Foam supplier says Nightclub owner, Michael Derderian, bought non-fire retardant soundproofing

Thanks!

I'm still going through searches looking for other background on the Derderians. They 'have' to have some trail somewhere.

I e-mailed myself two articles about the fire/RI's crappy 'fire history'. Haven't had time to post them yet...I'm 'trying' to do laundry around a snowday for 3 kids. (ugh)

Nita is a GREAT info hunter. She'll be back.

I don't have time to read the thread, mommadoo. What kind of info are you trying to find?

Info like...actual money-making 'employment'. What kind of 'connections' they have. And the bands who have played the club and have photos of THEIR pyro.

In post #218... the 'records' state that for three years in a row, the SAME door had the SAME violation which was LOCATED IN THE STAGE AREA.

The whole thing stinks.

Sorry if this post is a little confusing. Had two horses break through the fences, then a dog broke his chain and went on an attack mode. Gotta run also. Have to supervise the hole-digging and the horse lock-down. LOL! Farm life shore is 'fun'.

If you have a moment, please say a prayer for these families. God love 'em.

His son's death was too much to bear
Ray Barnett, who suffered a stroke a week after his son Tommy was killed, in The Station fire, dies.

03/07/2003
BY JENNIFER D. JORDAN Journal Staff Writer
WEST GREENWICH -- A week after his youngest son died in the West Warwick nightclub fire, Ray I. Barnett, of Barnett Lane, suffered a stroke and could not attend his child's funeral.

Yesterday, Ray Barnett, 77, died at Kent County Memorial Hospital as his eldest daughter, Marjorie A. Farrell, of Plainfield, Conn., held his hand.

"Everything happened on a Thursday," Marjorie said. "The fire when Tommy died, the stroke, now this."

Her father's heart, she said, couldn't take the pain of losing his son, Thomas A. Barnett, 38.

As of yesterday morning, the fire at The Station had killed 98 people.

"I think he's the 99th victim," Marjorie said. "I honestly think his heart and mind couldn't take it."

Ray Barnett was a superintendent of finishing at Rhode Island Lace in Barrington for 20 years, retiring in 1990.

Since then, he and his wife, Romelle M. (Bagshaw) Barnett, had enjoyed traveling, playing cards and running errands together. They visited Foxwoods Resort and Casino once a week.

"We would try our hand at luck, and we did pretty well," Mrs. Barnett said.

Ray Barnett was born in Pawtucket, a son of the late James and Lucy (Jackson) Barnett. He had lived in Coventry before moving to West Greenwich 33 years ago.

A Navy veteran of World War II, Mr. Barnett served aboard the Franklin, which lost half its crew to a Japanese kamikaze attack in the South Pacific in 1945.

He was a lifetime member of the Coventry VFW Memorial Post 9404, American Legion Post 2, Exeter, and the Disabled American Veterans. He was a former member of the Coventry-West Greenwich Lodge of Elks.

Ray and Romelle married young and had four children: Marjorie, Ray I. Barnett Jr. of Coventry, Gerry L. Childers of Hawaii, and Tommy.

Sunday would have been their 57th wedding anniversary.

*************************************************************

Parents Lose Only Child in R.I. Club Fire
By RICHARD C. LEWIS
Associated Press Writer

JOHNSTON, R.I. (AP)--They called him the ``Miracle Child.''

Steven Mancini got the nickname when he came back practically from the dead as a 19-year-old so crumpled from an auto accident that doctors begged his mother to take him off life support and a priest twice administered last rites.

Barbara and Doug Magness refused to give in, and they were rewarded. Their only child emerged from a monthlong coma and was stitched together like a doll.

In the 20 years since, the Magnesses watched proudly as their son became a man. They watched him get a job at a supermarket, play guitar in a band that recently won a local competition, and get married to a woman who smiled as much as he did, which was just about all the time.

Steven and Andrea Mancini lived with the Magnesses at the tidy, two-story house in the working-class neighborhood where Steven grew up. Father and son played guitar together. Mother and daughter-in-law went shopping together. And every night the four at together at the kitchen table.

``It was harmony,'' Doug Magness said.

And then, in an instant, it was all gone.

Steven and his 28-year-old wife perished along with a cousin in the Feb. 20 nightclub blaze in West Warwick that left 99 people dead.

That night, Steven's band, Fathead--named when Andrea teased him about his oversized dome--had opened for Great White, the rock group whose pyrotechnics started the blaze at The Station. It was the first time Fathead was the opening act for a group with a national following.

The couple's deaths have nearly taken the life out of the Magnesses. Barbara cannot eat, and Doug cannot sleep. They wake up in the night, look at each other, and cry.

``I'm not of the age to have a child,'' said Barbara, 60. ``So, this is it. This is the end of the family.''

Steven and Andrea knew The Station well. When she wasn't working in her family's plant nursery, Andrea took tickets and checked IDs. Steven was a part-time bouncer and had played there several times with others in the band, including Keith Mancini, the raucous 34-year-old bassist he had met at the club and didn't know at first was his cousin.