Survivors of R.I. club fire await settlement cash

updated 3:09 p.m. ET Feb. 12, 2009

CRANSTON, R.I. - Linda Fisher's medical expenses have grown to a half-million dollars in the six years since a fire tore through a Rhode Island nightclub, killing 100 concertgoers and injuring more than 200.

The other costs of the fire aren't as easily calculated: Strangers still gawk at the web of scars up and down her arms. Her reconstructed hands make it hard to grip a soda bottle or shuffle a deck of cards. She has fierce itching pangs that even now can make her cry.

As the six-year anniversary approaches next week, Fisher and more than 300 other survivors and relatives of those killed are waiting for their shares of a $176 million settlement intended to help cover mounting medical bills, with the largest payouts going to those most severely injured.

"There are people who have lost hair, their hands, ears, noses, fingers, arms, their jobs, their homes," said Fisher, 39, who spent three weeks in a drug-induced coma and suffered second- and third-degree burns on one-third of her body.

'Not enough money'
"Anyone who was in that building that night, for what they went through, they deserve a million dollars each," she added. "The worst injured? There's not enough money to give him."

The settlements resolve lawsuits arising from the Feb. 20, 2003, blaze at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, which began when pyrotechnics used as a stage prop by the 1980s rock band Great White ignited foam used as soundproofing around the stage.

The band's tour manager, Daniel Biechele, served less than two years of a four-year prison sentence; the club's two owners pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter charges — one will be released on parole this year while the other was spared jail time.

Dozens of companies and people who were sued after the fire, from club owners Jeffrey and Michael Derderian and members of the band to Anheuser-Busch and Clear Channel Broadcasting, agreed to settle over the last year and a half rather than risk the costs and uncertainty of a jury trial.

Lawyers won't disclose how much individual clients will receive but say payments will range from about $20,000 to several million dollars. The victims can either collect their money in lump sums or installmentss.

Fisher said her lawyer has told her she'll be eligible for about $1 million, but expects a large chunk of that to go toward attorneys fees and repaying the state for medical care. She intends to use her share for a down payment on a new house with her fiance and for a Labor Day weekend wedding celebration.

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