten years later, I met a young wounded vet here in L.A. who had been blown up in a war. As I got to know him, even HE was not as outwardly tortured as Adam was.

The thing is, though, is that Adam was the kindest, most loving person at CCRI. His giant heart couldn't be contained in his body and it grew out to encompass everyone in the same room like a warm hug. When I met him in 2006, I had completely forgotten that I'd seen him in interviews a few years earlier. This amnesia was good, because I 'didn't know him from Adam,' hee hee. I got to experience him without any baggage about the fire.

A few months later, I saw sweet Adam on a national morning show with Dave Kane and remembered. It was a punch in the gut! I couldn't get over how random our situations were. My only sibling, my older sister, walked away from the fire. His only sibling, his older sister, died.

With nephew, the little boy Rachael left when he was 7:


Adam and Rachael with father c. 1979/80. They've all got the same haircut, lol. That was very much of its time:

[billoween]

Here we have survivor Vikki Potvin-Eagan on Larry King (CNN) on 2-9-05. She was the creator and president of the Station Family Fund. She lived a mere block from the club, and attended the Great White show with Kerrie Rock, Missy Minor, Adrian Krasinskas, and Keith Lapierre (D). She later told police she thought The Station was "old, dirty, and rundown."


A more recent picture of Vikki, who eventually moved to Las Vegas to train to become a burn nurse.


A still from the Butler tape at 3:32 showing Vikki, probably in shock, who got helped out a bar window.


Close-up of still. I've watched this woman walk by Butler's camera for years before I realized, last week, it was Vikki simply hiding in plain sight. On Larry King she'd said, about that night, "I remember almost everything, unfortunately."

[Egress]

went to some door hardware training and they showed us the station fire video , it's been a month and i am still reading everything i can , i read this second thread first and now am on to the first thread, fascinating stuff in this thread

[Lt. Frank Drebin]

Subarctican - Wow, that news report had so much color I thought I was tripping.

JXG - Refresh my memory...did you ever restore the pre-show? I still mostly rely on your restorations, like, for instance, the one coming up here.


So, Ken Mariorenzi told me that his friend, Felipe Delaroca, died on 2-14-22, of liver cancer. (Age 46) Like Ken, he was also a dealer at Foxwoods, and they drove to the Great White show together in 2003.



Delaroca can be seen leaving the building the same time as Jay Gates.



He's referred to as "Phillip" Delaroca in the RI Attorney General materials, but for all I know that was his preference. His parents were Guatemalan.

Excellent job in IDing Phil Delaroca! I've made many attempts to ID this man, but never could. From the video, he didn't look like the only image I had of him. Sorry to hear of his passing. Do you know of any other survivors' passing in the past couple years? One of the last I know of is Robin Tanzi in 2015. And also "survivor" Jason Lund.

[Egress]

i appreciate all the great reading and posts in this thread , i can't really add anything new except this 2 cents, i was going stop/slow-mo watching the BB video and it seemed i was able to discern the exact mili-second that Officer Bettancourt made his move to safety , in the main entrance as the camera is filming from behind, Tanzi is shown held up at the inner door partition which looked to be a good 18" wide with a glass panel, as soon as Bettancourt is shown behind him his eyes become focused, that had to be the exact instant he realized things, saw an opening and moved quickly ahead and got out just in time as Tanzi got caught in the pile up, it was a miracle that 128 people managed to escape out the front door !

[Lt. Frank Drebin]

Someday I'm going to share with all of you David B.'s whole saga of survival. First, though, I'm waiting for him to be up to answering some follow-up questions I've had. "I will respond again when I can go back to that place," he told me last May.

I first met Dave at the 2018 anniversary and feel fortunate now to be in touch with him. I'm not using Dave's last name here; I just don't want to leave him quite so Goggle-able and all. (You regulars on this Station thread may remember me mentioning him before.) But now, 18 years later, Dave B. really does want his story known. He just wants to make sure it's accurate.

I swear, his account of that night--detailed and disturbing--is right up there with Mike Vargas's experience.

Poor Dave got stuck standing behind the pile of people plugging the front doors, and that right there is about as far as he went in his interview with the RI State Police. Maybe then he was still processing it all, but soon after would come many more memories.

Anyway, here's one scene--in Dave's own words--that I must bring up now that Dr. Gould and his Brown University Archaeological team have been a topic. It almost puts their efforts to find personal effects, like jewelry, in a different light.

Dave:
"When I was stuck on top of the pile, I thought I wasn't going to make it out. I envisioned my wife in her yellow fleece and basically said goodbye to her. [Then] I ripped the great white shark-tooth necklace off my neck and held it in my clenched right fist. I outstretched my arm and almost reached to the edge of the doorway. I thought that the necklace would eventually fall outside or close to it as I died. That, by the way, is the hand that [later] required a skin-graft from my leg.
I was [actually] trying to preserve it so that people would have something to remember me by. I always used to wear that shark-tooth necklace. I'd bought it in South Africa when me and my wife went there on our honeymoon to go scuba-diving with great white sharks. I still have the broken necklace today."

So all this begs the question--were there any other personal effects recovered that may have been left behind on purpose? Like Dave's necklace almost was?


Only known image of Dave B. He's wearing an old Patriots cap.

If this is the Dave B I'm thinking of, here he is more recently:

[billoween]

That’s Dave B. Of all the survivor stories I’ve read or had told to me, Dave’s takes the cake. He was 10 to 12 feet from the plugged up doorway and was sure he was dead at 3 different points. After I’d heard every last detail (he has a vivid memory of it), I had to quit researching the fire for a good 3 days because of panic attacks, something I’d never been prone to.
He’s still super-plagued by survivor’s guilt. He and his wife had a son about a year after the fire. I’m putting together his whole account. It’s about a 15-page story so far, and I’m not done. Dave has turned down all media requests to tell his story, so I feel lucky to have met him.

[Lt. Frank Drebin]

I'm trying to catch-up with what's going on here in the Station thread. Someone mentioned survivor Sam Miller a little while back. I believe this to be Sam Miller at the back bar in the teal sweatshirt.

[RodentLady]

Welcome, Egress! Love the username.

[Egress]

The station nightclub fire is one of the most horrifying videos i have ever seen or heard, the screams are stuff of nightmares except they are real , there was only one other video i ever heard that ever came close to the audio horror of the SNF video. That one was from the Syrian war maybe 8 years ago and i cannot find it anymore, it was titled "five killed, cameraman seriously injured" it was a group of six men walking down a side road, one filming with his video camera, they were not spaced very far apart, in the background you could hear two "thumps" which were mortar rounds and then seconds later a screeching explosion as the camera drops to the ground and the view fills with falling debris, the blood curdling screams of those from the group were almost as bad as the SNF screams , maybe worse because they were very close and it sounded as though a couple of them were cut in half but still alive, the graphic Syrian war stuff has all been removed from Youtube which is probably for the best