Late in the evening of February 20, 2003, has-been rockers Great White took the stage at a packed nightclub in Rhode Island called The Station. The metal band's show included illegal pyrotechnics that burst out of control within seconds and turned the venue into a blazing, smoke-choked inferno. Approximately 100 concertgoers died, and those who survived were left with horrible burns, lung damage, and PTSD.

Trial by Fire tells the story of that devastating night and its aftermath. The book's early chapters are written in a style reminiscent of James Patterson's. Short chapters, multiple narrative threads, and cliffhangers propel the action along. But, as the narrative progresses, it becomes an apologia for club owners Michael and Jeffrey Derderian, whom many deemed responsible for the fire. The author calls out Rhode Island's daily newspaper for its anti-Derderian reporting, and places much of the blame on the state’s longstanding culture of corruption.

Trial by Fire is a worthy, if more than a little biased, recounting of a man-made disaster that altered many lives. ( )

On the evening of February 20, 2003, a night club called the Station, in West Warwick, Rhode Island caught fire, during a heavy metal show. It took just 90 seconds for the club to be engulfed. 100 people died and scores were terribly burned and injured. This is the story of what happened and also the story of the survivors.

Scott James uses first person interviews, gathered over several years. He also accessed News files from the days of the tragedy. He did he his job. The writing flows, the story is spellbinding. Take warning, this book is not for everyone. Descriptions of injuries and physical recovery are vivid and capable of bringing one to tears. ( )

This is the story of the fire in the Station Nightclub in West Warwick, RI. It is famous. It is so famous, that it was discussed when I went through training as a fire warden in our office building.

James is meticulous about looking at all sides of this tragedy. Over 100 people died and really shouldn’t have. It could mostly have been prevented. He carefully looks at how the Derderian brothers, the club’s co-owners were blasted from all sides for the fire.

He takes a look at the impact of the fire on specific people and how they coped. He looked at the impact on the Derderians and their families. He also looked at where authorities cut corners and where they dug down.

He also shows how the fire resulted in improved fire codes for new and existing facilities.

Some of this is technical, but it mostly about people. I felt it was a good read. ( )

I briefly remember hearing about this tragic event. It is very unfortunate that all these innocent lives were lost for some cool pyrotechnics. I can't even believe to really imagine what the survivors or rescuers endured through this whole ordeal. Although, in a way I kind of did have an idea by reading this book.

It is amazing when you think of the other music acts or events where pyrotechnics are still used. While, the safety code of buildings or arenas have improved, this does not mean that there is not still a risk. As with the Station fire; it was a combination of pyrotechnics, bad building code, and all around human disregard for safety rules. All it took was ninety seconds for hundreds of lives to be lost or injured in other words a flashover.

Taken from Wiki:

A flashover is the near-simultaneous ignition of most of the directly exposed combustible material in an enclosed area. When certain organic materials are heated, they undergo thermal decomposition and release flammable gases. Flashover occurs when the majority of the exposed surfaces in a space are heated to their autoignition temperature and emit flammable gases (see also flash point). Flashover normally occurs at 500 °C (932 °F) or 590 °C (1,100 °F) for ordinary combustibles and an incident heat flux at floor level of 20 kilowatts per square metre (2.5 hp/sq ft).

An example of flashover is the ignition of a piece of furniture in a domestic room. The fire involving the initial piece of furniture can produce a layer of hot smoke, which spreads across the ceiling in the room. The hot buoyant smoke layer grows in depth, as it is bounded by the walls of the room. The radiated heat from this layer heats the surfaces of the directly exposed combustible materials in the room, causing them to give off flammable gases, via pyrolysis. When the temperatures of the evolved gases becomes high enough, these gases will ignite throughout their extent. ( )

This is the interesting, emotional, true account of the worst rock concert fire in history. Being in my early 40's, I could have seen my friends and I going to this concert seventeen years ago. The author gave a neutral perspective about who was to blame and was not quick to point the finger towards the owner's of the Station, Jeffrey and Michael Derderian, but allowed the reader to develop their own opinions based on the facts he presented very well.

I loved reading about the determination of the survivors mentioned after having to deal with some great obstacles. Gina had severe burns and lost her fiancee in the fire and became a strong voice in providing help to the fire victims, both families of the deceased and the survivors and eventually convinced the land owner to donate his land to set up a memorial garden more than 14 years after the accident. Phil Barr, the youngest survivor, beat all odds after he was told he would never compete in swimming competitions at school again, and made a name for himself in the world of finance.

Who I did not like in this book was the lead singer of the band Great White, Jack Russell. It is his band and his manager who illegally brought fireworks/pyrotechnics across state lines to shoot them off in a bar way too small for it to not be a fire hazard. While the building was blazing, he got on the TV and was promoting his summer tour, either he did not realize how serious the fire was or maybe he didn't care. I realize he is an old rocker has been who was not drawing the crowds like he did in the 80's and 90's, but for him, it seemed all about greed. He would not even talk to the author of this book without monetary compensation and turned down an interview once he found out he would not be paid. Matt Lauer was asked by the Derderians to help host a benefit concert for the victims, but refused to do so, yet held the exact same concert for hurricane victims years later. I watched the notorious video out of curiousity while reading this book and I couldn't help but notice how the cameraman Brian Butler was filming, but would not get out of the way as people tried to escape. He claimed he had tried to help get people out, but no such evidence exists. It's like the kids these days who record something terrible happening on their smartphones, for a few minutes of YouTube fame.

I felt sorry for the brothers as they had to take the brundt of the blame, and they never really got to tell their part of the story until this book was published. Everyone mentioned should have took some of the blame, the band and their manager, the owners of the Station, the salesman who sold the brothers flamable foam, the camera man, and the fire marshall for deeming the bar as safe, when in fact it was not. Just a terrible tragedy all around, but it made a very intrugiung read. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to sample this book! ( )