Feb 2003 club fire (100 killed) - owners getting off pretty damned easy

[Caffeine.addict]

wolf_meister

Still, another interesting similarity is the fact that the owner of the Cocoanut Grove and the owners of The Station were allowed to continue running their establishments despite fire violations. Now I see why there may have been a lot of people that were quite agreeable to the plea bargain and did not want some very incriminating facts to be brought out during a trial.

That is a rather disturbing similarity. As a general rule, how often a fire inspection is done? Does this happen often? In any jurisdiction?

Eutychus

Probably not. They’ve both already declared and been awarded a bankruptcy judgement. If the civil suit does anything at all, it will be just to give the victim’s families some sort of closure.

Are the families suing anyone else?

[ralph124c]

@Eutychus

Rhode Island … where the politicians love us so much they even make our liscense plates for us.

3
Yeah: this case reminded me of Buddy Cianci’s assault upon his ex-wife’s boyfriend: probabtion for beating a guy up, threatening him, and burning him with a log! The big loser here is the people: you have now learned that:

1. you cannot trust a permit of occupancy (even signed by the local police chief)
2. you cannot sue anybody rich and powerful (like the Dederians)
3. the state “justice” dept. is useless-it will always protect itself
4. your fire dept. inspectors are useless
   But on the other hand, people get the government they deserve. Just maybe, you RI Dopers will turn out this worse than useless AG! :smack:

[Northern_Piper]

@Eutychus

Probably not. They’ve both already declared and been awarded a bankruptcy judgement. If the civil suit does anything at all, it will be just to give the victim’s families some sort of closure.

But they may well have fire insurance, which would pay out a judgment against them by the families.

[wolf_meister]

Caffeine Addict
Yeah things are getting very disturbing about that fire. Here’s a recent article:

The Providence Journal: Local News, Politics & Sports in Providence, RI

Consider the unanswered questions around West Warwick fire inspector Denis P. Larocque. His voice, publicly silent now for more than three years, is what many people wanted to hear on the stand. Larocque inspected the club several times before the fire and never noted in any of his reports the illegal and highly flammable packing foam on the walls, used for sound insulation, which burned like gasoline once sparked by pyrotechnics fired by the rock band Great White.
How did he not note the foam?

And it was Larocque who twice in three months raised the nightclub’s legal capacity, to 404 people, after Michael Derderian asked if the building could hold more. A year before the fire, the club’s capacity was set at 253 people in its normal configuration and 317 when tables and chairs were removed.

Why did he raise the capacity?

Some 458 people were inside the nightclub when it burned on Feb. 20, 2003, killing 100 people and injuring more than 200 others.

[wolf_meister]

I happen to be watching Court TV at the moment.
The families of those who died in the fire are each giving their 5 minute statements.

Also, Court TV is bringing to light some new facts:
(Sorry, since this information is gathered from television, there are no cites).
• Pyrotechnics were used several times by different bands before the night of the fire.
• One of the gases produced by the burning foam was hydrogen cyanide.

It seems there are many reasons why this case was not brought to court.

[ralph124c]

Just read the book “Killer Show”. No explanation as to why the Dederian brothers were never charged with criminal negligence.
I suspect the RI AG was seriously conflicted (he wanted to run for governor).
Last week, the Providence Journal reported that almost half the nightclubs and restaurants in Providence still have not been inspected (for compliance with fire codes).