PROVIDENCE, R.I. - The singer for a band whose pyrotechnics display set off last week's disastrous nightclub fire will ask for immunity from prosecution before testifying to a grand jury, his attorney said Friday. And an insulation dealer said club owners bought flammable packing foam, not soundproofing foam, to use in the club.
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Meanwhile, investigators have taken samples of foam packaging products from a company in Johnston that supplied the nightclub's owners with material that was installed to appease neighbors upset by the club's noise.
Aram DerManouelian, president of American Foam Corp., said the soundproofing was purchased for $575 in June 2000. That was a few months after the Derderian brothers bought The Station.
DerManouelian said his records show the club bought 25 sheets of foam, which he described as egg-crate packaging material. The invoice does not say who at the club ordered it.
The company doesn't manufacture the foam, but cuts it, he said. The firm also doesn't sell insulation specifically designed for acoustical purposes, only packaging material, he said.
"They wanted the lowest grade, the cheapest stuff," he told The Associated Press on Friday. "They asked for egg-crate material and that's what we sold them. It's good packaging material. You just can't light it on fire. We sell fire-retardant foam, but that's not what they were looking for. ... It costs about twice as much."
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So the owners knowingly purchased flammable packing foam to use as sound proofing insulation. Gross negligence in the violation of a fire code that lead to 96 deaths. The fire inspector failed to test it. I see a fire chief out of a job and possibly facing prosecution and the City/State getting sued big time by families and survivors.
OR,...whether someone was "paid off" to NOT see it.......