Rhode Island Nightclub Tragedy Revisited Five Years Later

WEST WARWICK, R.I. -- Five years ago this month, patrons at The Station nightclub were enjoying the opening performance of a rock band.

That's when things went horribly wrong.

Pyrotechnics ignited the sound-proofing foam on the walls, causing the club to erupt into an inferno. Panic set in as the crowd scrambled in the dark, choking from the thick toxic smoke to find a way out.

Although there were other exits, many headed toward the door they entered. It was a deadly mistake for many.

In the end, 100 didn't make it out. More than 200 others were hurt in the fourth deadliest night club blaze in history. For many, the road to recovery is littered with challenges.

But, they are not alone. The Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors will be walking with them every step of the way.

Rob's Story

Six months after the fire that claimed the life of his fiance Donna Mitchell and two other friends, Rob Feeney didn't care what happened to his life.

"I honestly didn't care how long I lived," he says. "She [Mitchell] left behind two young daughters and I wanted to stick around to see them grow up, but that was about it."

Five years later, he still remembers the horrific night.

"There were five of us that went to the show," says Rob Feeney, "myself, my fiance and my friends." He remembers the club was packed, "so crowded you couldn't blink." He remembers Great White taking to the stage, and he remembers the flames.

"They immediately went up the walls and into the ceiling."

Feeney and Mitchell became separated from their friends in the chaos that ensued. He saw that most of the crowd was going toward the main entrance, so he looked for another alternative out of the burning room. He said they tried to go through a door nearest the stage, but were turned away by a bouncer who said that door was for the band only.

Meanwhile, the fire was getting worse. "It was just a matter of seconds before the flames went right across the ceiling and engulfed the club," he says. "The power went out. At that point, if you were still alive you were crawling to find a way out."

Feeney and his fiance were among the crawlers, searching blindly for a wall in the smoky room.

"I crawled around till I could find a wall, found a hole and kicked the plywood out."

He climbed outside and turned to see if his fiance was behind him. However, she had lost consciousness while inside the club and never made it out.

All around him, firefighters tried to continue rescuing people despite the worsening conditions. "I saw firefighters going toward the front door, but other firefighters stopped them because of the flames," he says. "They couldn't rescue any more people."

He was lucky to be alive, but Feeney didn't make it out of the building unscathed. His shirt and his head were on fire. "I was smoldering," he remembers.

He remembers firefighters lifting him and taking him to triage -- coincidentally the restaurant near the club where he and his friends had eaten that night. There they put him into an ambulance so he could be treated.

Feeney says he never knew the names of the firefighters who helped him that night, although he tried to find them. He met other firefighters who were there that night -- in the burn unit where he received treatment and at the funeral of one of his friends who died that night -- but he never got to thank those two who saved his life.

"It's something I wish I could do," he says.

It's an understatement to say he was badly burned in the fire. He suffered deep third degree burns on both hands -- wounds that required doctors to replace every layer of skin. His left hand has a lot of skin and tendon damage. He suffered facial burns, sustained damage to his right ear on the inside and out and a burned cornea on his right eye.

But today, thanks to the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors, he is in a happier, more positive place.