By BEACON STAFF REPORTERS
The long nightmare continues.
On Thursday night and Friday morning it was the horror of watching flames climb the walls of The Station nightclub in a video captured by TV 12 cameraman Brian Butler. In seconds what had been the rollicking start to a performance by the band Great White turned into a stampede for the door.
It didn't taken long for the shockwaves of the magnitude of the tragedy to hit. The death toll kept rising as firefighters sifted through the charred remains of the building. Also, ever so slowly, the bodies were identified and the next of kin notified. The community responded. Funds for the families of the victims were established, special services were planned and the clergy addressed the crisis from the pulpit offering solace.
The process continued Sunday and the focus turned to the agony of family and friends waiting to learn about loved ones. Eleven buses, a procession of a dimension contradictory to the nation's smallest state, left the Crowne Plaza and proceeded up Route 2 to the scene of the fire.
It didn't stop yesterday and it won't stop tomorrow. The story of the fire will be told over and over.
The search for answers continued yesterday as Attorney General Patrick Lynch, one of the first to arrive for the afternoon briefing, was immediately mobbed by reporters and cameramen in the gymnasium of the emergency management facility on New London Avenue in Cranston. Lynch was drilled with questions about the ongoing investigation, including a search warrant executed for club co-owner Michael Derderian's Narragansett home. Lynch's response to that and other questions was that he would neither confirm nor deny because the investigation was still ongoing. After about 10 minutes he was pulled out of the center of the crowd by an aid into a briefing room for officials.
Governor Donald Carcieri took to the podium about 20 minutes later and announced that the forensic exams were complete for the 97 confirmed dead. A total of 55 people as of Monday afternoon were identified. Only 29 names had been released to the public, pending family notification. About 80 remained in hospitals in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, with about 24 still listed in critical condition. Carcieri was still hopeful Monday afternoon that all the recovered bodies could still be identified.
The governor admitted that they might never know the exact number of people who attended The Station on Feb. 20. There were three concerts scheduled that evening.
“It is an impossible number to get at,” said Carcieri, noting that many may have left not needing medical attention. Crowd estimates linger around 285.
Among the confirmed dead are Ty Longley of California, the Great White guitarist, and Tracy King of Warwick. Scott Avedisian said yesterday that King was the first person he hired as mayor. King worked in sanitation up until about two weeks ago when he was transferred to the Department of Public Works. Avedisian said he had feared King had died in the fire and that his identification, while a shock, was not a surprise.
Early on Monday morning Carcieri received a phone call from President George W. Bush. The president, according to Carcieri, “expressed great sympathy and compassion” for all those involved. Bush was also complimentary, says Carcieri, on how the state is handling the situation.
After speaking about Bush, Carcieri announced he sent a letter asking that the Federal Emergency Management Agency declare the site a federal disaster area. As of the briefing the state was awaiting a federal response.
He continued and said that as of Wednesday the state's Family Resource Center would be operational. All of the pertinent state, local and community agencies will be put under one roof for victims' families. In addition, the Secretary of State's office is hosting a family resource website. The website, www.sec.state.ri.us was operational Monday.
On Friday – a bright and warm day that was so contrary to the near blizzard conditions Monday and Tuesday – the curiosity seekers and those hunting for their loved ones came to the scene. They walked in from all directions as police had sealed off Cowesett Avenue.
Jackie Bernard of Cranston relived the horror of Thursday night again and again on Friday. Bernard, her face swollen from tears and lack of sleep, looked blankly as equipment lifted burning embers and firefighters probed the smoldering remains of The Station for bodies. She had told her story to television crews the night before and she was telling it again. As she talked the crowd of reporters grew. Some started asking questions she had already answered, but she didn't mind. Camera crews gathered, poking microphones through the group. Bernard, as if in shock, seemed not to notice. Her sentences were short and she kept talking about Tina.
Tina Ayers of Oakland Beach and Bernard are housekeepers at the Fairfield Inn. An out-of-town reporter wanted to know why housekeepers were working in a lounge. No, explained a local reporter, the Fairfield Inn is a hotel where the band had been staying. Bernard said she and Ayers were given guest passes to the concert. Bernard decided to check it out, although, “I don't go to this kind of music.”
The duo was standing near the middle of the room when Great White took the stage. The fire spread so quickly Bernard didn't have time to think about what was happening or why.
Until Thursday she had never been in a fire, yet she says she is fearful of fire and regularly checks to make certain she extinguishes her cigarettes. She knew she had to get out and she grabbed Ayers by her leather coat.
“I just ran and cut through peopleeverybody was just pushing,” she said.
As the fire spread across the ceiling, Bernard, now fearing she wasn't going to get out, somehow lost her grip on her friend. The coat slipped from her hand.
“They were fighting for their lives to get out,” she said of patrons.
Free from the building, Bernard said firefighters were arriving. The people outside were trying to help those still in the inferno. Snow was piled on the heads and around the bodies of those being pulled from the building to extinguish flames.
Bernard went across the street to wait for her friend. Ayers never showed.
“When I looked up the fire was coming and I let go,” she told reporters.
“You're still shaking, take it easy,” one of the reporters advised.
Bernard didn't seem to hear what was said. She stared at the drifting smoke still rising from what had been The Station.
“I let go,” she kept saying.
Warwick Police Chief Col. Stephen McCartney accompanied by Major Thomas Carmody stood nearby. Like so many in the crowd he looked dazed.
Twenty-six Warwick police officers responded to the scene Thursday night. McCartney couldn't say if all Warwick lounges are equipped with sprinklers, but it would be something he will check into.
“There will be an after action critique,” he said.
That session is to be held sometime this week in an effort to analyze how the nightmare could have been avoided and what authorities might do now.
“We will all try to sit back and say how some good is going to come from such tragedy,” he said.
Guitarist Dan Roy, who has played at The Station, was in New Hampshire when he heard the news. His concern was for DJ “Doctor Metal” Mike Gonsalves of Warwick, and he had driven to the scene in hopes of learning more about the veteran DJ with Radio Station WHJY. He talked with a reporter remembering how he played at Cracker Jacks, the former name of the establishment, but his mind was on Doctor Metal. He feared the worst, but kept hoping.
Jack Russell, the lead singer of Great White, took a moment Friday to talk about the fire. When asked by a reporter what he was doing here, he responded, “What else am I going to do, go home and watch it on TV.” He indicated that a fan had died in a previous show in Germany, apparently from a drug overdose. After a few moments of speaking with the reporters he returned to the Cowesett Inn, a central location for victims and officials.
With so many people knowing so many in Rhode Island, it seemed like almost everybody had a connection to someone who had either been at The Station, had planned to be there for the concert but hadn't gone or feared a relative was at the scene.
Congressman James Langevin said his first thought was for his younger sister, Joanne. He thought she might have gone to the concert and immediately called his father. Both Joanne and her mother, June, were in Vermont, to Langevin's relief.
Sergeant Jack Ryan of the Rhode Island National Guard stood nearby as reporters swarmed to hear what Gov. Donald Carcieri had to say.
Ryan said that two recent enlistees had been at the show. They made it out and were in stable condition at Kent Hospital. 
Warwick resident John DiMeo said he and two of his friends decided at the last minute to attend the concert. DiMeo, 29, said he got to the concert about 10:15, just as one of the opening acts was getting off the stage. Soon after the fire broke out, he said people, thinking it was part of the show, were impressed.
“They were saying, ‘Wow, look at that!'” said DiMeo. “At first the walls were glowing before they caught fire. Then it spread across the ceiling.”
According to DiMeo, once the ceiling was covered in flames, the concertgoers realized they needed to make their way toward the exit.
“People starting screaming and trying to get out,” he said. “It happened so fast.”
DiMeo said after he got out, he went back to the doorway and started pulling people out of the burning club.
“I got about 10 or 12 people out,” he said.
DiMeo said there were “people on the ground, mostly females, pushing and pushing. It seemed like heavy guys were trying to jump on top of these females [to get out] and [the women] didn't have a chance.”
From there, officials took over and DiMeo hung around until about 3 a.m. Both of his friends got out safely, although one went to the hospital. DiMeo said he didn't get any sleep.
“I watched TV when I got home and came back here around 9:30,” he said.
Like many others, DiMeo said he felt like he had to be there. Wearing sunglasses and a black leather jacket, DiMeo hung around the Cowesett Inn, talking to reporters and letting it all sink in.
Looking back, DiMeo said he couldn't believe that these events actually took place. Considering the four fire exits and a front wall made of nearly entirely glass, how this tragedy became so fatal is beyond him.
“I don't understand why more people didn't get out,” he said.
When asked if he was hurt, DiMeo answered, “Mentally.”
“It was a nightmare,” he said, “something that will be with me the rest of my life.”
Aside from the media, people from across the state gathered on Cowesett Avenue. Some were neighbors from a block away, while others came from as far as Lincoln and Scituate. A few said they had friends who frequented the club and thought they might have attended the show.
Laura Morrow of West Warwick said she visited the club often and had thought about going to Thursday night's show. Concerned for the bartenders that were inside, Morrow said there could have been others she knew.
“It was like Cheers,” she said. “Everybody knew each other.”
Morrow said that this was not the first time pyrotechnics had been used inside the club.
“It would get so hot you could feel the heat on your face,” she said.
Two former Warwick residents, Nancy Dion (now of West Warwick) and Susan Kwasnieski of Scituate could be seen standing with the rest, staring at the fire trucks that blocked the view into black burnt timber that remained. Kwasnieski said she was going to donate blood, but when she found the Rhode Island Blood Center didn't open until 11 a.m., she said she figured she would bide her time at the scene.
“I wanted to come,” she said. “I was just there for my 35th birthday.”
Kwasnieski said her husband told her to check out the news last night after he recognized the club they had just celebrated her birthday at.
“It's so tragic,” she said.
Dion, who lives just a few blocks from The Station, said she drove by with her husband on their way home from playing cards earlier in the evening.
“There were cars packed straight down the road,” she said. “I said to my husband, ‘We should stop in there and see the show.' Thank God I'm too old!”
Dion said she took her dog out for a walk around 11:15 p.m. and saw the flames.
“They were just shooting through up to the sky,” she said.
Dion said that she walked down to the fire, which looked like “a war zone.”
“There were people hanging around everywhere that had been inside,” she said. “It was a really terrible thing to see.”
Editor's note: Ben Clark, Joy Fox, John Howell and Kelly Smith collaborated on this story.