GREAT WHITE Nightclub Fire: Judge Dismisses State, Fire Marshal From Civil Suit

November 18, 2005

The Associated Press is reporting that a federal judge has dismissed the state of Rhode Island and the state Fire Marshal from a civil complaint stemming from The Station nightclub fire.

U.S. District Judge Ronald Lagueux says Fire Marshal Irving Owens and the state are both protected from liability.

Survivors of the February 20, 2003 fire and relatives of the victims have sued dozens of people in federal court.

Club owners Jeffrey and Michael Derderian and former GREAT WHITE tour manager Daniel Biechele have been charged criminally.

The plaintiffs accused Owens of not inspecting the club properly and say he failed to discover the flammable foam that's blamed for spreading the blaze.

Lagueux also ruled that West Warwick Fire Inspector Denis Laroque and the town itself will remain as defendants.

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).