‘Emotional Odyssey’ as Families Visit Fire Scene

On a gray and rainy Sunday, the caravan crawled along Cowesett Avenue -- lights on as if for a funeral. The 11 buses carried relatives of those killed in last week’s nightclub fire on a pilgrimage to the site.

“These families are going through such a tragedy, such an emotional odyssey right now,” said Gov. Donald L. Carcieri, who declared Sunday a day of prayer and remembrance in Rhode Island for the 97 club-goers who went to see the band Great White and lost their lives in a blaze caused by a pyrotechnic display.

Carcieri said Sunday’s visit was arranged at the request of family members, who wanted to see where their loved ones had perished when fire engulfed The Station nightclub in less than four minutes. Officials say that at least 300 revelers had packed into the small, wooden building, which had no sprinkler system. As flames devoured a foam acoustical curtain and ceiling tiles, more than 180 patrons were injured in the stampede toward the main exit. The nightclub was destroyed.

Some grieving relatives came from the tight-knit neighborhood where the club once stood. Others came from nearby towns in Rhode Island or neighboring states. A couple from California flew in late Saturday to learn that their son’s body had just been identified.

To provide privacy, a double row of empty city buses formed a wall on the perimeter of what once was The Station’s parking lot. Carcieri banned aircraft from flying within five miles of the site during the visit, and police officers patrolled the area to ward off gawkers -- and especially, television camera crews.

Bouquets of flowers provided for each family member by Red Cross workers soon doubled the size of the memorial that rose up hours after the embers cooled from Thursday night’s fire. Some relatives separated the bouquets, tossing the blossoms one by one around the area.

At least one overcome mourner was taken away by ambulance.

Waiting patiently across the street, 43-year-old David Nobile stood in the rain and clutched white carnations that he hoped to leave at the site in memory of his best friend. Nobile said 35-year-old Scott Green was “one of the best tattooists in the country.” To prove his point, he rolled up his right sleeve to display an intricate design of men and monsters.

Great White guitarist Ty Longley so admired the tattoo Green had done for him last week that he invited him to the concert at The Station as a special guest, Nobile said.

“He’s not even a club type of guy,” said Nobile, a machinist with two piercings in his chin. “He just came because they invited him.” Longley is missing and presumed dead.

Nobile said his brain keeps saying that Green died Thursday, but his heart keeps hoping that maybe he is still alive. Nobile’s girlfriend, Crystal Riley, put her arm around him and said, “Maybe he just bumped his head and doesn’t know where he is.”

Walter Castle Jr., 29, knew exactly where he was Thursday night.

“I was in a living hell,” he said. “I always hear people talking about heaven and hell. I hear people saying what hell is supposed to be like. Well, Thursday night was hell.”

At his third Great White concert, Castle was standing close to the band when the fire broke out. Reasoning that “hallways usually lead to somewhere,” he moved away from most of the crowd as smoke filled the room. He managed to flee through a side exit, suffering burns in his lungs. The memory of it all, he said, has kept him awake for 72 hours straight.

“I hear people screaming. I’m hearing it constantly, and I feel the heat around me, all the time,” said Castle, who also hoped to visit the site Sunday. “I lost 45 of my friends that night.”

He is so enraged -- “angry is not the word for it” -- that he thinks club owners Jeffrey and Michael Derderian and all the members of Great White should be convicted of murder. “Because that is what they did,” Castle said. “They killed 97 people.”

Yet even while his wife, Laurie, lies hospitalized with second-degree burns over 40% of her body, 33-year-old John Hussey said he thought the responsible parties should not go to jail.

“Accidents happen,” he said. “And they have to live with it for the rest of their lives, just like we do.”

Instead of engaging in an ugly, prolonged legal imbroglio, Hussey said, the musicians and the club owners should make financial restitution for the victims’ medical expenses.

“They should just pay out the money and get it over with,” said Hussey, a FedEx driver. “They should just step up and say: ‘This is what needs to be done.’ ”

But Hussey, who came by the site to retrieve his wife’s car, admitted he was too numb to face how he feels about what happened at The Station. Hussey stayed home that night because he had to get up early for work. So Laurie went clubbing with her cousin, who also escaped with severe burns.

Although he has put up a brave front for the couple’s two young daughters, Hussey said, “When all is said and done, I know I’m going to lose it.”

Many families touched by the disaster already have reached that point, Carcieri said Sunday as he announced that another body had been located, bringing the death toll to 97. Initial feelings of grief and anxiety have shifted to anger.

“They are angry that this happened,” angry that certain actions were taken and other actions were not, the governor said. “That is natural. I agree with them.”

Asked Sunday about a tearful televised statement over the weekend by club owner Jeffrey Derderian, state Atty. Gen. Patrick Lynch pointedly said: “I would hope that Mr. Derderian would be as cooperative with the law enforcement agencies as he has been with the press.”

The medical examination of bodies was proceeding at a “feverish” speed, Carcieri said Sunday, explaining that dental records have proved so valuable in identifying victims that he doubted DNA analysis would be required. He said teams of coroners, working “around the clock,” are hopeful that all bodies will be identified soon.

But complications continued to arise. With their relatives identified, some families have asked for burial assistance, the governor said.

“There are insurance issues, support issues, hundreds of issues,” he said.

Standing close to the governor, state Rep. Norman Landroche Jr. said his home district of West Warwick was struggling to process the huge wound caused by the fire. A lifelong resident of the small community, Landroche, 37, also is a firefighter who rode the first truck called to the scene Thursday.

He knew the location well. A good friend played in a band, and Landroche had heard him perform at The Station several times.

As for what happened that night, “I think there is enough coverage, TV clips and pictures for people to know exactly what we were facing,” Landroche said. “It was horrendous. It was tragic. There was panic.” Working through the night, the firefighters “did our job at 110%,” he said.

Loss, suffering and death are not unfamiliar to firefighters, he said. “We are an institution that only we understand.” And yet, Landroche said, there will be no closure for him -- and no forgetting for his hometown.

“I will have a roller coaster of emotions about this for the rest of my life,” he said.

“After all this is done, after all this blows over everywhere else, West Warwick will still be caught in the midst of one of the worst tragedies ever in this country,” Landroche said. “We are going to have to deal with it.”

*

Times staff writer John J. Goldman in West Warwick also contributed to this report.