Report: United By Love Of Heavy Metal Music, Bound By Tragedy

Bella English of the Boston Globe reports that a year ago, many of them were strangers. Fate, and fire, brought them together. United by a love of heavy metal music, they were at the Station Nightclub last Feb. 20 to see the band GREAT WHITE. Around 11 p.m., just after lead singer Jack Russell had sung the first verse of "Desert Moon", the place went up in flames.

Ignited by stage pyrotechnics and fueled by cheap soundproofing foam, the fire turned the club into a tomb for 100 and an inferno for 200 more who were badly injured. As the smoke cleared, the dead were buried while the injured remained in hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and nursing homes, some for months. A year later, the survivors are left with physical and emotional scars, unpaid bills, and uncertain futures. They are also left with one another. Solid friendships have been forged, borne out of the simple question, "Were you there?"

But something more practical has also emerged: the Station Family Fund, founded and run by survivors themselves. A year ago, some of them helped pull others to safety. Now they are again offering a hand, survivors helping survivors. There's no overhead or red tape and there are no salaries. Meetings are at the home of the fund's treasurer, Donna Reis, who suffered second and third-degree burns in the fire and lost her fiance, who died after pushing her to safety. The group has raised about $225,000 so far, much of it from benefit concerts and T-shirt sales, and given nearly all of it away. "If you ask for help, you get it that day," says Todd King, the fund's burly vice president, who, along with his wife, escaped uninjured that night. [Read more]