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Death Toll Rises to 96 in R.I. Club Fire
Fri Feb 21, 10:13 PM
At least 96 people were killed and nearly 200 more were injured Thursday night after a nightclub erupted in flames during a rock band's pyrotechnics display. The death toll rose as firefighters continued to search Friday night for remains and evidence in the charred shell of the single-story wood building.
Great White was rocking through its first song, "Desert Moon," and the fans were cheering as fireworks sprayed the stage with sparks. They kept cheering even as flames shot toward The Station nightclub's ceiling. Within three minutes, many of them were dead.
Club officials said they had not given the band permission to use pyrotechnics, a claim echoed by at least three other venues where Great White played in the past month. The band disputed the accusations, and Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch said authorities were investigating.
Many concertgoers were caught off-guard as they slowly realized the fire wasn't part of the show. Many were badly burned and others were trampled in the rush to escape, in large part through a single door.
"I never knew a place could burn so fast," said Robin Petrarca, 44, who was roughed up in the scramble to escape. She said the smoke was so thick she couldn't see an exit just 5 feet away.
It was the deadliest U.S. nightclub fire since 165 people were killed at the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Ky., in 1977. It also came less than a week after 21 people were killed in a stampede at a Chicago nightspot.
The capacity of The Station was 300, but the number of victims and survivors indicated more were inside. The death toll rose steadily Friday as firefighters picked through the smoking ruins of the single-story building.
"This building went up fast - nobody had a chance," said Gov. Don Carcieri, who rushed back to the state from a trip to Florida.
Under the glare of floodlights, a dozen firefighters and other law enforcement officials used rakes to sift through the rubble Friday night as they searched for evidence and belongings of the victims. A corner of the building was still standing, along with the marquee, still advertising Great White's appearance.
Authorities warned it could take time to identify the victims. At hospitals around the region, anguished relatives pleaded for help in finding loved ones they feared were lost in the club.
Patricia Belanger stood trembling outside Rhode Island Hospital, clutching a photo of her daughter, Dina DeMaio, who was working at the club as a waitress to earn some extra money for herself and her 7-year-old son.
Belanger said she had not been able to find her daughter and was unable to tell her grandson about his mother's possible death.
"He knows his mother didn't come back," she said.
The fire was apparently touched off by pyrotechnics moments after the '80s hard-rock band kicked off its show. A TV cameraman doing a story on nightclub safety recorded the unfolding disaster, beginning with the fireworks, followed seconds later by bright orange flames climbing curtains and soundproofing behind the stage. In moments, the stage was enveloped in a bright yellow haze; among those missing late Friday was guitarist Ty Longley.
Lead singer Jack Russell said he started dousing the fire with a water bottle but couldn't put it out. Then all the lights went out.
"All of a sudden I felt a lot of heat," Russell said. "I see the foam's on fire. ... The next thing you know the whole place is in flames."
At least 25 bodies were found near the club's front exit. Fire Chief Charles Hall said some victims were trampled.
"They tried to go out the same way they came in. That was the problem," Hall said. "They didn't use the other three fire exits."
Fire officials said the club had passed a fire inspection Dec. 31, but didn't have a city permit for pyrotechnics. The building, which is at least 60 years old, was not required to have a sprinkler system because of its small size.
The pyrotechnics were used without permission, said Kathleen Hagerty, a lawyer representing club owners Michael and Jeffrey Derderian, who are brothers.
"No permission was ever requested by the band or its agents to use pyrotechnics at The Station, and no permission was ever given," she said.
Russell said the band's manager checked with the club before the show and that the use of pyrotechnics was approved. Paul Woolnough, president of Great White's management company, also said tour manager Dan Biechele "always checks" with club officials before pyrotechnics are used. Biechele could not be located for comment.
The owner of a well-known New Jersey nightclub said Great White failed to tell him they were using pyrotechnics for a Valentine's Day show.
"Our stage manager didn't even know it until it was done," said Domenic Santana, owner of the Stone Pony in Asbury Park. "My sound man freaked out because of the heat and everything, and they jeopardized the health and the safety of our patrons."
Concert organizers also said Great White used pyrotechnics during a Feb. 7 show at the Pinellas Park Expo Center near Tampa, Fla., and a Feb. 13 show in Allentown, Pa., without discussing it with promoters or the venue.
The Rhode Island show was part of a nationwide tour. Officials at other clubs said Great White asked before using pyrotechnics and complied when they were turned down. One of those venues was the Oxygen Nightclub in Evansville, Ind., where the band played Feb. 3.
The club has ceilings 20 feet tall "but we still did not want to take the chance," club owner JJ Parson said. "We said we'd prefer they not, and they went along. Everything we asked them to do, they'd do."
The governor criticized use of the pyrotechnics, saying it was unwise given the age of the building and the low ceilings inside. "I would say that using pyrotechnics inside that building you were asking for trouble," Carcieri said.
Nearly 190 people were taken to hospitals in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, with burns, broken bones and complications from smoke inhalation. The ages of the victims ranged from the teens to the late 30s.
The governor praised rescue workers for their professionalism at the emotional scene.
"Every time they bring someone out, they stop, take off their helmets, with the chaplain and they are praying over each individual person," Carcieri said.
The worst nightclub fire in the United States came on Nov. 28, 1942, when 492 people died at Boston's Cocoanut Grove nightclub when they couldn't get out of blocked and poorly marked exits.
Early Monday, 21 people were killed and more than 50 were injured in the Chicago melee, which began after a security guard used pepper spray to break up a fight. Mourners started burying those victims Friday.
Staten Island Oil Facility Fire Kills 2
Fri Feb 21, 10:48 PM
A gasoline barge exploded with a thunderous blast while it was being unloaded Friday, killing two workers and sending up a fiery column of black smoke so high it could be seen more than 30 miles away.
With the nation on high alert for terrorism, the explosion and raging fire at a Staten Island oil depot, about 20 miles from the World Trade Center attacks unnerved New York and New Jersey residents. Authorities, however, said there was no indication terrorists were involved.
One worker's body was pulled from the water in the early afternoon, and the second was recovered a few hours later, said police spokesman Lt. Elias Nikas.
An employee of Exxon Mobil Corp. - the owner of the depot - was in critical condition with third-degree burns, officials said. The 48-year-old Middletown, N.J., man had burns over 15 percent of his body, hospital officials said.
Police said the investigation remained in its preliminary stages but officials were examining whether a malfunction in a pump might have caused the explosion.
"I looked up at the sky, and I saw pieces of metal flying all over," said worker Jaime Villa, who was repairing a pump when the barge blew up. "I ran as fast as I could go. I was so scared that I lost my breath and I fell to the ground."
The barge, which contained about 4 million gallons of unleaded gasoline, was being unloaded at the 200-acre petroleum storage facility when the explosion occurred, said Prem Nair, an Exxon Mobil spokeswoman. About half of the cargo had been unloaded.
The barge eventually sank in the Arthur Kill, a waterway between Staten Island and New Jersey. The fire took about three hours to contain.
The company would not speculate on a cause of the explosion. It said no part of the storage terminal was destroyed.
"We are greatly saddened by the injuries and loss of life, and extend our deepest sympathy to the families," said Hank Muller, terminal manager for Exxon Mobil.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said many potential hazards are associated with loading and unloading fuel, including the buildup of static electricity, which can trigger an explosion.
"There is absolutely no evidence and no reason this think at this moment that this is anything other than a tragic accident," he said.
The barge was owned by Bouchard Transportation Co. which said it retained several companies to contain any spill and limit environmental damage.
The Coast Guard, which is investigating the explosion, recorded about six seconds of the blast with camera equipment used to monitor the harbor, Petty Officer Matthew Belson said. The blast rattled buildings a few miles away on the island and in New Jersey, and smoke could be seen 35 miles away in Trenton, N.J.
"I could feel the debris hitting the top of my car," said Ernie Camerlingo, a Staten Island electrical contractor driving in the area. "It was like hail coming down."
The explosion closed the busy Arthur Kill for several hours. Exxon Mobil said the accident would not cause significant interruptions in gas supply.
Transplant Patient Has Brain Damage
Fri Feb 21, 10:26 PM
Jesica Santillan, the 17-year-old girl who underwent a second heart-lung transplant after the first was botched, was found to have severe and perhaps irreversible brain damage Friday.
The girl's chief benefactor said doctors told Jesica's family the girl may be brain dead and tests would be performed Saturday. But a hospital spokesman said Jesica hadn't been declared brain dead and no tests were planned.
Mack Mahoney blamed the grim turn on Duke University Medical Center, saying image-conscious doctors hesitated to take the blame for the first, bungled operation and lost precious time in the hunt for a new set of organs.
"If she dies, they murdered her," said Mahoney, a North Carolina building contractor who started a charity in Jesica's name.
In her first transplant Feb. 7, the Mexican teenager was mistakenly given a heart and lungs from a donor with the wrong blood type. Her body rejected the organs, and she was on life support by the time a matching donor was found and a second transplant performed Thursday morning.
Though the new organs were performing well, tests early Friday showed Jesica's brain had swelled and was bleeding, said Dr. Karen Frush, the hospital's medical director of children's services. She said Jesica was also hooked up to dialysis machines because of damage to her kidneys.
"Yesterday after the transplant, we were all very hopeful," Frush said. But now, "the swelling in her brain is severe, severe to the point we fear it's irreversible."
Renee McCormick, a spokeswoman for the charity Mahoney founded, said the Santillan family was told that tests couldn't find any activity in Jesica's brain.
According to Mahoney, doctors told Jesica's family they would test her brain-wave function Saturday. But Duke spokesman Richard Puff said Friday that Jesica "has not been diagnosed as brain dead" and no tests were scheduled.
Earlier, Mahoney had said doctors told the family to prepare for a possible decision to remove the girl from life support. But her mother, Magdalena Santillan, refused to think about it, he said.
"She won't even discuss last rites because it's like giving up," Mahoney said.
Frush said there was no sure way to tell when the brain damage occurred. But Mahoney said doctors told the family it was due to the time Jesica was connected to life support.
"Life support ruins kidneys, it ruins brains, it ruins all the organs of the body," he said. "What they done is played with that little girl's life, trying to make a decision on whether they was going to fess up. They were putting their bottom line before a little girl's life."
"I'm mad. I'm enraged. I'm horrified," Mahoney said. "It's a horrifying thing. You take your child to what you considered to be the best institution in the world for a particular kind of surgery and you get this."
Hospital chief executive Dr. William Fulkerson denied that the hospital had delayed the search for new organs, and pointed out that the second set was found in a matter of days. The second transplant came 13 days after the first.
"I think we have been honest and forthcoming with Jesica's family about her medical care every step of the way and we have accepted the responsibility publicly," Fulkerson said.
Earlier Friday, as Jesica was wheeled out of her room in intensive care to have a brain scan, she had a blue ventilator hose and other tubes attached to her body, and her head was covered with surgical tissues. Her eyes were swollen so much they appeared to be open.
Her mother stood nearby, sobbing.
Jesica had a heart deformity that kept her lungs from getting oxygen into her blood. Relatives have said her family paid a smuggler to bring them from their small town near Guadalajara to the United States so she could get medical care. She waited three years for organs to become available.
In the first operation, Dr. James Jaggers implanted organs from a donor with type A blood, rather than Jesica's O-positive, a mistake Duke officials said was not discovered until the surgery was almost over.
Fulkerson said Jaggers wrongly assumed compatibility had been confirmed when he was offered the organs, and later failed to double-check that assumption, a violation of the hospital's procedures.
Duke officials explained the error in detail in a letter sent Friday to the United Network for Organ Sharing, which matches patients with donated organs.
The letter was signed by Fulkerson and Dr. Duane Davis, surgical director of Duke's lung transplant program. They said Jaggers declined the organs for one patient who was not ready for transplant and asked Carolina Donor Services, an organ procurement organization, whether they were available for Jesica.
CDS officials checked the data and called back, offering the organs to Davis, who declined because they were the wrong size for his patient. The organs were then offered to Jaggers for Jesica, the letter said.
I hate when there is so much sad news.. and especially if we go to war, which I think is really scary
Death Toll Rises to 96 in R.I. Club Fire
Fri Feb 21, 10:13 PM
At least 96 people were killed and nearly 200 more were injured Thursday night after a nightclub erupted in flames during a rock band's pyrotechnics display. The death toll rose as firefighters continued to search Friday night for remains and evidence in the charred shell of the single-story wood building.
Great White was rocking through its first song, "Desert Moon," and the fans were cheering as fireworks sprayed the stage with sparks. They kept cheering even as flames shot toward The Station nightclub's ceiling. Within three minutes, many of them were dead.
Club officials said they had not given the band permission to use pyrotechnics, a claim echoed by at least three other venues where Great White played in the past month. The band disputed the accusations, and Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch said authorities were investigating.
Many concertgoers were caught off-guard as they slowly realized the fire wasn't part of the show. Many were badly burned and others were trampled in the rush to escape, in large part through a single door.
"I never knew a place could burn so fast," said Robin Petrarca, 44, who was roughed up in the scramble to escape. She said the smoke was so thick she couldn't see an exit just 5 feet away.
It was the deadliest U.S. nightclub fire since 165 people were killed at the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Ky., in 1977. It also came less than a week after 21 people were killed in a stampede at a Chicago nightspot.
The capacity of The Station was 300, but the number of victims and survivors indicated more were inside. The death toll rose steadily Friday as firefighters picked through the smoking ruins of the single-story building.
"This building went up fast - nobody had a chance," said Gov. Don Carcieri, who rushed back to the state from a trip to Florida.
Under the glare of floodlights, a dozen firefighters and other law enforcement officials used rakes to sift through the rubble Friday night as they searched for evidence and belongings of the victims. A corner of the building was still standing, along with the marquee, still advertising Great White's appearance.
Authorities warned it could take time to identify the victims. At hospitals around the region, anguished relatives pleaded for help in finding loved ones they feared were lost in the club.
Patricia Belanger stood trembling outside Rhode Island Hospital, clutching a photo of her daughter, Dina DeMaio, who was working at the club as a waitress to earn some extra money for herself and her 7-year-old son.
Belanger said she had not been able to find her daughter and was unable to tell her grandson about his mother's possible death.
"He knows his mother didn't come back," she said.
The fire was apparently touched off by pyrotechnics moments after the '80s hard-rock band kicked off its show. A TV cameraman doing a story on nightclub safety recorded the unfolding disaster, beginning with the fireworks, followed seconds later by bright orange flames climbing curtains and soundproofing behind the stage. In moments, the stage was enveloped in a bright yellow haze; among those missing late Friday was guitarist Ty Longley.
Lead singer Jack Russell said he started dousing the fire with a water bottle but couldn't put it out. Then all the lights went out.
"All of a sudden I felt a lot of heat," Russell said. "I see the foam's on fire. ... The next thing you know the whole place is in flames."
At least 25 bodies were found near the club's front exit. Fire Chief Charles Hall said some victims were trampled.
"They tried to go out the same way they came in. That was the problem," Hall said. "They didn't use the other three fire exits."
Fire officials said the club had passed a fire inspection Dec. 31, but didn't have a city permit for pyrotechnics. The building, which is at least 60 years old, was not required to have a sprinkler system because of its small size.
The pyrotechnics were used without permission, said Kathleen Hagerty, a lawyer representing club owners Michael and Jeffrey Derderian, who are brothers.
"No permission was ever requested by the band or its agents to use pyrotechnics at The Station, and no permission was ever given," she said.
Russell said the band's manager checked with the club before the show and that the use of pyrotechnics was approved. Paul Woolnough, president of Great White's management company, also said tour manager Dan Biechele "always checks" with club officials before pyrotechnics are used. Biechele could not be located for comment.
The owner of a well-known New Jersey nightclub said Great White failed to tell him they were using pyrotechnics for a Valentine's Day show.
"Our stage manager didn't even know it until it was done," said Domenic Santana, owner of the Stone Pony in Asbury Park. "My sound man freaked out because of the heat and everything, and they jeopardized the health and the safety of our patrons."
Concert organizers also said Great White used pyrotechnics during a Feb. 7 show at the Pinellas Park Expo Center near Tampa, Fla., and a Feb. 13 show in Allentown, Pa., without discussing it with promoters or the venue.
The Rhode Island show was part of a nationwide tour. Officials at other clubs said Great White asked before using pyrotechnics and complied when they were turned down. One of those venues was the Oxygen Nightclub in Evansville, Ind., where the band played Feb. 3.
The club has ceilings 20 feet tall "but we still did not want to take the chance," club owner JJ Parson said. "We said we'd prefer they not, and they went along. Everything we asked them to do, they'd do."
The governor criticized use of the pyrotechnics, saying it was unwise given the age of the building and the low ceilings inside. "I would say that using pyrotechnics inside that building you were asking for trouble," Carcieri said.
Nearly 190 people were taken to hospitals in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, with burns, broken bones and complications from smoke inhalation. The ages of the victims ranged from the teens to the late 30s.
The governor praised rescue workers for their professionalism at the emotional scene.
"Every time they bring someone out, they stop, take off their helmets, with the chaplain and they are praying over each individual person," Carcieri said.
The worst nightclub fire in the United States came on Nov. 28, 1942, when 492 people died at Boston's Cocoanut Grove nightclub when they couldn't get out of blocked and poorly marked exits.
Early Monday, 21 people were killed and more than 50 were injured in the Chicago melee, which began after a security guard used pepper spray to break up a fight. Mourners started burying those victims Friday.
Staten Island Oil Facility Fire Kills 2
Fri Feb 21, 10:48 PM
A gasoline barge exploded with a thunderous blast while it was being unloaded Friday, killing two workers and sending up a fiery column of black smoke so high it could be seen more than 30 miles away.
With the nation on high alert for terrorism, the explosion and raging fire at a Staten Island oil depot, about 20 miles from the World Trade Center attacks unnerved New York and New Jersey residents. Authorities, however, said there was no indication terrorists were involved.
One worker's body was pulled from the water in the early afternoon, and the second was recovered a few hours later, said police spokesman Lt. Elias Nikas.
An employee of Exxon Mobil Corp. - the owner of the depot - was in critical condition with third-degree burns, officials said. The 48-year-old Middletown, N.J., man had burns over 15 percent of his body, hospital officials said.
Police said the investigation remained in its preliminary stages but officials were examining whether a malfunction in a pump might have caused the explosion.
"I looked up at the sky, and I saw pieces of metal flying all over," said worker Jaime Villa, who was repairing a pump when the barge blew up. "I ran as fast as I could go. I was so scared that I lost my breath and I fell to the ground."
The barge, which contained about 4 million gallons of unleaded gasoline, was being unloaded at the 200-acre petroleum storage facility when the explosion occurred, said Prem Nair, an Exxon Mobil spokeswoman. About half of the cargo had been unloaded.
The barge eventually sank in the Arthur Kill, a waterway between Staten Island and New Jersey. The fire took about three hours to contain.
The company would not speculate on a cause of the explosion. It said no part of the storage terminal was destroyed.
"We are greatly saddened by the injuries and loss of life, and extend our deepest sympathy to the families," said Hank Muller, terminal manager for Exxon Mobil.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said many potential hazards are associated with loading and unloading fuel, including the buildup of static electricity, which can trigger an explosion.
"There is absolutely no evidence and no reason this think at this moment that this is anything other than a tragic accident," he said.
The barge was owned by Bouchard Transportation Co. which said it retained several companies to contain any spill and limit environmental damage.
The Coast Guard, which is investigating the explosion, recorded about six seconds of the blast with camera equipment used to monitor the harbor, Petty Officer Matthew Belson said. The blast rattled buildings a few miles away on the island and in New Jersey, and smoke could be seen 35 miles away in Trenton, N.J.
"I could feel the debris hitting the top of my car," said Ernie Camerlingo, a Staten Island electrical contractor driving in the area. "It was like hail coming down."
The explosion closed the busy Arthur Kill for several hours. Exxon Mobil said the accident would not cause significant interruptions in gas supply.
Transplant Patient Has Brain Damage
Fri Feb 21, 10:26 PM
Jesica Santillan, the 17-year-old girl who underwent a second heart-lung transplant after the first was botched, was found to have severe and perhaps irreversible brain damage Friday.
The girl's chief benefactor said doctors told Jesica's family the girl may be brain dead and tests would be performed Saturday. But a hospital spokesman said Jesica hadn't been declared brain dead and no tests were planned.
Mack Mahoney blamed the grim turn on Duke University Medical Center, saying image-conscious doctors hesitated to take the blame for the first, bungled operation and lost precious time in the hunt for a new set of organs.
"If she dies, they murdered her," said Mahoney, a North Carolina building contractor who started a charity in Jesica's name.
In her first transplant Feb. 7, the Mexican teenager was mistakenly given a heart and lungs from a donor with the wrong blood type. Her body rejected the organs, and she was on life support by the time a matching donor was found and a second transplant performed Thursday morning.
Though the new organs were performing well, tests early Friday showed Jesica's brain had swelled and was bleeding, said Dr. Karen Frush, the hospital's medical director of children's services. She said Jesica was also hooked up to dialysis machines because of damage to her kidneys.
"Yesterday after the transplant, we were all very hopeful," Frush said. But now, "the swelling in her brain is severe, severe to the point we fear it's irreversible."
Renee McCormick, a spokeswoman for the charity Mahoney founded, said the Santillan family was told that tests couldn't find any activity in Jesica's brain.
According to Mahoney, doctors told Jesica's family they would test her brain-wave function Saturday. But Duke spokesman Richard Puff said Friday that Jesica "has not been diagnosed as brain dead" and no tests were scheduled.
Earlier, Mahoney had said doctors told the family to prepare for a possible decision to remove the girl from life support. But her mother, Magdalena Santillan, refused to think about it, he said.
"She won't even discuss last rites because it's like giving up," Mahoney said.
Frush said there was no sure way to tell when the brain damage occurred. But Mahoney said doctors told the family it was due to the time Jesica was connected to life support.
"Life support ruins kidneys, it ruins brains, it ruins all the organs of the body," he said. "What they done is played with that little girl's life, trying to make a decision on whether they was going to fess up. They were putting their bottom line before a little girl's life."
"I'm mad. I'm enraged. I'm horrified," Mahoney said. "It's a horrifying thing. You take your child to what you considered to be the best institution in the world for a particular kind of surgery and you get this."
Hospital chief executive Dr. William Fulkerson denied that the hospital had delayed the search for new organs, and pointed out that the second set was found in a matter of days. The second transplant came 13 days after the first.
"I think we have been honest and forthcoming with Jesica's family about her medical care every step of the way and we have accepted the responsibility publicly," Fulkerson said.
Earlier Friday, as Jesica was wheeled out of her room in intensive care to have a brain scan, she had a blue ventilator hose and other tubes attached to her body, and her head was covered with surgical tissues. Her eyes were swollen so much they appeared to be open.
Her mother stood nearby, sobbing.
Jesica had a heart deformity that kept her lungs from getting oxygen into her blood. Relatives have said her family paid a smuggler to bring them from their small town near Guadalajara to the United States so she could get medical care. She waited three years for organs to become available.
In the first operation, Dr. James Jaggers implanted organs from a donor with type A blood, rather than Jesica's O-positive, a mistake Duke officials said was not discovered until the surgery was almost over.
Fulkerson said Jaggers wrongly assumed compatibility had been confirmed when he was offered the organs, and later failed to double-check that assumption, a violation of the hospital's procedures.
Duke officials explained the error in detail in a letter sent Friday to the United Network for Organ Sharing, which matches patients with donated organs.
The letter was signed by Fulkerson and Dr. Duane Davis, surgical director of Duke's lung transplant program. They said Jaggers declined the organs for one patient who was not ready for transplant and asked Carolina Donor Services, an organ procurement organization, whether they were available for Jesica.
CDS officials checked the data and called back, offering the organs to Davis, who declined because they were the wrong size for his patient. The organs were then offered to Jaggers for Jesica, the letter said.
I hate when there is so much sad news.. and especially if we go to war, which I think is really scary
