Station Nightclub Owners Tell Their Side Of Story On 48 Hours
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- Опубликовано: 20 окт 2021
- The 2003 fire at the Station nightclub in Warwick, Rhode Island was one of the deadliest in U.S. history. The club's owners are telling their side of the story for the first time on 48 Hours.
I honestly don't know how these two have the gall to try and exonerate themselves after what happened. They should just do the honourable thing and keep a low profile. Their profiteering, negligent management practices and downright recklessness played a huge part in the fire and the loss of life.
It shows you just who these two are. Learned basically nothing. Still narcissists. Just trying to absolve their guilt. There is nothing that can be said to bring back the victims. It's done. Just have the presence of mind to not dig up the horrible memories of this day. Let it go.
They are trying to tell the WHOLE truth not exonerate themselves.
We knew their side of the story 20 years ago. Take a seat and sit down, boys. Show some respect for the victims, the survivors and their families.
My late boyfriend passed away in that. Sucks Man
I'm so sorry for your loss
Even if the they did not authorize the crew to use the pyrotechnics (crew says the owners said it would be fine), they had failed numerous safety inspections and bribed/cheated their way around taking action to fix the issues. They also installed highly flammable sound proofing in the roof. They also did not have emergency exits properly lit up. And reportedly they had locked certain exits to prevent people for leaving without paying for their drinks and to keep people from sneaking in without paying the cover fee.
They should just stay out of public life altogether, no one wants to hear their side.
West Warwick….. NOT Warwick
No fireworks or some sort has no business going off in a small building to begin with.
Agreed.
I agree using fireworks indoors is irresponsible, but without that polyurethane and polyethylene foam there's no way the building would've caught fire like that. Worst case, one or two people could've suffered some minor burns from the sparks.
@@sean2015 I hear that they did it before prior to this horrific night.
@@BrianLG100 good to hear from you, your username sounds familiar and I think you and I may have corresponded in the past.
Yes you are correct. There were several credible witness accounts which said that pyrotechnics had been used at The Station at least once prior to the night of the fire. According to one of the witness accounts that I read, there had been photos of pyrotechnics on the nightclub's website, which were abruptly taken down right after the fire.
Regardless, Jeff Derderian knew about the danger of that soundproofing foam for 2+ years before the fire, and we know this because he once ran a news segment on it. This was an accident waiting to happen and the guy is a lying POS.
@@sean2015 We may have. I'm not for certain.
Jeff Derdarian 2 years before the tragedy: "Another problem is what's inside the mattress, polyurethane foam," Derderian said in the report. "Fire safety experts call this stuff solid gasoline and it can cause a smoldering mattress to burst into flames."
Derderian, 36, worked as a general assignment reporter for WHDH until January, when he left to join WPRI-TV in Providence. He was at The Station the night of the fire with a cameraman working on a report for WPRI about safety in clubs in the wake of the deadly club stampede in Chicago.
The young tour manager who ignited the pyro plead guilty, accepted his punishment, gave direct and unambiguous apologies to the families and now respectfully keeps a low profile.
He'll be haunted by this for the rest of his life, but I hope he has found peace
@@colleenross8752 Most people have made stupid mistakes that put others in danger unintentionally, but he handled a horrible situation as well as it could have been handled. He probably knew that was the only way he could live with himself.
What a load of garbage. Even if standing capacity was 407, there were 462 people there, still way over capacity.
The real capacity was 200 something people. Absolutely rediculous.
It's the height of cowardice that they pleaded guilty to avoid a public trial, but have NO PROBLEM AT ALL talking to the media to tell "their side" of what happened. What's the matter? Don't want the public to hear the prosecutor lay out their case? Disgusting. Just shut up. Let the victim's families get on with their lives and grieve in peace.
These owners and the fire marshall have blood on their hands for eternity. They could have used fire proof sound insulation but chose to use the cheapest stuff they could. Like the Twisted Sister song, Burn In Hell, they should.
They put profit over safety and people died and others were permanently affected. They’re responsible for children losing parents, people losing their partners and parents losing children - in a horrific way. To have the cheek to sit there and say what they did makes me incredibly angry. I’m from Scotland and was pregnant when this happened - it was in the news here for a while because of the numbers involved and how tragic it was. It was all so completely unnecessary too - had they spent the money on sprinklers then the people who died would’ve survived and others wouldn’t be maimed. They’re a disgusting pair and I hope karma visits them soon.
Wow. I didn't know the news spread that far in the media. It puts this into additional perspective for me as a Rhode Islander.
1:16 - 1:40 this Scott James guy is full of crap.
Whether the nightclub capacity was 260, 300 or 404 is completely beside the point. For the record, there were 460 people inside the nightclub when the fire broke out. There had been as many as 480 earlier in the evening, but 15-20 people left early. So yes, the nightclub was well over capacity.
But the REAL issue was that the legal capacity had been improperly and illegally increased two times after the Derderians purchased the nightclub. Originally, it had been around 250-260. To earn additional profit and draw more bands, the Derderians leaned on the West Warwick fire marshal (Dennis Larocque) to increase it to 300. Later on they decided 300 wasn't enough and requested it to be increased even further, to 404. For reasons that will never be known, the fire marshal agreed, and he did so by illegally classifying the entire building as "standing room only" -- something no fire marshal has ever done before or since.
why was Larocque's decision not reviewed and over ridden?
@@SportsMusicCars I'm not certain but I don't believe his decision could've been overridden. As the fire marshal, he was the final authority. The buck stopped with him, so to speak. It's also possible that he knew what he was doing was dangerous and illegal, and took steps to cover it up. But that's pure speculation.
I can tell you this much however - Larocque most certainly lied when he told investigators he never noticed the soundproofing foam on the wall. I say this because he had previously cited the Derderians for an inward-swinging door at the rear of the club and that door was covered in the foam. In order to have opened the door to test it, Larocque would've had to reach through a small hole in the foam to access the door handle/door knob, so I don't believe him for a second when he says he didn't notice it. Fire marshals are usually very detail-oriented.
There is also evidence suggesting that Larocque not only noticed the foam but knew how lethal it was, and had warned the Derderians about it. I'll leave you with this food for thought...
_"Polyethylene foam - fire safety experts call this stuff 'liquid gasoline'"_
-Jeffrey Derderian, WHDH-TV (c. 2000)
@@sean2015 Larocque was a total scumbag over this whole affair. I spent a lot of good times in Rhode Island, Providence & Point Judith as a kid and went to a similar place called the Thirsty Whale in River Grove, IL, so I have a soft spot for what happened at the Station, knowing it could have happened there if circumstances had aligned. RIP to those 100 souls and those injured and to hell with those who allowed it to happen.
@@SportsMusicCars your comments about Dennis Larocque are well-taken. Larocque you could say is the "missing link" in this whole saga - he's never spoken publicly about the incident, and heck nobody is even sure what he looks like now. (I could be standing next to him in line at Target and not even know who he was). From what I heard, he moved to Florida after taking an early retirement due to some type of "disability" (probably just because he didn't want to deal with all the hate mail or interview requests from reporters).
But aside from the Derderians, he's the only player that I feel deserved to be held criminally and/or civilly liable. People constantly point fingers at Jack Russell and Dan Biechele (who I feel got scapegoated) but Larocque's name rarely gets mentioned nor does the extent to which he played a role in the fire.
It's a mystery about why he not only illegally increased the building's capacity but also why he allowed the foam on the walls. To me it's not even a question of _whether_ he noticed the foam. I am CERTAIN he noticed it -- despite his denials -- but the question is WHY would he (WHY did he) let it slide? He would have nothing to gain and everything to lose. Was he a close friend of the Derderians? Did the Derderians bribe him? (he probably made well into the six figures as it was, and the Derderians were not only cash-strapped but also notoriously cheap, so I just can't see them being able to buy him off so easily). We'll never know the answer to that.
@@sean2015 And the 64k question is why has he gotten off so easily?!? Who is protecting him? He should be hauled into court or commission and forced under oath to tell what he knows. And of course his pension should be stripped and he left homeless in the gutter...
Jeff probably should have been the one to serve prison time since he did a news report on the flammability and toxicity of polyurethane when it burns (he referred to it as solid gasoline). He knew how dangerous it would be during a fire, but still agreed to use it as “cheap” sound insulation in that place.
He did, and guess who likely told him how dangerous the polyurethane foam was?
The West Warwick fire marshal.
And had it spray-painted!!
I've read the book, seen every interview, watched the documentary....all are worth seeing.
It’s in West Warwick
If they hadn't been tight arses and skimped out on the sound proofing and sprinkler systems 100 people would still be alive.
They didn't even necessarily need a sprinkler system. They could've spent a couple of hundred more dollars on a fire-resistant foam and this never would've happened. Or they could've not been so greedy with ticket sales and limited the crowd size to no more than 300, instead of almost 500 (...462 were inside at the time the fire started and 15-20 had left early, plus there were a few people smoking in the parking lot).
They could've even headed down to Home Depot to pick up two fire extinguishers (less than a hundred bucks with tax) and even that _might_ have bought just enough time for everybody to get out safely.
But a sprinkler system would've _definitely_ saved just about everybody in the club and it would've cost them less than what they spent on their sound system.
Actually they did not skimp on the soundproofing they have a contract that showed they ordered the correct foam but was sent the wrong one which is why that company settled in a civil suit.
@@sean2015 There were fire extinguishers in the building but in the few seconds it took to get them after realizing there was a fire it was already too late.
@@drossi2362 They skimped so hard the owner literally grabbed foam from a dumpster and nailed it to the walls.
@@pax6833 I read that there were one or two fire extinguishers stashed in a closet somewhere. But they were so old (from the days before the Derderians bought the building) that they had likely become depressurized and unusable. Regardless, very few of the nightclub staff would've even known they were there or had much time to run and grab them. You had 90 seconds to be out of the building or your chances of survival were almost nil.
The owner you refer to (the one who grabbed foam from a dumpster) was actually Howard Julien. He was the previous owner before selling the building to the Derderians in early 2000. Julien put the polyethylene foam on the walls and ceilings. The Derderians are the ones who put the polyurethane egg-carton foam on top of that, creating what was later described as a "lethal sandwich" that caused the fire to become so fast and intense.
Murderers. Plain and simple.
It was Jack Russell's band not Great White. Not sure how 48 Hours butchered those facts.
The owners are POS ‘s.
I absolutely agree with you and I don’t understand why some people, not all, but why some people are coming at the cameraman?
He held up a Samsung phone 8 and started to make his way towards the door when he realized what was going on. He didn’t prevent anybody from getting out at all.
He realized what was going on and thankfully for him, he caught everything on video to show the police and the fireman.
He even ran around the whole club and at one point he found an open door and screamed inside if there was anybody in there. You can actually hear a very faint voice say help.
But the fire was just so intense that there was no way he could have gone in there.
He was also in the parking lot talking to people and sounding extremely upset at what was going on inside.
Get off the cameraman‘s back please. This happened way before people started whipping out their phones like with the iPhone these days and filming things going on in front of them and not doing anything about it.
There was nothing he could do. Layoff him please. You didn’t see him filming this for “views” like people do these days..
He was filming with a camera from the news tv station that he and Jeff worked for. This was in 2003, so the Samsung Galaxy phones weren’t a thing yet. But I definitely agree that the camera man (Brian Butler) didn’t do anything wrong at all and I hate seeing comments that are criticizing him. He was a news videographer, not a firefighter or Paramedic.
Samsung phone 8? Smfh
I know someone already replied this but I have to anyway.
This was 2003. Samsung did not make phones yet.
Lol young people are crazy.
Their greed caused this.
That venue was overpacked by three hundred AT LEAST!
Jeff DID save the cash-register…. The empty till was found in a snow-bank.
These guys are pure scum and Ari pity their children.
Listened to the book amazing sad rip all
These two both slipped through the cracks, and got away with killing 100 people.
It’s enraging enough that these two did not die in the fire, but not only are they still public figures but they keep trying to make this about them, they have no shame, at least the tour manager took responsibility, but these two just keep using the connections one of them make during his newscaster days to exonerate themselves.
It was negligence.. It was a terrible night. It was a nightmare indeed.. So many people in my age group died that day at that fire. The brothers did indeed suffer as well. It was a long time ago and they were wrong... But it's time for them to continue living their lives. I know that they psychologically suffered. Of course, all of the victims family suffered greatly. Yes, it was a preventable tragedy. It shouldn't have happened and it never will happen again due to what happened here. I spent many times looking at that video in shock and horror.. Don't think one second that these two guys didn't experience the horror as well
I cant help but worry about that Scott James' (guy in blue shirt and glasses) throat... looks a bit swollen.
I encourage people to read Trial by Fire by Scott James. The brothers were likely unfairly villainized
0:35 - Axelrod like he's sitting across from Bin Laden!
0:48 Conclusion derived....you both are still mostly liable for the lives lost in your shadily licensed business.
These two have some nerve.
Billy...Call me...
Murderers
🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪
‘Merica! 🇺🇸 🤦🏽♀️
Right, because there's never a fire anywhere else
Lock those brothers up just like the Biden Admin ;)
like the trump crime family.
These guys got railroaded. Total bs
omg