3 years later, emotions still raw over nightclub fire

Mourners pay their respects

WEST WARWICK, R.I. -- Their numbers may have dwindled, but the emotion remained high as hundreds of mourners shivered in stark sunlight yesterday while memorializing their friends and family who died three years ago today in the most catastrophic nightclub fire in state history.

One hundred people were killed by the fire, and about 400 mourners -- somewhat fewer than the 2,000 at past memorials -- said it's important to remember that the 100 had names. So they read them out loud.

Starting with Louis S. Alves and ending with Robert D. Young, they remembered the dead on the very spot where victims had struggled to exit The Station nightclub. About 200 people were also injured in the fire. The club burned to the ground after a pyrotechnic display during a Great White concert started a fire that set off panic in the overcapacity crowd.

One hundred seconds of silence followed the reading of the names.

''It's comforting to see all the other people out here with me and knowing I'm not out here by myself," said Caroline Telgarsky, of Waterford, Conn., who placed sunflowers and small boxes of chocolates on a makeshift marker for her sister, Sarah Jane Telgarsky.

''On Feb. 20, you joined an exclusive club," Anne Marie D'Alessio, executive director of the Rhode Island Victims' Advocacy & Support Center, said during the program. ''It chose you because people made a decision to take power that didn't belong to them."

D'Alessio reminded attendees to be angry enough to correct problems leading to The Station's accident.

The service comes after the man who ignited the fatal pyrotechnics, Great White's former tour manager Daniel Biechele, pleaded guilty earlier this month to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to no more than 10 years in prison as part of a plea agreement. Prosecutors have said Biechele will testify that the club's owners gave him permission to light the display. Club owners Jeffrey and Michael Derderian have pleaded not guilty to various charges related to the tragedy and denied Biechele's assertion.

Some attendees yesterday expressed discontent with the look of the slice of land that is now a blur of cracked concrete and frozen, brown mud stacked with faded makeshift shrines.

But not Paula Woodcock, whose fiance, Christopher Prouty, died in the fire.

''I was 4 1/2 months pregnant [with our daughter Makayla] when he died," said Woodcock, who had a ticket but didn't attend the concert. ''This helps a little bit, but at the same time, it brings [emotions] back up."

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report. Adrienne P. Samuels can be reached at asamuels@globe.com