200 observe anniversary of deadly fire

Associated Press

WEST WARWICK, R.I.

About 200 people gathered at the site of one of the nation’s worst nightclub fires to mark its eighth anniversary.

Eight years ago Sunday, a fire at The Station nightclub killed 100 people and injured more than 200.

A land dispute has delayed a long-planned memorial. Survivors and victims’ families say site’s owner reneged on a promise to donate the land. The property owner disagrees that a promise was made.

Chris Fontaine, president of the Station Memorial Foundation, said at the service that she hopes the property owner will donate the land soon. If not, she says foundation members will ask the West Warwick council to take the land under eminent domain.

Fontaine’s 22-year-old son, Mark, died in the fire.

Also among those killed was band member and guitarist Ty Longley, 31, formerly from Sharon, Pa., and Brookfield, Ohio. He was a graduate of Brookfield High School and Trumbull County Vo-Tech School, and left home in 1991 to pursue his dream.

Longley played in a band in Boulder, Colo., but quit and moved to California, first linking up with Great White in 1999.

His first job was as a carrier for The Vindicator.