On February 20, 2003, 472 people gathered at a small nightclub called The Station in West Warwick, RI, to listen to the band Great White. Seconds into the concert, the band’s pyrotechnics display caught the stage on fire, which progressed rapidly until it had burned the place to the ground mere minutes later.

The nightclub fire killed 100 people and injured twice as many. The entire night was captured on film by a local news cameraman who happened to be on the scene.

Pictures of the club before the fire show a small, one-story wooden building, its façade covered in a mural of giant rock star portraits against the backdrop of an American flag. Today, there is an extensive memorial that opened in May 17, 2017 paying tribute to the deceased.

Adapted with Permission from: The New England Grimpendium by J.W. Ocker