Tuesday marked the 15th anniversary of the deadly Station Nightclub Fire in West Warwick- the 2003 blaze which claimed 100 lives. This was the first anniversary survivors and their loved ones have had access to a memorial at the site.
The memorial garden along a stretch of highway in West Warwick opened last May. The project was the culmination of more than a decade of false starts and legal fights for the land.
Finally, survivors and victims’ loved ones can spend time at the space, now a park dotted with 100 memorial stones.
“The site, however, is not really for us to remember our loved ones,” said David Kane, who lost his 18-year-old son Nicholas O’Neil in the fire. “What it’s really about is teaching future generations what happens when elected and appointed safety officials don’t do their job.”
Kane hopes the memorial will serve as a reminder of the importance of fire codes and safety practices.
“When young people come and they know how it happened, that they will think about this, and they will do a better job, and they will be motivated by what they’ve seen.”
The Station Nightclub Fire remains one of the deadliest nightclub fires in the nation’s history. The blaze began after the band Great White ignited pyrotechnics on stage, sparking a fire in the insulation material inside the building.
