Indictments Handed Down in Providence Fire

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Various Providence, R.I., station Web sites, including WPRI-TV’s, Tuesday night lead with the news that a state grand jury had indicted brothers Michael and Jeffrey Derderian, owners of area nightclub The Station, on 200 counts each of involuntary manslaughter in the fire that killed 200 people last February.

Also charged was the tour manager of the band Great White, which used the pyrotechnics that ignited the fire. All were said to have pleaded innocent.

Jeffrey Derderian had been a reporter for WPRI-TV for only a few days when the fire occurred and resigned following the tragedy. Ironically, the fire was captured on tape because a WPRI-TV videographer was shooting footage of the club for a story Derderian was doing on fire safety.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.