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November 8, 2007

Station evidence: Close-up account of early moments

The final batch of Station fire evidence released today gave the best, close-up account so far of the early moments of the fire.

Mario Giamei Jr., an occasional bouncer at the nightclub who attended the Great White concert as a customer, stood at the side of the stage near the stage door and near Daniel M. Biechele, the band tour manager who shot off the fireworks.

Almost immediately after the fireworks went off, Biechele acknowledged making a serious mistake, according to a statement Giamei gave to an investigator working on behalf of the lawyer for the nightclub’s owners.

Biechele “had kind of a smirk on his face because I think he thought it wasn’t a big deal. Because, quite frankly, the fire wasn’t spreading really bad at first,”
Giamei said in the statement. “I had half a mind to jump on the stage myself with my jacket and put it out because, you know, I figured I could hit it with my leather coat and knock it out pretty easy.”

But that changed quickly.

“This guy and girl walked towards the back door. They were just patrons there but they knew it was an emergency exit, and he had a look on his face that he knew this was going to be bad. And he walked and opened up the door, and, when he opened up that door, frankly, I think that’s when the fire really spread.”

-- Journal staff writer Paul Edward Parker

Posted by Andrea Panciera  at 7:02 PM | Permalink

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