US: The death toll in a devastating nightclub fire in West Warwick, Rhode Island, climbed steadily towards 100 yesterday, as firemen recovered remains from the blackened shell throughout the day.
The Rhode Island Governor, Mr Don Carcieri, said last night that a total of 95 bodies had been found and that the number "is going to go higher as rescuers identify some pockets where they are certain there are some other bodies".
A total of 187 people were taken to hospital after the blaze, which engulfed the single-storey wooden building in three minutes. Of these 25 were in critical condition, he told a press conference.
The fire began at 11 p.m. on Thursday during a pyrotechnics display at The Station Concert Club put on by the 1980s hard rock band, Great White. The giant sparklers on stage shot up and ignited the ceiling and soundproof backing.
Video taken by a WPRI-TV cameraman, Brian Butler, who happened to be filming in the nightclub, showed a shower of white sparks shoot upwards and to the left and right of the stage, instantly starting fires on both sides of the stage backing.
Some in the crowd said they thought it was part of the act and continued cheering and pointing fingers in time with the heavy metal music.
Ms Erin Whelan said that at first people just stood and stared but "I knew right away that this couldn't be right". Speaking from a hospital bed, she said: "All at once it seemed like everyone started running for the door. I got knocked to the ground and stepped on. The smoke was so thick I passed out. I thought I was going to die."
Many patrons were killed from inhalation of thick, black smoke, which prevented people from finding the exits.
"Everything was as usual. I felt heat behind me," said Jack Russell, lead singer of Great White. He expected someone to use a fire extinguisher "but no one turned up". The singer said the manager checked with the club before the show and the use of pyrotechnics was approved.
"We had got permission," he said. "This is something we do not do at every gig."
Mr Paul Woolnough, president of Great White's management company, said tour manager Mr Dan Biechele "always checks" with club officials before pyrotechnics are used.
The club owners, Mr Michael and Mr Jeffrey Derderian, flatly contradicted this assertion. "At no time, did either owner have prior knowledge that pyrotechnics were going to be used by the band Great White," they said through a lawyer.
"No permission was ever requested by the band or its agents to use pyrotechnics at The Station, and no permission was ever given."
The fire was the deadliest in the US since 87 people died at the Happy Land Social Club in New York in 1990, and it comes less than a week after 21 people were killed in a stampede at a Chicago nightclub.
The Rhode Island attorney general, Mr Patrick Lynch, said there was tremendous pain in the state, where many people knew each other. "We talk about six degrees of separation in this world," he said. "In Rhode Island that's about a degree and a half."
Fire Chief Charles Hall said capacity at The Station Concert Club was 300, but fewer people than that were inside the building. Mr Hall said the club passed a fire inspection on December 31st to get its liquor licence renewed, but did not have a permit for the use of pyrotechnics.
The building, which is at least 60 years old and was recently an Italian restaurant, was not required to have a sprinkler system because of its small size.
Brian Butler kept his camera rolling as the fire took hold and he made his way to the front door.
"I could see the reaction on other faces that they knew something wasn't right," he said.
His video showed concert-goers waving beer bottles and pointing in the air, not realising for some seconds what was happening, as the band played on with flames flaring up behind them. One hand changed from pointing to waving people towards the exit.
"People were trying to help others and people were smashing out windows, and people were pulling on people and nobody cared how many cuts they got, nobody cared about the bruises or the burns," he said. "They just wanted out of the building."
The pyrotechnics at such concerts consist of a powder charge inside a floor-mounted tube or pipe an inch in diameter that is usually ignited by an electric spark triggered by remote control, shooting a tower of flame into the air. It gets a sparkling effect through an additive in the charge, such as titanium or tungsten.
West Warwick is an old textile mill town with a population of 30,000, many descended from Italian, Polish Irish, French Canadian and Portuguese immigrants.
Great White is a band from the 1980s Los Angeles heavy metal scene, whose hits include Once Bitten, Twice Shy and Rock Me. It sold six million albums and earned a Grammy nomination in 1990. They continued to tour and make albums with a strong fan base from the 1980s.
The worst nightclub fire in US history occurred on November 28th, 1942, when 491 people died at Boston's Coconut Grove nightclub.
AFP adds: Club-goer Mr John Schmidt told NBC television that "at first we just thought it was all part of the act. It wasn't until we saw this tremendous amount of smoke coming very rapidly across the ceiling that we (realised we) had to get out of there."
Once outside, many of the clubbers plunged their burning flesh into snow mounds left from a heavy snow-storm that hit this part of the northeastern United States earlier in the week.
As many as 187 people were treated at area hospitals and in the nearby city of Boston for injuries ranging from first-degree burns and smoke inhalation to cuts and bruises.
Doctors at Providence Hospital, the main trauma centre for the injured, said they had 38 seriously injured, of whom 18 were on ventilators. "Our expectation is that with the appropriate care, we can get the majority of these patients to survive," Dr William Cioffi said.
"It was an old building, not a high-ceilinged building, so I would say that to let off pyrotechnics inside you were asking for trouble," Gov Carcieri told reporters. "It didn't need to happen. It shouldn't have happened. People were here to dance and enjoy themselves."