Nightclub fire kills at least 39
Rhode Island concert's pyrotechnics eyed as cause
WEST WARWICK, Rhode Island (CNN) --At least 39 people died at a concert late Thursday and others were reported missing after a fire -- apparently ignited by an indoor pyrotechnics display -- destroyed a Providence, Rhode Island-area nightclub, officials said.
Concertgoers inside the packed nightclub fled for their lives, jamming exits as they tried to escape the fast-moving fire.
At least 164 people were injured in the fire and taken to nearby hospitals. Several were flown to the nearest burn centers in Massachusetts.
"Quite a few more" bodies remain in the smoldering ruins of The Station nightclub, said West Warwick Police Chief Peter Rousseau.
Fire investigators were carefully searching the nightclub's ruins to determine how the blaze spread so quickly. Fire officials said the club passed its annual fire inspection.
The fire broke out about 11 p.m. EST at a concert featuring the 1980s metal group Great White, known for its hit song "Once Bitten, Twice Shy." As the band began to play, pyrotechnics went off. But after the display, which lasted for several seconds, flames began to crawl up the club's wall behind the band.
At first, witnesses said, patrons thought the flames were a part of the show and continued to cheer. As the fire spread, some fans casually made their way toward the exit. Then panic broke out, according to videographer Brian Butler, who was taping part of the concert while on assignment for CNN affiliate WPRI.
"It was that fast," Butler said. "As soon as the pyrotechnics stopped, the flame had started on the egg-crate [foam] backing behind the stage, and it just went up the ceiling, and people stood and watched it.
"Some people were already trying to leave, and others were just sitting there going, 'Yeah that's great,' and I remember that statement because I was like, 'This is not great; this is time to leave.' "
As the flames spread inside the one-story club, band members jumped off the stage and joined the crowd, heading toward the exit.
"I just couldn't believe how fast it went up," Great White lead singer Jack Russell told CNN affiliate WCVB. "I'm so saddened it's such a tragedy.
"What do you say? Gee, I'm sorry? That just doesn't cut it," Russell said. "There's no words to express how I feel right now."
Russell said guitarist Ty Longley was missing.
Russell said the band had received permission from the club for the pyrotechnics, but The Station's stage technician, Paul Vanner, said he was not aware that the band planned to use fireworks.
Vanner said the club has had onstage pyrotechnics at past concerts, but there has always been a licensed expert to supervise the fireworks. He said no one was onstage to supervise Thursday night's show.
People on the videotape shot by Butler were screaming "I can't move!" as they tried to flee. Others were stacked on top of each other in the door frame as they tried to exit the nightclub.
One woman who escaped the fire told WPRI that she lived because she fled as soon as the fire began creeping up the wall behind the stage. She said she was in the front of the crowd and thus was able to see the flames.
She speculated that others, farther back in the crowd, apparently were unaware of the fire's seriousness until it was too late.
Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri called the incident a "terrible, terrible tragedy."
Vanner said the club had a crowd capacity of about 400, and he estimated some 300 to 350 attended Thursday night's concert.
"There are going to be all kinds of questions about 'How could this happen?' 'Why did this happen?' 'How was this allowed to occur?' " Carcieri told Providence's WJAR-TV. "The fire marshal says it was not permitted. So why did this go on?"
Three days ago, 21 people died and more than 50 were injured in a stampede at a Chicago, Illinois, nightclub after a security guard used pepper spray to break up a fight.
Videographer Butler was at The Station nightclub to cover local perspective on that deadly stampede.
The worst nightclub fire in U.S. history occurred November 28, 1942, at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston, Massachusetts. That inferno, fed by decorations in the ritzy nightspot, left 492 people dead.
Hope None Of You Were Caught In This Fire...
...it finally happened, there are no more secret spots
(kidding)
) in a number of East Coast cities. 
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