WEST WARWICK, R.I. — The site of a nightclub fire that killed 100 people in 2003 is reopening Sunday as a memorial park to honor the memories of those who died, the more than 200 people injured and the many people who rushed to help in the minutes, weeks, months and years after the blaze sent shockwaves through this tight-knit state.

The memorial for The Station nightclub fire in West Warwick is scheduled to open with a ceremony expected to draw hundreds of people. The Feb. 20, 2003 blaze began when pyrotechnics for the rock band Great White ignited flammable foam that lined the club’s walls as soundproofing. It was engulfed within seconds.

.Gina Russo, president of the Station Fire Memorial Foundation, lost her fiancé, Fred Crisostomi, and she was severely burned. She has spent the years since recovering and undergoing numerous surgeries, while also working to maintain her health insurance and trying to raise the money needed to build the memorial and maintain it in perpetuity.

Russo said she now feels she has done everything humanly possible to honor Crisostomi and the 99 others who died.

“Maybe now I can finally let go of some of the guilt of surviving it,” she said Friday.

Even 14 years later, Russo said she still feels guilt every day that she got out and others did not, wondering “Why me?” She still physically struggles with severe burn injuries over much of her body and is due for another surgery soon.

“It’s for the rest of my life,” she said. “But then I say, ‘Oh, how can I complain? Because they can’t. They can’t.’ So it’s important to remember them, but it’s a heavy guilt.”

Dave Kane’s 18-year-old son, Nicholas O’Neill, was the youngest person to die in the fire. He says he doesn’t need the memorial to remember his son: He goes to his gravesite for that.

“The people who were really seriously injured don’t need to be reminded. They have mirrors,” Kane said. “What this site is supposed to be, for me, is a reminder to others of what happens when people we trust with our safety don’t do their jobs.”


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