Relatives bussed in as police investigate nightclub inferno

Svea Herbst-Bayliss, West Warwick

To honour the dead and the families’ grief, friends and relatives were bussed to the blackened remains of the wood-framed building yesterday afternoon after asking Rhode Island Governor Don Carcieri for a formal viewing of the scene. Carcieri, seeking to keep news cameras away, also imposed an 8km no-fly zone over the building’s rubble, now surrounded by a newly-erected chain link fence.

Pathologists and dentists, meanwhile, worked through the night at the state’s medical examiner’s offices in Providence about 15 miles away to identify the remains of the victims from Thursday night’s fire.