Memorial to Open For the Victims

Residents of Rhode Island wanted to honor the survivors and the one hundred people who were killed in 2003 nightclub fire. As a result, a permanent memorial came to fruition. Judy King, whose brother died in the fire, calls the Warwick memorial  a “neutral place” , serving as a secondary place for relatives to visit. On the lot where the fire occurred, homemade  crosses, photographs, flowers, and personal items have served as a memorial over the years. 

Judy King was the driving force to build a permanent memorial; she found volunteers, both relatives and survivors, that donated time and materials to create the tablet project in less than thirty days. Among the donations, The Warwick memorial received twenty pounds of asphalt and thirteen yards of concrete. Volunteers worked for hours, and raised eleven thousand dollars in cash. 

The tablet is a brick circle, with the names of the people who died on the top, while the names of the survivors are on the bottom.

                  

In West Warwick, Gina Russo, who is the president of the Station Fire Memorial Foundation, suffered burns on 40 percent of her body in the blaze.  She also lost her fiancé in the fire. She co-authored the book “From the Ashes” with Paul Lonardo. She is planning to build a permanent memorial on the land donated by the owner. Russo hopes to collect five million dollars and break ground shortly after the 10^th anniversary of the fire.