GREAT WHITE - Owner Of Burned Rhode Island Club Donates Land For Memorial
September 28, 2012, 12 years ago
Associated Press' Michelle R. Smith reports:
The owner of the site of a 2003 nightclub fire that killed 100 people is donating the land for a permanent memorial, bringing an end to a years-long effort to secure the site of The Station fire by families of those killed and survivors of the blaze.
Dan McKiernan, a lawyer for Ray Villanova, transferred ownership of the plot of land in West Warwick to the Station Fire Memorial Foundation on Friday, five months before the 10th anniversary of the blaze, which started when pyrotechnics for the rock band GREAT WHITE set fire to flammable foam that lined the walls of the club.
A makeshift memorial consisting of homemade crosses, flowers, photos and other personal items cropped up on the site shortly after the fire and has been maintained there by family members of the dead ever since. The site was left open to the public, and a memorial service is held there annually the anniversary, February 20th. While the foundation has a design for a permanent memorial and pledges from construction workers to build it, nothing could move forward until it secured rights to the land.
"This is a milestone that everyone has been working towards for the past nine years. We're fully cognizant of the enormity of this responsibility that we carry for so many people," Victoria Eagan, a fire survivor who serves on the foundation's board, told The Associated Press.
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