Nightclub inferno claims 95 lives

A NIGHTCLUB erupted in a raging fire during a pyrotechnics display at a rock concert, killing at least 95 people and injuring more than 160 others as frantic mobs rushed to escape.

The death toll rose yesterday as firefighters searched through the charred shell of the one-storey wood building. Town Manager Wolfgang Bauer said the number of dead had reached 65 by midday.

“They are still pulling bodies out,” Governor Don Carcieri said after rushing back to the state from a conference in Florida.

It was the deadliest US fire since nearly 80 people died in the 1993 inferno at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas. It also came less than a week after 21 people were killed in a stampede at a Chicago nightspot.

The entire club was engulfed in flames within three minutes, Fire Chief Charles Hall said. Club capacity was 300, but Hall said fewer people than that were inside the building.

The ’80s hard rock band Great White had just started playing when giant pyrotechnic sparklers on stage began shooting up and ignited the ceiling above them and soundproofing near the stage.

Robin Petrarca, 44, was standing within a few feet of a door, but said she couldn’t see the exit because of the billowing smoke. In the rush to escape, she fell and was trampled, but made it out.

Hall said the club, called The Station, had recently passed a fire inspection, but didn’t have a permit for pyrotechnics. The building, which was at least 60 years old, was not required to have a sprinkler system because of its small size.

Most of the bodies were found near the club’s front exit, some of them burned and others dead from smoke inhalation. Hall said some appeared to have been trampled.

More than 160 people were taken to area hospitals. Many were taken to Rhode Island Hospital and 38 remained there yesterday, 14 of them in critical condition.

The ages of the victims ranged from the teens to the late 30s.

The blaze broke out at about 11pm during the first song at the concert in West Warwick, about 15 miles southwest of Providence.

“All of a sudden I felt a lot of heat,” said Jack Russell, the band’s lead singer. “I see the foam’s on fire. The next thing you know the whole place is in flames.”

“I just couldn’t believe how fast it went up,” he said. Russell said one of his band members, guitarist Ty Longley, was among the missing.

Firefighters worked through the morning to pull charred bodies from the building as onlookers watched, worried about missing friends. “They were completely burned. They had pieces of flesh falling off them,” said Michelle Craine. “It was the worst thing I’ve ever seen.”