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The Station nightclub fire
2003Feb, 20

During a Great White concert in West Warwick, Rhode Island, a pyrotechnics display sets the Station nightclub ablaze, killing 100 and injuring over 200 others.

The Station nightclub fire occurred on the evening of February 20, 2003, in West Warwick, Rhode Island, United States, killing 100 people and injuring 230. The fire was caused by pyrotechnics set off by the tour manager of the evening's headlining band, Great White, which ignited flammable acoustic foam in the walls and ceilings surrounding the stage. It reached flashover within one minute, causing all combustible materials to burn. Intense black smoke engulfed the club within two minutes. Video footage of the fire shows its ignition, rapid growth, the billowing smoke that quickly made escape impossible, and blocked egress that further hindered evacuation.

The toxic smoke, heat, and the resulting human rush toward the main exit killed 100; 230 were injured and another 132 escaped uninjured. Many of the survivors developed post-traumatic stress disorder after the event. This fire was the fourth-deadliest at a nightclub in U.S. history, and the second-deadliest in New England, surpassed by the 1942 Cocoanut Grove fire, which resulted in 492 deaths.

Great White is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1977. The band peaked with several albums during the mid-to-late 1980s, including the platinum-selling records Once Bitten (1987) and ...Twice Shy (1989), and those albums' singles "Rock Me" and "Once Bitten, Twice Shy" received considerable airplay through radio and MTV. They charted two Top 40 hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100, with "Once Bitten, Twice Shy" and "The Angel Song." They continued to release new material into the 1990s.

Great White broke up in 2001. Within the next few years, the band had performed as "Jack Russell's Great White", which had also made headlines when, in 2003, a Rhode Island nightclub at which they were playing caught fire, leading to the deaths of 100 people, including band member Ty Longley. By 2006, "Jack Russell's Great White" had reverted its name to its original name Great White. After more than three decades as their singer, Russell left the band in 2011, again using the moniker "Jack Russell's Great White". Great White has since continued on without Russell, who was first replaced by XYZ vocalist Terry Ilous, and then by current singer Mitch Malloy, who has been a member of the band since 2018.

As of August 2008, Great White estimated they had sold around eight million records worldwide.

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