0:00 [SPEAKER_01]: Listener, if you've been here for a while, you know that from time to time, I'll release a free black label to the feed as a promotional tactic to promote the Patreon. 0:10 [SPEAKER_01]: But I wanna give you a heads up on this episode. 0:12 [SPEAKER_01]: This particular episode is very dark. 0:16 [SPEAKER_01]: It has very extreme content. 0:18 [SPEAKER_01]: You should know that going in. 0:19 [SPEAKER_01]: With that said, if you do enjoy the episode, considering heading to patreon.com slash obscure crime podcast, there's almost 10 years worth of content. 0:30 [SPEAKER_01]: It's frankly an absurd amount. 0:32 [SPEAKER_01]: And it costs less than a gallon of gas. 0:35 [SPEAKER_01]: All right, let's get on with it. 0:37 [SPEAKER_01]: Listener, I'm sure you've heard about the station nightclub fire before, but I want you to hold on tight because there's been some recent developments that make this a new case. 0:50 [SPEAKER_01]: There's something called the picket tape or the Matthew picket tape and it's a significant piece of evidence because a recorder was found with his body and it remained fully functional. 1:02 [SPEAKER_01]: He was an avid gore to concerts in the area. 1:05 [SPEAKER_01]: and he would record Boogs of various concerts. 1:09 [SPEAKER_01]: When Matthew Pighead succumbed to the fire, this recorder stayed underneath him. 1:14 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, very recently, as in very, very recently, this tape was released in the audio is much, much clearer. 1:25 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, despite that, it hasn't really made the rounds as far as true crime goes. 1:31 [SPEAKER_01]: I think part of it is that the audio is very, very disturbing. 1:35 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to play about seven minutes of it later on in the episode, and you should know it is very tough to get through. 1:43 [SPEAKER_01]: In coverage of this case that you'll find on the internet, typically speaking, it will be this one videotape that has circulated for ages, in which somebody records from the outside of the building. 1:56 [SPEAKER_01]: What makes this tape different is this was recorded from within? 2:00 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, with that explained, let's get to black label. 2:51 [SPEAKER_00]: I've always said, you know, being a firefighter was the greatest job in the world. 3:01 [SPEAKER_00]: It's just sometimes you wish you weren't working. 3:07 [SPEAKER_00]: My issues and my evils from that night of my own. 3:12 [SPEAKER_00]: Somehow, for me, it was very quiet. 3:16 [SPEAKER_00]: We were relegated to taking our stretcher. 3:20 [SPEAKER_00]: and going and standing at the front door of the station nightclub and waiting and waiting for the next victim. 3:33 [SPEAKER_01]: Rhode Island in the early 2000s was a quiet corner of New England, where life moved at a slower pace than your average big city. 3:42 [SPEAKER_01]: Factories at one's humble textile work had long since gone silent, 3:49 [SPEAKER_01]: And on a cold winter night in February 2003, most people stayed indoors and lost something special pulled them out. 3:57 [SPEAKER_01]: For the rock and roll faithful in West Warwick, in the surrounding communities, that something special was a Thursday night concert at a little venue called the Station. 4:08 [SPEAKER_00]: Our stretcher and ourselves, myself and my partner, were standing there watching the fire for it, is working not 10 feet from us. 4:17 [SPEAKER_00]: And they were pulling bodies up with ropes. 4:25 [SPEAKER_00]: They were reaching in, last swimming, and just pulling. 4:29 [SPEAKER_00]: And as bodies would come out, they would 4:34 [SPEAKER_00]: They had trouble trying to get them to the area that was marked as the morgue temporary mortgage was nothing more than a tarp laid on the ground. 4:48 [SPEAKER_00]: And now, stretcher was in such a way that as they dragged them over the foot of one car, they would use the stretcher for the bridge to get them over to the foot of the other car, to get them over to drag them over to the morgue area. 5:01 [SPEAKER_00]: The rule is, puffless and breathless, in a mass casualty, are not viable. 5:08 [SPEAKER_00]: And the hardest part for me at that point was standing there waiting for a quote viable victim in watching all of these individuals laying on a top. 5:18 [SPEAKER_00]: And they didn't look that bad as you looked over that night and being in the winter and the bodies were 5:24 [SPEAKER_00]: on the ground and they were steaming and you would look and you'd say, is that a breath and you would hoping and you knew you couldn't go over it. 5:31 [SPEAKER_00]: You knew you had to stand right there and do what you had to do. 5:35 [SPEAKER_00]: You had to wait for someone to come out with a pulse and a breath and that wasn't happening. 5:44 [SPEAKER_00]: Until Linda came up. 5:47 [SPEAKER_00]: In the young guy just stopped in this look in his eyes and he said, it moved. 5:54 [SPEAKER_00]: And I looked and I said, back, no, it didn't. 5:58 [SPEAKER_00]: And it was the first time I had referred to anyone as an it, but you couldn't tell. 6:06 [SPEAKER_00]: You couldn't. 6:08 [SPEAKER_00]: You could see it was obviously a person, but the injuries were such that you couldn't decipher male from female. 6:19 [SPEAKER_00]: And then, 6:21 [SPEAKER_00]: They were arguing that it hadn't moved and then she just read her head and made this sound trying to tell us that, you know, that she was alive and I was like, oh god. 6:44 [SPEAKER_00]: So we got her in the truck, and I remember David saying to me, from the front, we're not getting out of here. 6:52 [SPEAKER_00]: We were blocked in. 6:54 [SPEAKER_00]: Her injuries were primarily head. 6:59 [SPEAKER_00]: Her left arm was burnt pretty much her hand was gone. 7:03 [SPEAKER_00]: Her ears were not noticeable. 7:07 [SPEAKER_00]: She had no hair left. 7:10 [SPEAKER_00]: to my disbelief and amazement when we were cutting the clothes she reached behind her and tried to cover herself, which meant to me which told me that she knew exactly what was going on. 7:25 [SPEAKER_00]: And the fact that she could know what was going on and know that she was holding my hand 7:33 [SPEAKER_00]: I couldn't comprehend because I couldn't imagine and I hate to say this, but I couldn't imagine the brain surviving that kind of heat in the skull. 7:43 [SPEAKER_00]: Just that alone. 7:44 [SPEAKER_00]: Never let alone what she inhaled. 7:46 [SPEAKER_00]: Let alone, you know, the amount of burns she had. 7:50 [SPEAKER_01]: The club sat in a squat single-story wood frame building with a footprint of 412 square meters. 7:58 [SPEAKER_01]: It started life back in 1946 as a simple gym mill before cycling through life as a restaurant, a pub, and finally a rock venue, 1991. 8:09 [SPEAKER_01]: The place was nothing fancy, most ceilings exposed 8:17 [SPEAKER_01]: But it was a home for local bands and touring acts. 8:20 [SPEAKER_01]: I wanted an intimate spot to play. 8:23 [SPEAKER_01]: The sound was loud, the beer was cold. 8:25 [SPEAKER_01]: And for one night, the crowd could forget the grind of everyday life. 8:30 [SPEAKER_00]: So my ride was very sat on the floor because sure, head was down. 8:34 [SPEAKER_00]: And I knew she couldn't see me, but I just wanted. 8:36 [SPEAKER_00]: Somehow, I heard a note that I was close. 8:39 [SPEAKER_00]: And sat on the floor. 8:41 [SPEAKER_00]: And like I said, I was injecting her with one hand. 8:44 [SPEAKER_00]: I was holding her hand with my other. 8:46 [SPEAKER_00]: And then I was praying, and I was praying that someone wasn't going to make it. 8:57 [SPEAKER_00]: I remember that feeling of just looking at the totality of this young woman's injuries. 9:05 [SPEAKER_00]: And the fact that modern medicine is where it's at, the potential of her surviving this 9:17 [SPEAKER_00]: And I know that sounds terrible, but she needed to be comfortable. 9:21 [SPEAKER_00]: We needed to be there. 9:23 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, she needed to be out of there 10 or 15 minutes sooner. 9:26 [SPEAKER_00]: Or we needed to be there five minutes later. 9:30 [SPEAKER_00]: And I've never prayed like that before. 9:35 [SPEAKER_00]: And it's a hard thing to swallow. 9:39 [SPEAKER_00]: even to this day, to imagine, dedicating my career to helping people and praying and sitting on the floor, praying that someone would go. 9:49 [SPEAKER_00]: It's not something that you usually do. 9:54 [SPEAKER_00]: My faith is wandered. 9:58 [SPEAKER_00]: I have a hard time now, thinking of God and having. 10:05 [SPEAKER_01]: Brothers Michael and Jeffree bought the club in March 2000. 10:10 [SPEAKER_01]: Michael handled the day-to-day operations while Jeffree kept his day job as a reporter for a local television station. 10:17 [SPEAKER_01]: They wanted to make the place viable so they tackled the biggest complaint from neighbors. 10:21 [SPEAKER_01]: Noise. 10:22 [SPEAKER_01]: In the months leading up to the fire, they line the walls and ceiling around the stage with polytherane, a foam ordered from American foam corporation. 10:32 [SPEAKER_01]: It was the kind of cheap stuff that meant for packing crates, not the flame-retarded version, required for public spaces. 10:40 [SPEAKER_01]: The phone was never tested for fire safety. 10:42 [SPEAKER_01]: The building itself had no sprinkler system, Rhode Island building codes, grandfathered older structures like this one in, because they predated 1976 requirements. 10:54 [SPEAKER_01]: The main entrance funneled into an arrow hallway, 11:00 [SPEAKER_01]: The license capacity was 404, but that number meant nothing on a night when the house was packed. 11:07 [SPEAKER_01]: The building sat on a wand, set back 42 meters. 11:11 [SPEAKER_01]: There was no direct street access from the western south, parking for over 100 cars filled the front and west side. 11:18 [SPEAKER_01]: A small basement sat under the main bar room. 11:20 [SPEAKER_01]: The north facing front door led into a short vestibule, with double doors 11:29 [SPEAKER_01]: windows align the north side in the main bar area. 11:32 [SPEAKER_01]: In the sunroom, a platform sat on the west end, with the drummers of clove, recessed in the corner, addressing room tucked into the northwest corner. 11:42 [SPEAKER_01]: The main bar formed a horseshoe shape on the left, the kitchen separated the bar from a smaller dart room, and back bar. 11:50 [SPEAKER_01]: Restrooms, office, and storage filled the rear, three emergency exits existing. 11:56 [SPEAKER_01]: The front main entrance, the platform side door, and the main bar side door. 12:01 [SPEAKER_01]: A fourth kitchen door stayed off limits to patrons. 12:04 [SPEAKER_01]: The show that evening was built as a throwback to the glory days of hair metal. 12:08 [SPEAKER_01]: Local openers tripping fat head, warmed up the crowd, followed by WHGYDJ, Dr. Metal. 12:16 [SPEAKER_01]: He hyped the room with a signature ground and kept the energy high. 12:20 [SPEAKER_01]: Then at 11-07 PM, the headliners took the stage. 12:50 [SPEAKER_01]: Jack Russell's Great White, and off shoot of the 80s Glamban, Great White, lead singer Jack Russell, guitarist Mark Kendall, bassist David Phyllis, drummer Eric Powers, and guitarist Ty Wong Lee, wants into their first song, Desert Moon. 13:06 [SPEAKER_01]: The house lights dropped, the crowd pressed forward, beers in hand, singing along to the familiar riffs, 450 people filled the space, shoulder to shoulder, some standing, some sitting at tables, bodies packed tight enough that movement felt restricted even before the panic hit. 13:40 [SPEAKER_01]: Storm Manager Daniel Bashou, stepped forward with four pyro-technic verbs. 13:45 [SPEAKER_01]: These were cylindrical canisters designed to shoot controlled sprays of sparks, 15 feet high for about 15 seconds, two angled at 45 degrees, two straight up. 13:58 [SPEAKER_01]: He'd use them dozens of times before on this tour. 14:01 [SPEAKER_01]: The club owner had given verbal permission earlier that day, but she'll let them from the side of the stage near a dressing room. 14:09 [SPEAKER_01]: Sparks flew in a brilliant white cascade. 14:12 [SPEAKER_01]: Some landed directly on the phone behind the drummers' o'clove. 14:15 [SPEAKER_01]: Nine seconds after ignition, flames appeared on the wall above the stage. 14:20 [SPEAKER_01]: The crowd cheered at first. 14:22 [SPEAKER_01]: They thought it was part of the act. 15:15 [SPEAKER_01]: 19 seconds in, the flames climbed higher. 15:18 [SPEAKER_01]: Band members started glancing back. 15:20 [SPEAKER_01]: 25 seconds, the fire reached the ceiling. 15:24 [SPEAKER_01]: 35 seconds, the band killed the music. 15:27 [SPEAKER_01]: Jack Russell leaned in the microphone and said calmly, wow, that's not good. 15:33 [SPEAKER_02]: Wow, that's good. 15:38 [UNKNOWN]: Wow, that's good, good. 15:38 [SPEAKER_03]: Get the fuck outta here! 15:43 [SPEAKER_01]: 40 seconds after the Gurb's fired, the band walked off stage. 15:47 [SPEAKER_01]: The club's fire alarm finally sounded, strobes flashing, but it was not wired to the fire department. 15:53 [SPEAKER_01]: It did nothing to alert responders. 15:54 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no 16:21 [SPEAKER_01]: One minute after ignition, thick black smoke poured down from the ceiling, like a waterfall of ink. 16:27 [SPEAKER_01]: The polytherane foam burned fast and dirty, releasing hydrogen cyanide carbon monoxide and superheated gases, visibility dropped to zero in seconds. 16:39 [SPEAKER_01]: Temperatures inside the main room, spiked past 1,000 degrees Celsius near the floor, within 90 seconds. 16:51 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, 17:12 [SPEAKER_01]: The stamp he'd begin towards the only exit. 17:15 [SPEAKER_01]: Most people knew from the front door. 17:17 [SPEAKER_01]: Up to two thirds of the crowd, funneled into that narrow and hollow way. 17:21 [SPEAKER_01]: People tripped over each other in the dark. 17:24 [SPEAKER_01]: Those behind-cap pushing forward, blind with terror. 17:28 [SPEAKER_01]: Body's piled up four and five deep. 17:31 [SPEAKER_01]: The first 90 or so made it out. 17:33 [SPEAKER_01]: Everyone after that, in a wall of flesh. 17:45 [UNKNOWN]: Ah! 17:46 [UNKNOWN]: Ah! 17:48 [UNKNOWN]: Ah! 17:51 [UNKNOWN]: Ah! 17:52 [UNKNOWN]: Ah! 17:54 [SPEAKER_03]: Ah! 17:56 [UNKNOWN]: Ah! 17:56 [UNKNOWN]: Ah! 17:57 [SPEAKER_01]: Survivors later described the crush as a living nightmare. 18:01 [SPEAKER_01]: Ribs cracked under boots, faces pressed into the carpet, until nose is broken teeth shattered. 18:07 [SPEAKER_01]: People clawed at backs and hair and clothes, trying to climb over the growing mound of the fallen, smoke rolled out over their heads. 18:16 [SPEAKER_01]: And a black cloud will flames licked at the door frame. 18:20 [SPEAKER_01]: Some victims were already unconscious from the toxic gas 18:27 [SPEAKER_01]: Mung's burn from the inside, as superheated air, scorched throats and wind pipes, skin blistered and peeled and sheets, hair ignited like dry tinder, a few dozen broke windows along the front, inside, shattered glass sliced arms and legs as people shoved friends through the opening, blood mixed with melting plastic dripping from the ceiling, 20 people escape through the stage door, after bouncer's finally gave way. 18:54 [SPEAKER_01]: Twelve slipped out and employee exit. 18:57 [SPEAKER_01]: But inside the main room, conditions turned unservivable, almost instantly. 19:02 [SPEAKER_01]: On the dance floor in the sun room, and near the bar, people collapsed where they stood. 19:07 [SPEAKER_01]: The phone melted and dripped burning plastic onto the heads and shoulders, fusing flesh to the floor and grotesque puddles. 19:16 [SPEAKER_01]: Some victims are found fused to each other from the heat. 19:19 [SPEAKER_01]: Their bodies melted together in a final best for embrace. 19:23 [SPEAKER_01]: Others lay curled in fetal positions, skin cracked and black and like overcooked meat. 19:28 [SPEAKER_01]: Hair burned away in patches, leaving raw scalp exposed. 19:32 [SPEAKER_01]: I swelled shut from the heat, lip split and blood. 19:36 [SPEAKER_01]: They're itself like fire in the lungs, turning every breath into a scream, and never left the throat. 20:07 [SPEAKER_02]: Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, 20:54 [SPEAKER_02]: One, two, three, four, three, four, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five, five 21:43 [SPEAKER_03]: Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god 23:11 [SPEAKER_01]: The first 911 calls came in within 60 seconds of ignition. 23:16 [SPEAKER_01]: West Warwick Fire Engines rolled at 11.10 pm, engine 4 arrived at 11.13 pm, and stretched a hose line. 23:25 [SPEAKER_01]: By then, the building was fully involved. 23:27 [SPEAKER_01]: Flames shop from every window in door. 23:30 [SPEAKER_01]: Firefighters found a mountain of bodies blocking the front entrance. 23:33 [SPEAKER_01]: They pulled people out by the arms and legs. 23:36 [SPEAKER_01]: Some already charred beyond recognition. 23:38 [SPEAKER_01]: Other still twitching as the last oxygen left their blood. 23:42 [SPEAKER_01]: Skin hung in black and strips. 23:44 [SPEAKER_01]: Faces were swollen and unrecognizable. 23:47 [SPEAKER_01]: One firefighter later recalled grabbing a hand that came off in his glove, like overcooked meat sliding from the bone. 23:53 [SPEAKER_01]: Another dragged a woman free, only to realize her lower body had fused to the carpet and a puddle of melted foam. 24:00 [SPEAKER_01]: The smell of burnt plastic and roasted flesh clung to their gear for weeks, no matter how many times they watched it. 24:08 [SPEAKER_01]: A triage center spring up across the street, ambulances from war with cover tree and cramped and poured in. 24:14 [SPEAKER_01]: Can't hospital filled the capacity. 24:17 [SPEAKER_01]: Doctors and nurses worked through the night, treating third degree burns covering entire bodies. 24:23 [SPEAKER_01]: ones filled with certain cyanide, some patients arrived with eyes melted shut and covered in melted plastic. 24:31 [SPEAKER_01]: Others had limbs so crushed from the stampede that bones protruded through skin. 24:36 [SPEAKER_01]: The smell of burnt hair and roasted flesh hung in the air for days, paramedics triaged on the spot, deciding who could wait and who needed immediate transport. 24:46 [SPEAKER_01]: who was beyond saving. 24:48 [SPEAKER_01]: Even if they were still in the process of dying, bodies lay and rose on the frozen ground. 24:54 [SPEAKER_01]: Some still warm, some already stiff. 24:57 [SPEAKER_01]: One young man pulled from the pile, at his face pressed so hard into another victim's back, that the imprep of clothing remained seared to his cheek. 25:06 [SPEAKER_01]: A woman found near the bar, had her arms locked around a friend in a deathgrip. 25:11 [SPEAKER_01]: Both bodies fused at the shoulders from the dripping foam. 25:15 [SPEAKER_01]: They roofed over the main bar collapsed at 11.57pm. 25:19 [SPEAKER_01]: A second collapse in the sunroom followed at 12.07am. 25:23 [SPEAKER_01]: By 13am, the last survivors and bodies had been cleared. 25:27 [SPEAKER_01]: 96 people died at the scene. 25:31 [SPEAKER_01]: Four more succumbed in hospitals in the days and weeks afterward. 25:35 [SPEAKER_01]: Mung the dead were guitarist Ty Wong Lee, DJ Michael Gonzalez, and three members of fathead, plus one of their wives, 230 other survived with injuries ranging from third degree burns, covering entire bodies, to permanent lung damage, crushing trauma that left some unable to walk again. 25:54 [SPEAKER_01]: Nicholas O'Neill, just 18, came with friends to see the band. 25:59 [SPEAKER_01]: Never made it home. 26:00 [SPEAKER_01]: His parents Dave Kane and Joanne O'Neill later become voices for forgiveness and the face of unimaginable loss. 26:07 [SPEAKER_01]: Abby Hosington, 28, died in the crush. 26:11 [SPEAKER_01]: Her father Leeland later spoke publicly about the pain of losing his daughter to a night that should have been fun. 26:17 [SPEAKER_01]: Factory workers off duty, police officers college students and parents, 26:24 [SPEAKER_01]: All Paris together, the fire held no prejudice. 26:28 [SPEAKER_01]: One survivor named Brian, who was trapped near the stage, described watching the fire rays across the ceiling like a living thing. 26:35 [SPEAKER_01]: He said the heat was so intense, it felt like his eyeballs were boiling in their sockets. 26:40 [SPEAKER_01]: Another survivor, John, were called crawling over bodies in the hallway, his hand sinking into soft, charred flesh. 26:48 [SPEAKER_01]: that gave and tear with each press as he fought for air. 26:53 [SPEAKER_01]: A woman who escaped through a broken window had glass embedded so deep in her arms that doctors removed shards for weeks afterward. 27:00 [SPEAKER_01]: The friend did not make it out. 27:02 [SPEAKER_01]: The friend's body was found pressed against the window frame, half in and half out. 27:08 [SPEAKER_01]: Skin melted to the sill. 27:09 [SPEAKER_01]: Torman and Jardinio Bishel, the 32-year-old road veteran who lit the herbs, had worked with 27:17 [SPEAKER_01]: He later told police he believed the pyrotatinics were safe, and that the club owners had approved them. 27:22 [SPEAKER_01]: He carried the weight of 100 deaths on his shoulder for the rest of his life. 27:27 [SPEAKER_01]: The Jardarian brothers of Michael and Jeffrey faced their own reckoning. 27:31 [SPEAKER_01]: Michael, the hands-on owner, had personally overseen the installation of the deadly foam. 27:36 [SPEAKER_01]: Jeffrey, the reporter, turned a club owner, had filmed parts of the show that night. 27:41 [SPEAKER_01]: with a camera crew hoping to capture footage for a new segment. 27:45 [SPEAKER_01]: Both men insisted they had no idea the phone was so flammable. 27:49 [SPEAKER_01]: The fire spread with merciless speed because every factor lined up perfectly against survival. 27:54 [SPEAKER_01]: No sprinklers, wrong phone, overcrowding, a single viable exit for most. 28:00 [SPEAKER_01]: The polyurethane foam ignited in seconds and raised across the ceiling as speeds that left no time for escape. 28:11 [SPEAKER_01]: People who tried to hide in the bathrooms are behind the bar, they were suffocated in minutes. 28:17 [SPEAKER_01]: Everything that could go wrong did. 28:19 [SPEAKER_01]: Then you'd be shown pleaded guilty to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter in 2006. 28:26 [SPEAKER_01]: The judge sent it to him to four years in prison. 28:29 [SPEAKER_01]: He served just under two before being released in 2008. 28:33 [SPEAKER_01]: Families of the victims packed in the courtroom to meet in the middle, I guess. 28:41 [SPEAKER_01]: Michelle broke down in tears during a statement telling the court, quote, I live with this every day. 28:47 [SPEAKER_01]: The Daderian brothers were also charged with triple-digit counts of involuntary manslaughter as well. 28:53 [SPEAKER_01]: Michael who installed the phone, but no contest and received four years in prison. 28:58 [SPEAKER_01]: Jeffrey, who was at the club that night, and it would film the show, received three years probation, and 500 hours of community service, both men maintain that they had no knowledge of the phone's dangers, and blame the fire inspector who had visited the club multiple times without flagging the issue. 29:14 [SPEAKER_01]: The fire marshal was never charged, Rhode Island Mall, grant to him immunity for actions taken in good faith. 29:21 [SPEAKER_01]: Civil lawsuits followed, families of the dead and injured, sued the cobb owners, Great White, the phone manufacturer, even the town of West Warwick, settlements reached into the millions. 29:33 [SPEAKER_01]: But for many, it was never about the money. 29:35 [SPEAKER_01]: It was about accountability, one mother who son died in the hallway crush, told reporters, quote, I don't want their money. 29:43 [SPEAKER_01]: I want them to feel what we feel every single day. 29:45 [SPEAKER_01]: That single night changed firecodes across the country. 29:49 [SPEAKER_01]: And around the world, the station side itself became a memorial park. 29:54 [SPEAKER_01]: A quiet field of grass and stones, where family still gather every February. 29:58 [SPEAKER_01]: To remember the 100 lives lost. 30:01 [SPEAKER_01]: Candles flicker, names are red allowed, survivors brace each other, their scars both visible and invisible, a permanent reminder of the night that the music stopped. 30:12 [SPEAKER_01]: Great white continued to tour, but the band members who survived carried the guilt and the grief. 30:17 [SPEAKER_01]: Jack Russell later said in interviews that the fire changed him forever. 30:21 [SPEAKER_01]: Ty Longley's guitar still sits in a case untouched, a silent tribute to the young musician, never made it off stage. 30:29 [SPEAKER_01]: Survivors like the one who crawled through the broken windows and glass embedded into their arms, spoke of nightmares that never fully faded. 30:37 [SPEAKER_01]: A father who escaped through the stage door lost his wife and daughter in the crush, he described the sound of bone snapping under the weight of the crown as something that replied in his head every day and every night. 30:49 [SPEAKER_01]: One woman recalls running out of the doors, turning back and seeing her friends sucked back into the crowd. 30:55 [SPEAKER_01]: 23 years later, the station nightclub fire remains one of the deadliest in American history. 31:02 [SPEAKER_01]: surpassed only by a handful of other nightclub disasters. 31:06 [SPEAKER_01]: Listener, if you ever find yourself in a nightclub, check the exits, check for sprinklers, because in six minutes, one spark can turn a party to a mass grave. 32:21 [SPEAKER_00]: 3 audio post production by alphanic.com
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