Death toll in fire rises to 24

At least 24 people were killed today after a huge fire engulfed a Rhode Island nightclub and trapped rock fans inside.

It was the second fatal US club blaze this week.

The blaze at The Station in West Warwick broke out in the middle of a pyrotechnics display by the heavy metal group Great White.

Fire Captain Russell McGillivray said 24 people had been killed and about 100 wounded.

He said many of the victims were found in the lobby area after apparently rushing frantically towards the exit.

Jack Russell, the lead singer of Great White, said the club’s manager had approved the band’s use of pyrotechnics before the show.

And he said he felt the heat of the flames while he was on stage.

“This place went up like the Fourth of July,” he said.

Television footage showed giant flames leaping into the sky. Little was left of the building in the early hours of today.

The blaze, which had started at about 11pm (4am Irish time), trapped several young people in the building.

Those who escaped either staggered out or were carried away on stretchers, many had suffered bad burns.

West Warwick town manager Wolfgang Bauer said a flame from a pyrotechnics display hit Styrofoam in the ceiling.

“Everybody knows there were pyrotechnics used in there,” he said. “We found people in a corner of the building. So there are dead people in there.”

Paul Vanner, the club’s sound technician and stage manager, said more than 300 people were at the concert.

One person from the band was missing, he said.

Chaos erupted moments after the blaze broke out. Witnesses said dozens of people rushed for the exit.

Hundreds of firefighters and police from across the region and dozens of ambulances were on the scene.

Rescuers were pulling badly injured victims from the fire as ladder trucks poured water over the flaming skeleton of the building.

“It was calm at first, everyone thought it was part of the act,” said John DiMeo, who was sitting at the bar near the front door when the fire started. “It happened so fast.”

“The place went up within a matter of two minutes,” clubber John Kudryk said.

“Two of our friends, we can’t find them” because they were seated near the front, and it appeared they did not have time to get out.

Great White is a 1980s heavy metal band whose hits include Once Bitten, Twice Shy and Rock Me.

The concert also featured the group Fathead.

West Warwick is about 15 miles south-west of Providence, the capital of the smallest state in the US.

The fire came four days after 21 people were killed and more than 50 injured during a stampede in a Chicago nightclub that began when a security guard used pepper spray to break up a fight.