Report: Bitterness Marks GREAT WHITE Nightclub Fire Observance
February 19, 2007Tom Mooney of The Providence Journal reports:
The Rev. John Codega stood apart from the crowd gathering in the parking lot of the former Station nightclub yesterday, a new priest in town and a newcomer to the annual memorial service held here.
"In my one year in West Warwick, I've realized that I don’t see a lot of healing going on," Father Codega said, his white collar showing prominently above his open coat. "I see a lot of angry people."
For good reason, added the priest, who, shortly after the Station burned on Feb. 20, 2003, celebrated funeral masses in Newport for two of his parishoners who died in the fire: "When you look over there at all those crosses in the ground … well, those people should be alive."
The crowd each year grows smaller. More than 1,500 people gathered for the first anniversary of the fire. Last year about 300 relatives and friends of the dead and a few survivors braved the cold and shared their tears. Yesterday, about 200 did the same, brought together this year not only in sadness, though, but a shared sense of disdain.
Disdain for the legal process which, many said, allowed the owners of the club, Jeffrey A. and Michael A. Derderian, to escape hard prison time and West Warwick officials to escape any criminal responsibility at all for conditions inside the club. State prosecutors said they could not go after town officials such as fire inspector Denis P. Larocque unless they could prove their actions — or inactions — were malicious.
Read the entire article at The Providence Journal.
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