Free Killer Show: The Station Nightclub Fire by John Barylick Page A

cul-de-sac. By all accounts, Larocque balanced personal ambition with public service, coaching youth sports and supporting children’s activities. His friends and co-workers called him Rocky.
    The job of fire code inspector in West Warwick has never been regarded as particularly desirable. The fire marshal is responsible for inspecting clubs like The Station whenever a liquor license is renewed or transferred. He examines other licensed businesses like gas stations for code violations and inspects all houses being sold, to make sure they have working smoke detectors. He investigates and reports on the cause of every fire in town. And every time a new building or subdivision is proposed, he has to approve the plans. Hardly as exciting as actually fighting fires, the position of fire marshal is heavy in red tape and unlikely to endear its holder to local businesspeople.
    In 1998, when the West Warwick fire marshal’s position came open, Larocque was already one of five battalion chiefs in the department and eligible for retirement. Although the job paid the same as his old position, $42,216, he decided to take it. Once appointed, Larocque brought a new vigor to fire code enforcement that was not exactly welcomed by business owners. Bull-necked and stocky, with a fireman’s trademark mustache, the new fire marshal immediately made his presence known, roaming the town in his official van and busting businessmen for the kind of minor violations that went unchallenged by his predecessor. A few years into his tenure, however, Larocque’s inspection reports document his recommending liquor license renewals at some favored establishments, despite persistent violations. One was the Portuguese American Social and Athletic Club, a run-down bar with function rooms used for political gatherings; another, Evelyn’s Villa, was a restaurant owned by a former town councilman.
    In December of 1999 his work took him to The Station. The police had received numerous complaints from the club’s neighbors about noise and overcrowding, and in response, Police Chief Peter Brousseau asked Gerald Tellier, the acting fire chief, to have Larocque review the club’s capacity.
    Larocque’s capacity calculations at the Station site were not without precedent. In 1969, the building at 211 Cowesett Avenue was a restaurant called the Red Fox Inn. Its maximum capacity, set by the town fire marshal and echoed by its building inspector, was fifty. In 1981, Ray Villanova opened hisItalian restaurant, P. Brillo & Sons, there, and the town fire inspector rated the building, essentially unchanged in size, at 161 occupants. Come 1991, a new tenant opened a sports bar, Crackerjacks, on the site, and the then fire marshal upped the capacity to 225.
    Later would come Larocque’s turn to balance the public’s right to safety against a business’s desire for profits. The Rhode Island state fire code mandates that places of public assembly provide a specified number of square feet per occupant, depending upon how that space is used. If there are tables and chairs, the number of square feet is higher (and, hence, fewer people permitted); if the area is clear of obstructions, less space is required for each occupant. With code book in hand, Larocque set about measuring each room in the club.
    On December 30, 1999, he wrote to Police Chief Brousseau explaining his conclusions. Larocque’s letter stated that “in the club’s present layout” the permitted occupancy was 258; however, “this business is allowed to increase this number to 317 by removing tables and chairs from three lounge areas and providing only standing room in those areas.” The calculation allowed seven square feet per standing-room patron.
    Larocque signed this letter, as he signed all his official correspondence, “Yours in Fire Safety, Denis Larocque, Fire Marshal.”
    Just over two months later, when the Derderians were purchasing the club from Howard Julian, Michael Derderian asked