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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

At Least 95 Dead After Rhode Island Nightclub Fire

Aired February 21, 2003 - 22:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


ANDERSON COOPER, GUEST HOST: Good evening again, everyone. I'm Anderson Cooper, filling in for Aaron Brown. A lot to talk about tonight, in particular the staggering loss of life at that Rhode Island nightclub.
We've spent the past few weeks trying to protect ourselves against the kind of things people make movies about, the sum of all fears, bad guys with scary toys trying to do some terrible things. It is, of course, easy to forget that terrible things can happen without a bad guy determined to do us harm, without the kind of weapons Hans Blix is now searching for.

There are still so many questions still unanswered tonight about who is to blame for this nightclub nightmare, but it seems safe to say that no one set out to kill nearly a hundred people. There was no terrorist from some far-flung place, but there was certainly terror for those wanting nothing more than a fun night out. We think of the duct tape, the batteries, the bottled water so many snapped up last week, preparing for the absolute worst. But we also have to prepare for the more everyday risks we take in our lives.

In that nightclub last night, there were four exits. Most of the patrons seemed to know only about one of them. Had they used the other three exits, the local fire officials suggested tonight, a lot more people might have survived.

And so it is that fire which leads off the whip tonight. Bob Franken is in West Warwick, Rhode Island. Bob, the headline.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, the death toll is now 95. That's the bodies that they found inside what used to be the club. It is now just a charred crater. But they expect that the death count, before it's over with, all the people in the hospital, is going to go well over 100. A sad story, a story that cannot even really be captured in just the numbers. It is a terror almost impossible to comprehend. We'll have more in a moment.

COOPER: All right. Well, as Bob just mentioned, an enormous tragedy for a place where everybody, it seems, knows somebody who is involved. Whitney Case tonight on how the community is coping. Whitney, the headline.

WHITNEY CASEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, hundreds of families of the missing meet here tonight in hopes of helping authorities identify their loved ones, dozens of which are still unaccounted for.

COOPER: Unbelievable. On to a different fire today, one that for a time brought the fear of terrorism. Jamie Colby has that, across the water from Staten Island. Jamie, the headline.

JAMIE COLBY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, you're right. Twelve hours after the powerful explosion that had New Yorkers on edge, the mayor is assuring the public this was not an act of terrorism. Still, fire officials say it will be weeks before they know the cause of the blast -- Anderson.

COOPER: And a very sad development tonight in a story that was filled with hope last night. Elizabeth Cohen is on that from Durham, North Carolina. Elizabeth, the headline.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, it has indeed been a very sad day here in Durham. A girl who received first the wrong set of organs and then the right set of organs has taken a turn for the worse -- Anderson.

COOPER: Back with all of you in a moment. Also coming up tonight on NEWSNIGHT for this Friday, the 21st of February, accusations of rape at the U.S. Air Force Academy and allegations that female cadets were ignored or even punished for coming forward. That story tonight from Colorado.

And two of our favorite guests, the wine couple from "The Wall Street Journal," who want you to do what they do every year, dust off that extra special bottle and open it up. That will be a fun way to end the show tonight.

A nice way to end, but first the hard stuff, the fire. An item in the local Providence paper caught our eye. It reads, "The memorial service scheduled for tonight has been canceled." It is hard, after all, to hold a memorial with a tragedy still unfolding. As we said at the top, at least 95 people died in the fire at the club called The Station. The number is expected to rise, as Bob Franken mentioned. The fire is out, the club is gone, but the questions about how this all came to pass -- well, they have just begun. Here again, CNN's Bob Franken.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN (voice-over): Moments after the band opened its concert with fireworks, flames leapt up the wall behind the stage. Fans stood watching, many apparently thinking the fire was part of the show.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I noticed when the pyro stopped, the flame kept going on both sides. And then on one side, I noticed it come over the top, and that's when I said I have to leave. And I turned around and I said, Get out. Get out. Get to the door. Get to the door.

FRANKEN: Only as the smoke rolled down from the ceiling did the crowd rush toward the exits. Many tried to leave the way they came in and became trapped in the entrance, unable to escape. Within minutes, the building was an inferno.

ERIN PUCINO, WITNESS: And it was, like, a big wave of people just floating towards the front door. And then when we got to the front door, somebody fell, and then everybody fell on top of them.

FRANKEN: Officials say that many of the victims were found near the front exit.

CHIEF CHARLES HALL, WEST WARWICK FIRE DEPARTMENT: Many people came to this concert last night, was their first time at the Station club. And being creatures of habit, people would have a tendency to try to get out the same way they came in, not being cognizant of the fact that we had three other operating fire exits.

FRANKEN: Officials are having a tough time finding out who all the victims are.

GOV. DONALD CARCIERI (D), RHODE ISLAND: And it may be, in some cases, that we're going to rely on DNA or some other things. But every case is different. I mean, some of the situations are just horrific.

FRANKEN: The lawyers for the owners of the club, described as devastated and shocked, insisted they had no idea the performers were planning to use fireworks in their concert. Quote, "No permission was ever requested by the band or its agents to use pyrotechnics at The Station, and no permission was ever given."

That is emphatically disputed by the leader of Great White, whose guitarist is among the missing.

JACK RUSSELL, LEAD SINGER, GREAT WHITE: We advance to shows, and they'll say -- we say, This is what we have. This is what it does. Is it OK to use here or not? Some places say, Yes, no problems. Some places say, No, we can't do that, so we don't do it. It's not, like -- it's not, like, a big part of the show, you know? Tonight we had the permission to do it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN: Now, the authorities say that a couple of months ago, the club did pass a fire inspection, but of course, there will be investigations and possibly prosecutions. That's in the future. For the moment, the community is dealing with overwhelming grief, Anderson, and just terrible, terrible tragedy that it is trying to comprehend.

COOPER: Yes, it is certainly a story that is almost impossible to comprehend, at this point.

Bob, we should point out to our viewers that we are anticipating a press conference any moment now, very close to where you are. Rhode Island's governor Don Carcieri is expected to hold that press conference. We will bring that to our viewers live, so our viewers might want to be holding on for that. Again, we expect that any moment now. Bob, obviously, there's going to be a lot of finger-pointing over the next couple of weeks and months and probably court cases years in the making. Right now, it seems, though, there's this disagreement between the band and the club, both saying the other is responsible for these pyrotechnics, that they didn't have the correct approval. CNN has been told by the another establishment, the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, where this band played earlier, that they also used pyrotechnics without permission of the club. Is there any new developments on that front?

FRANKEN: Well, to balance this just a little bit, there have been some clubs that say that the band did seek permission. There was one club, for instance, that denied it permission, and the band didn't do it. So it is really something that has to be resolved because when it comes time to place blame, that could be probably the most important, significant factor.

COOPER: No doubt. All right, Bob Franken, thank you very much. It's been a long day for you. We appreciate you joining us tonight. Thanks.

The fire happened fast. The aftermath, of course, plays out at a different speed entirely. There's the search for loved ones. There's the sitting in hospital waiting rooms. It must seem like an eternity tonight. CNN's Whitney Case has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CASEY: What are you feeling? What are the gamut of emotions...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm going to find her!

CASEY: You're going to?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm going to find her!

CASEY: Good luck.

(voice-over): Family members continue to search for loved ones, showing pictures of the missing and issuing poignant pleas for help.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anyone who's seen her, please call. Please call.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know a girl. She's still waiting to hear if her mom's in there.

CASEY: And as the death toll increases, so, too, does the tragedy's reach.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't have no feelings. I just have sorrow. Very, very sad.

CASEY: Grief touching nearly everyone in this small town of nearly 35,000, just outside of Providence, Rhode Island. Nicole LaFleur and her family live right across the street from the nightclub.

NICOLE LAFLEUR, NEIGHBOR: Here in Rhode Island, it's so small that if you're not that relative, then you know someone who knows that person. And it's just really -- it's just unbelievable. It's just unbelievable. I can't believe it's happening here.

CASEY: Christie Lee, Miss Rhode Island USA, says she had many friends in the club last night, friends she's yet to find.

CHRISTIE LEE, MISS RHODE ISLAND USA: Now is the toughest time. Now it's the waiting game and finding out, you know, who was there that you didn't know.

CASE (on camera): And that's where that networking you were talking about...

LEE: Absolutely.

CASEY: ... really comes in, that -- everybody calling each other...

LEE: Yes.

CASEY: ... Is your brother, is your friend OK, that kind of thing.

LEE: My phone has not stopped ringing since 11:00 o'clock last night.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CASEY: And the governor, who we may hear from shortly, has underscored from the very beginning that his top priority is to help identify these victims. Now, he's doing that in a collaborative effort with the medical examiner's office and the local authorities. But he's also opened this state assembly here for the family members.

Now, it's just down the street from the fire, and family members have been coming here, but it is closed to the media. Now, the Red Cross volunteer took us inside, just on the periphery, to show us exactly what these family members have to go through. And the first step is a very intricate interview with state police, in which they are told, Anderson, to bring medical and dental records.

COOPER: Whitney, you know, earlier in your report, we saw a person with a "missing" poster. And I mean, is there -- is there any hope of anyone actually being just missing? I mean, it seems almost impossible to believe.

CASEY: Well, that's what it -- it's -- the atmosphere here today was sort of like nomads walking down the street. A lot of people were aimless. And I think that was kind of when we spoke to them just sort of a goal. I think they really knew that they would find out if they were indeed missing here at the family assistance center. But that was just something that they could do during the day. They really...

COOPER: OK, Whitney. I'm sorry, Whitney. We have to jump in. This is Rhode Island's governor, Don Carcieri.

CASEY: Great.

COOPER: Let's listen in.

GOV. DON CARCIERI (R), RHODE ISLAND: As I've said many times, but I'm going to keep saying it, we just had, as you all have seen, a tremendous, tremendous effort on the part of all of the firemen and women that have been working that site all day since last night, non- stop, tremendous dedication under very adverse circumstances. And I can't say enough about the effort on all of their part.

In addition, I have to say that the effort at the hospitals on the part of the doctors, the nurses, all of the staff, has also just been overwhelming. I know many of you have been putting on the air different clips and -- but the work going on there and what you're hearing, in terms of the kinds of situations they're seeing and running into, which for many of them are -- they haven't seen before in this magnitude, and the way they're dealing with it and handling it, I think, also, we can feel very proud about and feel very confident.

As was pointed out today, we got a dispatch communication from the White House that this was the fourth largest such loss of life, if you will, in a fire in U.S. history -- fourth largest. And therefore, they are coming forward with resources that we're asking for that I'll touch on.

There has been one additional body in the final sweep on the site that was recovered, so we now have confirmed 96 deaths. And at the moment, the ATF and the fire marshals teams, and so forth, are going through the site for other evidence, and so forth. That will be ongoing. But this evening, the site will be basically secured. In other words, all the work, in terms of looking for any additional bodies, that will be complete.

There will be teams coming in over the next few days to do further investigative kinds of work, and there will be several teams doing that. Over at the Crowne Plaza right now, we have confirmed seven identifications, for certain, matched up with families. And right now, as we speak, families are being met with by groups led by the Red Cross and other volunteers and clergy, and so forth, as those families are being identified, are being spoken with.

In addition, we believe that there are probably another eight that we will be able to identify fairly quickly just by visual inspection. And there have been teams examining the bodies, and they feel that there's maybe another eight -- there might be more, but right now that we will be able to identify fairly quickly. The balance is going to take time. And with the help of Senator Reid, we have five teams of forensic pathologists on the way. They'll be here tomorrow -- five separate teams -- because, as I said earlier, what we're going to do is go 24 hours, around the clock, to see if we can get these bodies identified as fast as possible and give some closure to the families. So that's going to be a tremendous help to us. Right now, the Department of Health, Dr. Noel (ph) and her staff, are going to go through the night, continuing their work until these teams join us tomorrow. In addition, we have an expert coming in from the Department of Health and Human Services out of Washington, the Public Health Division, and he's coming in tonight. And this is to help us assess what other needs we might need. We have need of equipment, other resources, so that we can get this process completed as rapidly as possible.

Lastly, we -- as I said earlier, I am concerned about other situations like this that might exist around the state, so the fire marshal is in the process of putting out instructions to all the deputy fire marshals around the state in different communities to assess what we're going to call target hazards. Those are situations -- you know, older buildings where we know this kind of event is going on, and make a quick assessment of those hazards and then do an inspection. And we'll do it on a priority basis.

I want to make sure that we've -- what we saw here does not happen again. And I want to make sure that if we have venues where these kind of events are going on, that they're meeting codes and we've inspected them. And if we have any concerns about those facilities, I want those to be flagged up.

We have found -- and I'll just say that there's some additional evidence of kinds of pyrotechnic equipment that was used here. We found some of it stored on the site. That's under the control of the fire marshal, and that will give us a better understanding, as we get into that, as to what materials were used, and so forth.

I think that's about it right now. What we're going to do is we're going to convene again tomorrow morning here, 7:00 o'clock. Our hope is that in the course of the night, we can give you more of an update, in terms of any additional identifications, any changes in status anywhere, and we'll have a better sense of the teams coming in and perhaps maybe even some assessments being made by Health and Human Service personnel. So we'll do that tomorrow morning and see where we are.

QUESTION: Governor, what did you mean by stored on the site? (UNINTELLIGIBLE) () was stored on...

CARCIERI: Well, they had it on -- there was some that were on the site.

COOPER: You've been listening to a press conference with Rhode Island's governor Don Carcieri speaking near Warwick, Rhode Island, saying that there is one more additional death that they have confirmed. So that's a total of 96 deaths at this hour. They have so far identified only seven of those people. They believe there will be eight more identifications sometime relatively soon. Presumably because of the condition of the bodies those will be relatively easy to identify. They say that five forensic teams are now on the way and that it will -- once those teams arrive, will be a 24-hour effort, trying to identify the remaining dozens of deaths. We have a number of people standing by on this. Bob Franken is standing by, as he has been throughout much of the day. Bob, what did you hear in that press conference? Anything jump out at you?

FRANKEN: Well, the one thing that strikes everybody is how frustrating it is, and sadly frustrating, particularly for families, to find out if their loved one is among those who have died. The other thing I will point out is although they say that with the 96th person, they believe they have recovered all the bodies in what was the club, there are, last count I knew, 25 people in area hospitals who are in critical condition, and some of them are expected to die. So the death toll could go considerably higher.

This is a story that is unfolding slowly. It is unfolding very sadly, you can tell by the demeanor of the governor. And what they want to do is just to provide as much information as possible, without compromising in any way the investigation.

COOPER: So Bob, just so we're absolutely clear -- my understanding is that there were an estimated some 360 people inside that club at the time of the fire. And correct me if any of these numbers are wrong. Ninety-six have so far been confirmed dead. Where are the others that we know of?

FRANKEN: Well, there are others who are injured. There were well over 100 who were taken to hospitals. I believe the total right now is about 81 who are hospitalized. A lot of people did get out. A lot of people suffered minor injuries. And by the way, that figure, according to officials, puts the number of people who were inside that club over what was really authorized. I think the number that was authorized was a little over 300.

COOPER: And what is remarkable, from my understanding, is that this fire took about -- only about three minutes to really consume the building.

FRANKEN: It was something -- it was almost an astounding speed. It was almost too much for the people to escape. What was also very tragic is that a lot of the people who didn't get out didn't because they thought that the fire, as it was spreading, was part of the show. So they wasted valuable moments when they might have been able to escape.

COOPER: All right, Bob Franken, thank you very much.

Whitney Case is also standing by, covering this story. Whitney, what did you take from that press conference?

CASEY: Well, I thought what was interesting was that the governor said that five teams of pathologists were on their way here to work 24 hours around the clock. And he said that they made seven positive IDs right here in the Crowne Plaza behind me. That's the hotel where the families have been gathering, where they brought us into.

And in addition, when I was inside, I asked the Red Cross volunteer, are they asking right now -- besides medical records and dental records, are they asking for, like, hair samples from brushes or cotton swabs from DNA or personal effects just yet? And she told me that they are waiting for these pathologist teams to come in. And if it comes to that, they will have to do that. If it's beyond identification, they will begin that process right here behind me with the family members.

They're also seeking grievance counseling, and they're having prayer sessions in here tonight. So it's not just only these interviews with the state police. The family members are sort of gathering together for comfort here also.

COOPER: All right, Whitney Case, again, I appreciate your efforts. I know you've been covering this story all day long. Thanks very much, Whitney.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, another fire today, one that for a while brought fears of terrorism. And the latest on the condition of transplant patient Jesica Santillan.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, deja vu was thick in the New York air today. The pillar of smoke could be seen as far away as Connecticut. To a lot of people, not just New Yorkers, it looked like just one thing. It looked like the worst. It turned out to be something else entirely. Not the worst, but not much better, anyway. Here again, CNN's Jamie Colby.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COLBY (voice-over): The massive explosion occurred as a barge was halfway through unloading 4 million gallons of gasoline.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was, like, just a big bang, like -- sort of like an earthquake.

COLBY: Thick black smoke blanketed the sky over Staten Island, parts of New Jersey and lower Manhattan, as the fire raged over the ExxonMobil fuel storage plant. Residents feared it was terrorism.

JOE DIMARTINO, STATEN ISLAND RESIDENT: My wife was killed in the Trade Center on 9/11, and I thought we were being attacked again.

VANNA FOLEY, STATEN ISLAND RESIDENT: My husband is -- you know, he's a police officer. He said, you know, Come down. We'll, you know, see what's going on. And we grabbed the baby, and we tried to get things together. We have, of course, a provisional bag with money and our title and our deed, which is what we were told to do.

COLBY: But the mayor assured the public there was no indication of sabotage.

MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (R), NEW YORK CITY: There is absolutely no reason to at the moment believe this is anything other than a very tragic accident. COLBY: More than 200 firefighters responded to the blaze, which was confined to the water. The barge eventually sank. A second barge on its way to the facility was rerouted. In a statement, ExxonMobil said, quote, "We will begin a thorough investigation of the cause of this unfortunate event." State environmental authorities filed a complaint last summer against this facility, detailing violations concerning the transfer of hazardous material. ExxonMobil denies those allegations are in any way connected to today's explosion. Officials are investigating potential environmental damage.

BLOOMBERG: The Department of Environmental Protection is setting up monitoring stations downwind to make sure that the air is of acceptable quality.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLBY: And residual fuel is still burning at this hour, with more than 100 firefighters on scene. The fire today that had New Yorkers thinking the worst did leave two people dead, four firefighters injured, and one employee of the facility in the hospital with burns over 15 percent of his body. He is, though, in stable condition -- Anderson.

COOPER: Jamie Colby, thanks very much tonight.

"Emotional roller coaster," one of those phrases that has been cheapened beyond recognition. We think it should only be used for something that really is an emotional roller coaster, like the story of Jesica Santillan. Wednesday there was despair, watching a young girl struggle to live after a disastrous transplant. Thursday, the shock that new organs had been found and the joy that just maybe she had gotten a second chance. Today, despair once again, and anger, more anger. Once again, here's Elizabeth Cohen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN (voice-over): Jesica Santillan's doctor told her family that the 17-year-old girl is brain dead, according to a family friend. Mack Mahoney said the doctor told the family the tests this afternoon showed no brain activity. They'll do two more tests tomorrow.

MACK MAHONEY, FAMILY SPOKESPERSON: If there's no change, then Jesica is officially brain dead, OK? At that time, he'll be 100 percent sure.

COHEN: As Jesica's condition has deteriorated, so has the relationship between Duke University and the Santillan family. Jesica's friends and family have become increasingly frustrated with Duke University, even confronting a Duke official at a press conference. They're not just angry because of the original mistake, a transplant surgery February 7 where Duke admits it gave Jesica organs that were type A when she's type O. The family says Duke told them immediately about the mistake but didn't discuss it publicly for 10 days. That, they say, was costly, as media attention about the botched surgery would have helped them find another set of organs sooner. MAHONEY: To me, if the little girl dies -- if she dies, they murdered her.

COHEN: Duke says they searched earnestly for organs and fought hard to save Jesica's life.

DR. WILLIAM FULKERSON, DUKE UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: I and our entire Duke family have been devastated by this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN: Duke University says that Jesica has not been declared brain dead -- Anderson.

COOPER: Elizabeth, what happens now? What's the next step?

COHEN: Well, the next step is that we're hoping Duke will come out and say exactly what her condition is. They said earlier today that she has irreversible brain damage. We're hoping for an update later. The family, of course, continues to pray for Jesica.

COOPER: And they're going to be doing more tests tomorrow, right?

COHEN: Right. That's what the family says. The family says that they will continue to do tests. Duke said earlier today that they'll continue to monitor her neurological function -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Elizabeth Cohen, thanks very much.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, scandal at the Air Force Academy, charges that rapes were covered up and the victims drummed out. And the story of the deadly fire in Rhode Island, as told by the photographer who took those remarkable pictures.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Some developments on Iraq to report: first, a letter sent to the Iraqis from Hans Blix, the chief U.N. weapons inspector. It calls on Iraq to destroy missiles which experts say can fly farther than allowed by previous resolutions. The deadline for the process to begin is the 1st of March. Iraq's deputy prime minister calls such an order unfair and unacceptable.

Second, a senior administration official tells the U.N. to look for a new Security Council resolution on Monday. The White House expects it to come to a vote in the second week of March. And the third thing is regarding the haggling with Turkey over bases to the north of Iraq. A deal is close, but not quite done. Turkey's foreign minister says a broad agreement has been reached, the terms unknown, but expected to be in the neighborhood of $26 billion in U.S. economic aid. Any deal would have to be approved by Turkey's Parliament, where it faces some fairly stiff opposition.

It is one of the core values of the Air Force: integrity first. But a group of women accuse the U.S. Air Force Academy of sacrificing integrity for something far less admirable, scandal control, women who allege they were victimized twice as cadets, assaulted, and then ignored or even punished by their superiors.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): On the surface, everything seems routine at the Air Force Academy. Tour groups of prospective students, some of them led by women cadets, glide across the enormous grounds. But here, in this magnificent setting, normalcy has flown away.

SEN. WAYNE ALLARD (R), COLORADO: I think we have got a problem at the Air Force Academy. And it needs to be investigated.

COOPER: The senator said at least a dozen current and former female cadets at the academy have told congressional investigators that they were sexually assaulted here in recent years. And they say, when they complained or tried to file charges, they either ignored or reprimanded for infractions of the academy's cold of honor.

An example: A woman cadet who said she was raped later told investigators she was punished for drinking and what the academy called -- quote -- "socializing at inappropriate times."

ALLARD: No matter what they do, they find themselves in trouble. And they have to make a choice between whether they're going to lie and stay in the Air Force or whether they're going to tell the truth and get kicked out.

COOPER: Three of the women told their stories to a Denver television station, KMGH, a CNN affiliate in Denver.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The message is that rape is acceptable.

COOPER: From 1998 until the end of last year, academy officials say they received 99 calls to the school's sexual misconduct hot line; 13 of these were reported as rapes and nine of those were investigated. None of the incidents resulted in a court-martial, but eight male cadets were asked to leave.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you report, you're crazy, because nobody is going to believe you.

LT. GEN. JOHN DALLAGER, SUPERINTENDENT, AIR FORCE ACADEMY: We need to work on the atmosphere, the climate, maybe policies, procedures, equally as important, the implementation of those to try and address their concerns and then alleviate that perception.

COOPER: A fact-finding team from the Pentagon is at the academy now, but pressure is mounting for full-scale congressional hearings. If those, in fact, do occur, the stories will be stark.

ALLARD: There was a freshman woman cadet in the Air Force Academy. She was invited into a room by upper classmen, who offered her alcohol. And they're offering drink to an underage person. They're probably underage themselves, breaking the laws of the academy. And then, at the end, she gets inebriated and then we find that -- she finds that she's raped.

COOPER: There are more than 600 women at the Air Force Academy out of a total cadet population of around 4,000. About 20 percent of women cadets who responded to an academy survey said they simply don't trust the system any longer.

DALLAGER: It's very discouraging. It's discouraging to our chief, who has two daughters in the Air Force. It's discouraging to me, who has a daughter who is a lieutenant in the Air Force as a dad. And it's very discouraging from a command standpoint.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, still to come on NEWSNIGHT, we will go back to the Rhode Island, the story of what happened from the photographer who took those amazing videos inside the club.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: And next on NEWSNIGHT: the Rhode Island fire disaster as told from the inside.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: E-mail surfacing today from NASA start off our national roundup.

They detail the concerns of engineers at NASA's Langley Research Center just days before shuttle Columbia broke apart on reentry, one engineer warning the shuttle may have been in marginal condition and claiming others were not addressing the danger -- quote -- "We can't imagine why," he wrote, "getting information is being treated like the plague."

Other documents released today show engineers were afraid Columbia had been struck by not one, but three chunks of insulation just after liftoff. One other development worth noting: word a piece of tile from Columbia has been found near Lubbock, Texas. That is 300 miles farther west than the last tile found.

New information on the crash that killed Senator Paul Wellstone, the senator from Minnesota. According to information from the NTSB, the pilot wanted to cancel the flight because of possible icing. No final answers yet, but investigators suspect the weather played a part in the crash.

And in Denver, sentencing today for the woman who set the largest forest fire in Colorado history -- that is her there. Terry Lynn Barton got six years. But the judge spared the former Forest Service worker from paying $14 million in restitution the government was seeking. He said, the judge said he didn't want to sentence the mother of two to what he called a life of poverty.

Well, sometimes the irony is almost too painful. The reason we were able to see those remarkable pictures from inside that Rhode Island nightclub fire was because of the recent nightclub tragedy in Chicago. A local cameraman from CNN affiliate WPRI was there for a story on nightclub safety. Something that was destined to show up in one local broadcast became national news. And a simple night of work, in just a matter of seconds, became a night of terror.

Brian Butler now, as he saw it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN BUTLER, WPRI PHOTOGRAPHER: I just saw the pyrotechnics start, so I started rolling. Then, I noticed, when the pyro stopped, the flame kept going on both sides.

And then, on one side, I noticed it come over the top. And that's when I said, I have to leave. People stood and watched it. And some people backed off. When I turned around, some people were already trying to leave.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't move.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUTLER: And others were just sitting there going, yes, that's great. And I remember that statement, because I was like, this is not great. This is time to leave.

There was no way to stop the fire once it started. No one had water. There was -- the crowd was at least 10 or 12 deep from where I was. At first, there was no panic. Everybody just kind of turned. Most people still just stood there. In the other rooms, the smoke hadn't gotten to them. The flame wasn't that bad. They didn't think anything of it.

Well, I guess once we all started to turn towards the door and we got bottlenecked into the front door, people just kept pushing. And, eventually, everyone popped out of the door, including myself. That's when I turned back. I went around back. There was no one coming out the back door anymore.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUTLER: Anybody inside?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUTLER: I kicked out a side window to try to get people out of there. One guy did crawl out.

I went back around the front again. That's when you saw people stacked on top of each other trying to get out of the front door. And by then, the black smoke was pouring out over their heads, out the side windows on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Someone put the fire out!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where's Gail?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUTLER: A lot of people did get out. The majority, I would say, got out. But to see people stacked on top of each other and others heroically jumping in and trying to pull them off the top, out of the bottom, trying to push people back just enough to get someone loose, every life was important to everybody there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, we will take a look at some of tomorrow's papers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Next on NEWSNIGHT, we'll check the morning papers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: We're going to take you live to a press conference at Duke University, the family of Jesica Santillan.

Listen in.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

MAGDALENA SANTILLAN, MOTHER OF JESICA: (SPEAKING IN SPANISH)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's saying that she doesn't trust these doctors no more and that she feels in her heart, as a mother, that they're trying to get rid of the problem. And she feels, little by little, that they're taking medicines or something away from her, because everything is stable, her heart rate, everything, her vital signs. Everything is stable at the moment.

And now they come up and say that her -- about her brain, the inflammation in the brain. And why before, when -- the first transplant, they had brought up nothing about this, about the brain, and about the inflammation, swelling in the brain. And now that everything came out OK through the second surgery, now this complication, because she sees that everything, all her vital signs are good.

QUESTION: (SPEAKING IN SPANISH)

SANTILLAN: (SPEAKING IN SPANISH)

QUESTION: (SPEAKING IN SPANISH)

SANTILLAN: (SPEAKING IN SPANISH) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's saying -- the reporter is asking if there's already proof from the CT scan or -- that the doctors are telling her that there's already -- that the inflammation of the brain is not irreversible. And my aunt is saying that she really doesn't understand all that stuff, but that she doesn't understand, because they told her that it was 100 percent, the brain, that there wasn't brain waves 100 percent.

They got a senior neurologist that said -- now they're saying they're going to do another procedure tomorrow at 7:00 and then at 1:00. She's, like, well, they're already telling me there's nothing there. And why are they going to still do another procedure tomorrow, two more procedures, if they're already telling me that this is what's going on?

QUESTION: What was 100 percent?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That it was -- (SPEAKING IN SPANISH)

SANTILLAN: (SPEAKING IN SPANISH)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That the brain was already dead, that it was 100 percent.

SANTILLAN: (SPEAKING IN SPANISH)

COOPER: You've been listening to a press conference, the family of 17-year-old Jesica Santillan. Jesica's mother obviously does not speak any English, voicing her suspicions, saying that she believes doctors are not really giving her the full story.

Jesica's surgeon, according to a family spokesman, had told her mother that, on Saturday, she will have to consider taking her daughter off life support. That seems to be something Jesica's mother, at this point, is unwilling to entertain.

We'll be covering this story as developments warrant.

And we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, after a day like this, with news as bad as it can get, we are happy to end tonight with one those simpler questions in life, namely: bottle of red, bottle of white? Well, thankfully, Brenda and Eddie aren't here tonight.

It's a real-life couple, the wine couple for "The Wall Street Journal." Tomorrow is their fourth annual Open That Bottle Night, the night to stop saving that precious bottle and start enjoying it by uncorking it with someone you love.

Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher joining us now.

Thanks for being with us.

JOHN BRECHER, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": Thank you.

DOROTHY GAITER, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": Thank you.

COOPER: All right, so I'm unfamiliar with it. What is Open That Bottle Night?

BRECHER: When we started our column five years ago, we realized that the question we were asked most often was: I have this one very special bottle of wine. I got it for my wedding.

COOPER: Right.

BRECHER: It came from a loved one who is no longer with us. When do I open it? We finally decided, let's all open it at the same time. So, September 22, 1999...

COOPER: So you just created this night as a national holiday.

BRECHER: ... is Open That Bottle Night.

(LAUGHTER)

GAITER: People from all over the world open bottles that night. It created a really wonderful community.

COOPER: What's the point? Why have a night to open up that bottle? What's important about it?

GAITER: Wine should be drunk. It shouldn't be held and revered. It's for sharing. So we're going to be opening this.

COOPER: Why that bottle in particular?

GAITER: Well, this was from our very first trip to Italy and we went to Aldo Conterno. And he signed it. And so we could never open it. It's a signed bottle from a famous wine-maker.

BRECHER: It's way too special to ever open.

And that's really the point. It' not about the liquid. It's not about the wine. It's about the memories. It's about the people it brings back. It's about the times it brings back. That's what a great bottle of wine is all about. And it doesn't matter whether it's really a great bottle of wine. But it's a great bottle of wine if it has great memories attached it.

COOPER: And readers write in and tell you all about the memories that their great bottle of wines that they're going to open up. What are some of the stories?

GAITER: The first year that we did this, we got a 1,000 letters. This was before e-mail, stamps.

BRECHER: Real letters.

COOPER: Real letters. Wow. GAITER: Yes. We heard from a John Watson (ph), who said, if only you'd created this holiday a year earlier, I could have shared it with my bride, who can now only enjoy it in spirit. We heard from him two years ago. He was on a wine trip and had met Mary. So, we hope that we hear from both of them this year.

COOPER: Now, I understand, this bottle, you will not open?

GAITER: No, no, no.

BRECHER: We can't stand to.

GAITER: Always Elvis.

COOPER: What is this?

GAITER: Always Elvis, with a

(CROSSTALK)

GAITER: ... by the colonel.

BRECHER: You know, we appreciate there's some bottles that people will never open, that they can never stand to open. That's Always Elvis. We just can't stand it.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Where did you get this bottle?

BRECHER: We bought this in 1980 in Miami for $3.09. And it probably should have been drunk in 1979.

(LAUGHTER)

BRECHER: But that's not what important. What's important is, it's one of the very last bottles we bought in Miami before we moved to New York. And so to us, aside from the spectacular label, it's got spectacular memories attached to it.

COOPER: All right, well, tomorrow night, Open That Bottle Night.

BRECHER: Open That Bottle.

GAITER: Be there or be square.

COOPER: Thanks very much for joining us tonight. Appreciate it.

BRECHER: Thank you.

COOPER: And that is NEWSNIGHT for tonight. I'm Anderson Cooper. Thanks for watching. Have a great weekend.

I'll be working all weekend. I hope you join me. Aaron returns on Monday.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired February 21, 2003 - 22:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, GUEST HOST: Good evening again, everyone. I'm Anderson Cooper, filling in for Aaron Brown. A lot to talk about tonight, in particular the staggering loss of life at that Rhode Island nightclub.
We've spent the past few weeks trying to protect ourselves against the kind of things people make movies about, the sum of all fears, bad guys with scary toys trying to do some terrible things. It is, of course, easy to forget that terrible things can happen without a bad guy determined to do us harm, without the kind of weapons Hans Blix is now searching for.

There are still so many questions still unanswered tonight about who is to blame for this nightclub nightmare, but it seems safe to say that no one set out to kill nearly a hundred people. There was no terrorist from some far-flung place, but there was certainly terror for those wanting nothing more than a fun night out. We think of the duct tape, the batteries, the bottled water so many snapped up last week, preparing for the absolute worst. But we also have to prepare for the more everyday risks we take in our lives.

In that nightclub last night, there were four exits. Most of the patrons seemed to know only about one of them. Had they used the other three exits, the local fire officials suggested tonight, a lot more people might have survived.

And so it is that fire which leads off the whip tonight. Bob Franken is in West Warwick, Rhode Island. Bob, the headline.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, the death toll is now 95. That's the bodies that they found inside what used to be the club. It is now just a charred crater. But they expect that the death count, before it's over with, all the people in the hospital, is going to go well over 100. A sad story, a story that cannot even really be captured in just the numbers. It is a terror almost impossible to comprehend. We'll have more in a moment.

COOPER: All right. Well, as Bob just mentioned, an enormous tragedy for a place where everybody, it seems, knows somebody who is involved. Whitney Case tonight on how the community is coping. Whitney, the headline.

WHITNEY CASEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, hundreds of families of the missing meet here tonight in hopes of helping authorities identify their loved ones, dozens of which are still unaccounted for.

COOPER: Unbelievable. On to a different fire today, one that for a time brought the fear of terrorism. Jamie Colby has that, across the water from Staten Island. Jamie, the headline.

JAMIE COLBY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, you're right. Twelve hours after the powerful explosion that had New Yorkers on edge, the mayor is assuring the public this was not an act of terrorism. Still, fire officials say it will be weeks before they know the cause of the blast -- Anderson.

COOPER: And a very sad development tonight in a story that was filled with hope last night. Elizabeth Cohen is on that from Durham, North Carolina. Elizabeth, the headline.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, it has indeed been a very sad day here in Durham. A girl who received first the wrong set of organs and then the right set of organs has taken a turn for the worse -- Anderson.

COOPER: Back with all of you in a moment. Also coming up tonight on NEWSNIGHT for this Friday, the 21st of February, accusations of rape at the U.S. Air Force Academy and allegations that female cadets were ignored or even punished for coming forward. That story tonight from Colorado.

And two of our favorite guests, the wine couple from "The Wall Street Journal," who want you to do what they do every year, dust off that extra special bottle and open it up. That will be a fun way to end the show tonight.

A nice way to end, but first the hard stuff, the fire. An item in the local Providence paper caught our eye. It reads, "The memorial service scheduled for tonight has been canceled." It is hard, after all, to hold a memorial with a tragedy still unfolding. As we said at the top, at least 95 people died in the fire at the club called The Station. The number is expected to rise, as Bob Franken mentioned. The fire is out, the club is gone, but the questions about how this all came to pass -- well, they have just begun. Here again, CNN's Bob Franken.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN (voice-over): Moments after the band opened its concert with fireworks, flames leapt up the wall behind the stage. Fans stood watching, many apparently thinking the fire was part of the show.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I noticed when the pyro stopped, the flame kept going on both sides. And then on one side, I noticed it come over the top, and that's when I said I have to leave. And I turned around and I said, Get out. Get out. Get to the door. Get to the door.

FRANKEN: Only as the smoke rolled down from the ceiling did the crowd rush toward the exits. Many tried to leave the way they came in and became trapped in the entrance, unable to escape. Within minutes, the building was an inferno.

ERIN PUCINO, WITNESS: And it was, like, a big wave of people just floating towards the front door. And then when we got to the front door, somebody fell, and then everybody fell on top of them.

FRANKEN: Officials say that many of the victims were found near the front exit.

CHIEF CHARLES HALL, WEST WARWICK FIRE DEPARTMENT: Many people came to this concert last night, was their first time at the Station club. And being creatures of habit, people would have a tendency to try to get out the same way they came in, not being cognizant of the fact that we had three other operating fire exits.

FRANKEN: Officials are having a tough time finding out who all the victims are.

GOV. DONALD CARCIERI (D), RHODE ISLAND: And it may be, in some cases, that we're going to rely on DNA or some other things. But every case is different. I mean, some of the situations are just horrific.

FRANKEN: The lawyers for the owners of the club, described as devastated and shocked, insisted they had no idea the performers were planning to use fireworks in their concert. Quote, "No permission was ever requested by the band or its agents to use pyrotechnics at The Station, and no permission was ever given."

That is emphatically disputed by the leader of Great White, whose guitarist is among the missing.

JACK RUSSELL, LEAD SINGER, GREAT WHITE: We advance to shows, and they'll say -- we say, This is what we have. This is what it does. Is it OK to use here or not? Some places say, Yes, no problems. Some places say, No, we can't do that, so we don't do it. It's not, like -- it's not, like, a big part of the show, you know? Tonight we had the permission to do it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN: Now, the authorities say that a couple of months ago, the club did pass a fire inspection, but of course, there will be investigations and possibly prosecutions. That's in the future. For the moment, the community is dealing with overwhelming grief, Anderson, and just terrible, terrible tragedy that it is trying to comprehend.

COOPER: Yes, it is certainly a story that is almost impossible to comprehend, at this point.

Bob, we should point out to our viewers that we are anticipating a press conference any moment now, very close to where you are. Rhode Island's governor Don Carcieri is expected to hold that press conference. We will bring that to our viewers live, so our viewers might want to be holding on for that. Again, we expect that any moment now. Bob, obviously, there's going to be a lot of finger-pointing over the next couple of weeks and months and probably court cases years in the making. Right now, it seems, though, there's this disagreement between the band and the club, both saying the other is responsible for these pyrotechnics, that they didn't have the correct approval. CNN has been told by the another establishment, the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, where this band played earlier, that they also used pyrotechnics without permission of the club. Is there any new developments on that front?

FRANKEN: Well, to balance this just a little bit, there have been some clubs that say that the band did seek permission. There was one club, for instance, that denied it permission, and the band didn't do it. So it is really something that has to be resolved because when it comes time to place blame, that could be probably the most important, significant factor.

COOPER: No doubt. All right, Bob Franken, thank you very much. It's been a long day for you. We appreciate you joining us tonight. Thanks.

The fire happened fast. The aftermath, of course, plays out at a different speed entirely. There's the search for loved ones. There's the sitting in hospital waiting rooms. It must seem like an eternity tonight. CNN's Whitney Case has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CASEY: What are you feeling? What are the gamut of emotions...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm going to find her!

CASEY: You're going to?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm going to find her!

CASEY: Good luck.

(voice-over): Family members continue to search for loved ones, showing pictures of the missing and issuing poignant pleas for help.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anyone who's seen her, please call. Please call.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know a girl. She's still waiting to hear if her mom's in there.

CASEY: And as the death toll increases, so, too, does the tragedy's reach.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't have no feelings. I just have sorrow. Very, very sad.

CASEY: Grief touching nearly everyone in this small town of nearly 35,000, just outside of Providence, Rhode Island. Nicole LaFleur and her family live right across the street from the nightclub.

NICOLE LAFLEUR, NEIGHBOR: Here in Rhode Island, it's so small that if you're not that relative, then you know someone who knows that person. And it's just really -- it's just unbelievable. It's just unbelievable. I can't believe it's happening here.

CASEY: Christie Lee, Miss Rhode Island USA, says she had many friends in the club last night, friends she's yet to find.

CHRISTIE LEE, MISS RHODE ISLAND USA: Now is the toughest time. Now it's the waiting game and finding out, you know, who was there that you didn't know.

CASE (on camera): And that's where that networking you were talking about...

LEE: Absolutely.

CASEY: ... really comes in, that -- everybody calling each other...

LEE: Yes.

CASEY: ... Is your brother, is your friend OK, that kind of thing.

LEE: My phone has not stopped ringing since 11:00 o'clock last night.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CASEY: And the governor, who we may hear from shortly, has underscored from the very beginning that his top priority is to help identify these victims. Now, he's doing that in a collaborative effort with the medical examiner's office and the local authorities. But he's also opened this state assembly here for the family members.

Now, it's just down the street from the fire, and family members have been coming here, but it is closed to the media. Now, the Red Cross volunteer took us inside, just on the periphery, to show us exactly what these family members have to go through. And the first step is a very intricate interview with state police, in which they are told, Anderson, to bring medical and dental records.

COOPER: Whitney, you know, earlier in your report, we saw a person with a "missing" poster. And I mean, is there -- is there any hope of anyone actually being just missing? I mean, it seems almost impossible to believe.

CASEY: Well, that's what it -- it's -- the atmosphere here today was sort of like nomads walking down the street. A lot of people were aimless. And I think that was kind of when we spoke to them just sort of a goal. I think they really knew that they would find out if they were indeed missing here at the family assistance center. But that was just something that they could do during the day. They really...

COOPER: OK, Whitney. I'm sorry, Whitney. We have to jump in. This is Rhode Island's governor, Don Carcieri.

CASEY: Great.

COOPER: Let's listen in.

GOV. DON CARCIERI (R), RHODE ISLAND: As I've said many times, but I'm going to keep saying it, we just had, as you all have seen, a tremendous, tremendous effort on the part of all of the firemen and women that have been working that site all day since last night, non- stop, tremendous dedication under very adverse circumstances. And I can't say enough about the effort on all of their part.

In addition, I have to say that the effort at the hospitals on the part of the doctors, the nurses, all of the staff, has also just been overwhelming. I know many of you have been putting on the air different clips and -- but the work going on there and what you're hearing, in terms of the kinds of situations they're seeing and running into, which for many of them are -- they haven't seen before in this magnitude, and the way they're dealing with it and handling it, I think, also, we can feel very proud about and feel very confident.

As was pointed out today, we got a dispatch communication from the White House that this was the fourth largest such loss of life, if you will, in a fire in U.S. history -- fourth largest. And therefore, they are coming forward with resources that we're asking for that I'll touch on.

There has been one additional body in the final sweep on the site that was recovered, so we now have confirmed 96 deaths. And at the moment, the ATF and the fire marshals teams, and so forth, are going through the site for other evidence, and so forth. That will be ongoing. But this evening, the site will be basically secured. In other words, all the work, in terms of looking for any additional bodies, that will be complete.

There will be teams coming in over the next few days to do further investigative kinds of work, and there will be several teams doing that. Over at the Crowne Plaza right now, we have confirmed seven identifications, for certain, matched up with families. And right now, as we speak, families are being met with by groups led by the Red Cross and other volunteers and clergy, and so forth, as those families are being identified, are being spoken with.

In addition, we believe that there are probably another eight that we will be able to identify fairly quickly just by visual inspection. And there have been teams examining the bodies, and they feel that there's maybe another eight -- there might be more, but right now that we will be able to identify fairly quickly. The balance is going to take time. And with the help of Senator Reid, we have five teams of forensic pathologists on the way. They'll be here tomorrow -- five separate teams -- because, as I said earlier, what we're going to do is go 24 hours, around the clock, to see if we can get these bodies identified as fast as possible and give some closure to the families. So that's going to be a tremendous help to us. Right now, the Department of Health, Dr. Noel (ph) and her staff, are going to go through the night, continuing their work until these teams join us tomorrow. In addition, we have an expert coming in from the Department of Health and Human Services out of Washington, the Public Health Division, and he's coming in tonight. And this is to help us assess what other needs we might need. We have need of equipment, other resources, so that we can get this process completed as rapidly as possible.

Lastly, we -- as I said earlier, I am concerned about other situations like this that might exist around the state, so the fire marshal is in the process of putting out instructions to all the deputy fire marshals around the state in different communities to assess what we're going to call target hazards. Those are situations -- you know, older buildings where we know this kind of event is going on, and make a quick assessment of those hazards and then do an inspection. And we'll do it on a priority basis.

I want to make sure that we've -- what we saw here does not happen again. And I want to make sure that if we have venues where these kind of events are going on, that they're meeting codes and we've inspected them. And if we have any concerns about those facilities, I want those to be flagged up.

We have found -- and I'll just say that there's some additional evidence of kinds of pyrotechnic equipment that was used here. We found some of it stored on the site. That's under the control of the fire marshal, and that will give us a better understanding, as we get into that, as to what materials were used, and so forth.

I think that's about it right now. What we're going to do is we're going to convene again tomorrow morning here, 7:00 o'clock. Our hope is that in the course of the night, we can give you more of an update, in terms of any additional identifications, any changes in status anywhere, and we'll have a better sense of the teams coming in and perhaps maybe even some assessments being made by Health and Human Service personnel. So we'll do that tomorrow morning and see where we are.

QUESTION: Governor, what did you mean by stored on the site? (UNINTELLIGIBLE) () was stored on...

CARCIERI: Well, they had it on -- there was some that were on the site.

COOPER: You've been listening to a press conference with Rhode Island's governor Don Carcieri speaking near Warwick, Rhode Island, saying that there is one more additional death that they have confirmed. So that's a total of 96 deaths at this hour. They have so far identified only seven of those people. They believe there will be eight more identifications sometime relatively soon. Presumably because of the condition of the bodies those will be relatively easy to identify. They say that five forensic teams are now on the way and that it will -- once those teams arrive, will be a 24-hour effort, trying to identify the remaining dozens of deaths. We have a number of people standing by on this. Bob Franken is standing by, as he has been throughout much of the day. Bob, what did you hear in that press conference? Anything jump out at you?

FRANKEN: Well, the one thing that strikes everybody is how frustrating it is, and sadly frustrating, particularly for families, to find out if their loved one is among those who have died. The other thing I will point out is although they say that with the 96th person, they believe they have recovered all the bodies in what was the club, there are, last count I knew, 25 people in area hospitals who are in critical condition, and some of them are expected to die. So the death toll could go considerably higher.

This is a story that is unfolding slowly. It is unfolding very sadly, you can tell by the demeanor of the governor. And what they want to do is just to provide as much information as possible, without compromising in any way the investigation.

COOPER: So Bob, just so we're absolutely clear -- my understanding is that there were an estimated some 360 people inside that club at the time of the fire. And correct me if any of these numbers are wrong. Ninety-six have so far been confirmed dead. Where are the others that we know of?

FRANKEN: Well, there are others who are injured. There were well over 100 who were taken to hospitals. I believe the total right now is about 81 who are hospitalized. A lot of people did get out. A lot of people suffered minor injuries. And by the way, that figure, according to officials, puts the number of people who were inside that club over what was really authorized. I think the number that was authorized was a little over 300.

COOPER: And what is remarkable, from my understanding, is that this fire took about -- only about three minutes to really consume the building.

FRANKEN: It was something -- it was almost an astounding speed. It was almost too much for the people to escape. What was also very tragic is that a lot of the people who didn't get out didn't because they thought that the fire, as it was spreading, was part of the show. So they wasted valuable moments when they might have been able to escape.

COOPER: All right, Bob Franken, thank you very much.

Whitney Case is also standing by, covering this story. Whitney, what did you take from that press conference?

CASEY: Well, I thought what was interesting was that the governor said that five teams of pathologists were on their way here to work 24 hours around the clock. And he said that they made seven positive IDs right here in the Crowne Plaza behind me. That's the hotel where the families have been gathering, where they brought us into.

And in addition, when I was inside, I asked the Red Cross volunteer, are they asking right now -- besides medical records and dental records, are they asking for, like, hair samples from brushes or cotton swabs from DNA or personal effects just yet? And she told me that they are waiting for these pathologist teams to come in. And if it comes to that, they will have to do that. If it's beyond identification, they will begin that process right here behind me with the family members.

They're also seeking grievance counseling, and they're having prayer sessions in here tonight. So it's not just only these interviews with the state police. The family members are sort of gathering together for comfort here also.

COOPER: All right, Whitney Case, again, I appreciate your efforts. I know you've been covering this story all day long. Thanks very much, Whitney.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, another fire today, one that for a while brought fears of terrorism. And the latest on the condition of transplant patient Jesica Santillan.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, deja vu was thick in the New York air today. The pillar of smoke could be seen as far away as Connecticut. To a lot of people, not just New Yorkers, it looked like just one thing. It looked like the worst. It turned out to be something else entirely. Not the worst, but not much better, anyway. Here again, CNN's Jamie Colby.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COLBY (voice-over): The massive explosion occurred as a barge was halfway through unloading 4 million gallons of gasoline.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was, like, just a big bang, like -- sort of like an earthquake.

COLBY: Thick black smoke blanketed the sky over Staten Island, parts of New Jersey and lower Manhattan, as the fire raged over the ExxonMobil fuel storage plant. Residents feared it was terrorism.

JOE DIMARTINO, STATEN ISLAND RESIDENT: My wife was killed in the Trade Center on 9/11, and I thought we were being attacked again.

VANNA FOLEY, STATEN ISLAND RESIDENT: My husband is -- you know, he's a police officer. He said, you know, Come down. We'll, you know, see what's going on. And we grabbed the baby, and we tried to get things together. We have, of course, a provisional bag with money and our title and our deed, which is what we were told to do.

COLBY: But the mayor assured the public there was no indication of sabotage.

MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (R), NEW YORK CITY: There is absolutely no reason to at the moment believe this is anything other than a very tragic accident. COLBY: More than 200 firefighters responded to the blaze, which was confined to the water. The barge eventually sank. A second barge on its way to the facility was rerouted. In a statement, ExxonMobil said, quote, "We will begin a thorough investigation of the cause of this unfortunate event." State environmental authorities filed a complaint last summer against this facility, detailing violations concerning the transfer of hazardous material. ExxonMobil denies those allegations are in any way connected to today's explosion. Officials are investigating potential environmental damage.

BLOOMBERG: The Department of Environmental Protection is setting up monitoring stations downwind to make sure that the air is of acceptable quality.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLBY: And residual fuel is still burning at this hour, with more than 100 firefighters on scene. The fire today that had New Yorkers thinking the worst did leave two people dead, four firefighters injured, and one employee of the facility in the hospital with burns over 15 percent of his body. He is, though, in stable condition -- Anderson.

COOPER: Jamie Colby, thanks very much tonight.

"Emotional roller coaster," one of those phrases that has been cheapened beyond recognition. We think it should only be used for something that really is an emotional roller coaster, like the story of Jesica Santillan. Wednesday there was despair, watching a young girl struggle to live after a disastrous transplant. Thursday, the shock that new organs had been found and the joy that just maybe she had gotten a second chance. Today, despair once again, and anger, more anger. Once again, here's Elizabeth Cohen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN (voice-over): Jesica Santillan's doctor told her family that the 17-year-old girl is brain dead, according to a family friend. Mack Mahoney said the doctor told the family the tests this afternoon showed no brain activity. They'll do two more tests tomorrow.

MACK MAHONEY, FAMILY SPOKESPERSON: If there's no change, then Jesica is officially brain dead, OK? At that time, he'll be 100 percent sure.

COHEN: As Jesica's condition has deteriorated, so has the relationship between Duke University and the Santillan family. Jesica's friends and family have become increasingly frustrated with Duke University, even confronting a Duke official at a press conference. They're not just angry because of the original mistake, a transplant surgery February 7 where Duke admits it gave Jesica organs that were type A when she's type O. The family says Duke told them immediately about the mistake but didn't discuss it publicly for 10 days. That, they say, was costly, as media attention about the botched surgery would have helped them find another set of organs sooner. MAHONEY: To me, if the little girl dies -- if she dies, they murdered her.

COHEN: Duke says they searched earnestly for organs and fought hard to save Jesica's life.

DR. WILLIAM FULKERSON, DUKE UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: I and our entire Duke family have been devastated by this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN: Duke University says that Jesica has not been declared brain dead -- Anderson.

COOPER: Elizabeth, what happens now? What's the next step?

COHEN: Well, the next step is that we're hoping Duke will come out and say exactly what her condition is. They said earlier today that she has irreversible brain damage. We're hoping for an update later. The family, of course, continues to pray for Jesica.

COOPER: And they're going to be doing more tests tomorrow, right?

COHEN: Right. That's what the family says. The family says that they will continue to do tests. Duke said earlier today that they'll continue to monitor her neurological function -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Elizabeth Cohen, thanks very much.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, scandal at the Air Force Academy, charges that rapes were covered up and the victims drummed out. And the story of the deadly fire in Rhode Island, as told by the photographer who took those remarkable pictures.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Some developments on Iraq to report: first, a letter sent to the Iraqis from Hans Blix, the chief U.N. weapons inspector. It calls on Iraq to destroy missiles which experts say can fly farther than allowed by previous resolutions. The deadline for the process to begin is the 1st of March. Iraq's deputy prime minister calls such an order unfair and unacceptable.

Second, a senior administration official tells the U.N. to look for a new Security Council resolution on Monday. The White House expects it to come to a vote in the second week of March. And the third thing is regarding the haggling with Turkey over bases to the north of Iraq. A deal is close, but not quite done. Turkey's foreign minister says a broad agreement has been reached, the terms unknown, but expected to be in the neighborhood of $26 billion in U.S. economic aid. Any deal would have to be approved by Turkey's Parliament, where it faces some fairly stiff opposition.

It is one of the core values of the Air Force: integrity first. But a group of women accuse the U.S. Air Force Academy of sacrificing integrity for something far less admirable, scandal control, women who allege they were victimized twice as cadets, assaulted, and then ignored or even punished by their superiors.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): On the surface, everything seems routine at the Air Force Academy. Tour groups of prospective students, some of them led by women cadets, glide across the enormous grounds. But here, in this magnificent setting, normalcy has flown away.

SEN. WAYNE ALLARD (R), COLORADO: I think we have got a problem at the Air Force Academy. And it needs to be investigated.

COOPER: The senator said at least a dozen current and former female cadets at the academy have told congressional investigators that they were sexually assaulted here in recent years. And they say, when they complained or tried to file charges, they either ignored or reprimanded for infractions of the academy's cold of honor.

An example: A woman cadet who said she was raped later told investigators she was punished for drinking and what the academy called -- quote -- "socializing at inappropriate times."

ALLARD: No matter what they do, they find themselves in trouble. And they have to make a choice between whether they're going to lie and stay in the Air Force or whether they're going to tell the truth and get kicked out.

COOPER: Three of the women told their stories to a Denver television station, KMGH, a CNN affiliate in Denver.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The message is that rape is acceptable.

COOPER: From 1998 until the end of last year, academy officials say they received 99 calls to the school's sexual misconduct hot line; 13 of these were reported as rapes and nine of those were investigated. None of the incidents resulted in a court-martial, but eight male cadets were asked to leave.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you report, you're crazy, because nobody is going to believe you.

LT. GEN. JOHN DALLAGER, SUPERINTENDENT, AIR FORCE ACADEMY: We need to work on the atmosphere, the climate, maybe policies, procedures, equally as important, the implementation of those to try and address their concerns and then alleviate that perception.

COOPER: A fact-finding team from the Pentagon is at the academy now, but pressure is mounting for full-scale congressional hearings. If those, in fact, do occur, the stories will be stark.

ALLARD: There was a freshman woman cadet in the Air Force Academy. She was invited into a room by upper classmen, who offered her alcohol. And they're offering drink to an underage person. They're probably underage themselves, breaking the laws of the academy. And then, at the end, she gets inebriated and then we find that -- she finds that she's raped.

COOPER: There are more than 600 women at the Air Force Academy out of a total cadet population of around 4,000. About 20 percent of women cadets who responded to an academy survey said they simply don't trust the system any longer.

DALLAGER: It's very discouraging. It's discouraging to our chief, who has two daughters in the Air Force. It's discouraging to me, who has a daughter who is a lieutenant in the Air Force as a dad. And it's very discouraging from a command standpoint.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, still to come on NEWSNIGHT, we will go back to the Rhode Island, the story of what happened from the photographer who took those amazing videos inside the club.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: And next on NEWSNIGHT: the Rhode Island fire disaster as told from the inside.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: E-mail surfacing today from NASA start off our national roundup.

They detail the concerns of engineers at NASA's Langley Research Center just days before shuttle Columbia broke apart on reentry, one engineer warning the shuttle may have been in marginal condition and claiming others were not addressing the danger -- quote -- "We can't imagine why," he wrote, "getting information is being treated like the plague."

Other documents released today show engineers were afraid Columbia had been struck by not one, but three chunks of insulation just after liftoff. One other development worth noting: word a piece of tile from Columbia has been found near Lubbock, Texas. That is 300 miles farther west than the last tile found.

New information on the crash that killed Senator Paul Wellstone, the senator from Minnesota. According to information from the NTSB, the pilot wanted to cancel the flight because of possible icing. No final answers yet, but investigators suspect the weather played a part in the crash.

And in Denver, sentencing today for the woman who set the largest forest fire in Colorado history -- that is her there. Terry Lynn Barton got six years. But the judge spared the former Forest Service worker from paying $14 million in restitution the government was seeking. He said, the judge said he didn't want to sentence the mother of two to what he called a life of poverty.

Well, sometimes the irony is almost too painful. The reason we were able to see those remarkable pictures from inside that Rhode Island nightclub fire was because of the recent nightclub tragedy in Chicago. A local cameraman from CNN affiliate WPRI was there for a story on nightclub safety. Something that was destined to show up in one local broadcast became national news. And a simple night of work, in just a matter of seconds, became a night of terror.

Brian Butler now, as he saw it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN BUTLER, WPRI PHOTOGRAPHER: I just saw the pyrotechnics start, so I started rolling. Then, I noticed, when the pyro stopped, the flame kept going on both sides.

And then, on one side, I noticed it come over the top. And that's when I said, I have to leave. People stood and watched it. And some people backed off. When I turned around, some people were already trying to leave.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't move.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUTLER: And others were just sitting there going, yes, that's great. And I remember that statement, because I was like, this is not great. This is time to leave.

There was no way to stop the fire once it started. No one had water. There was -- the crowd was at least 10 or 12 deep from where I was. At first, there was no panic. Everybody just kind of turned. Most people still just stood there. In the other rooms, the smoke hadn't gotten to them. The flame wasn't that bad. They didn't think anything of it.

Well, I guess once we all started to turn towards the door and we got bottlenecked into the front door, people just kept pushing. And, eventually, everyone popped out of the door, including myself. That's when I turned back. I went around back. There was no one coming out the back door anymore.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUTLER: Anybody inside?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUTLER: I kicked out a side window to try to get people out of there. One guy did crawl out.

I went back around the front again. That's when you saw people stacked on top of each other trying to get out of the front door. And by then, the black smoke was pouring out over their heads, out the side windows on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Someone put the fire out!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where's Gail?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUTLER: A lot of people did get out. The majority, I would say, got out. But to see people stacked on top of each other and others heroically jumping in and trying to pull them off the top, out of the bottom, trying to push people back just enough to get someone loose, every life was important to everybody there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, we will take a look at some of tomorrow's papers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Next on NEWSNIGHT, we'll check the morning papers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: We're going to take you live to a press conference at Duke University, the family of Jesica Santillan.

Listen in.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

MAGDALENA SANTILLAN, MOTHER OF JESICA: (SPEAKING IN SPANISH)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's saying that she doesn't trust these doctors no more and that she feels in her heart, as a mother, that they're trying to get rid of the problem. And she feels, little by little, that they're taking medicines or something away from her, because everything is stable, her heart rate, everything, her vital signs. Everything is stable at the moment.

And now they come up and say that her -- about her brain, the inflammation in the brain. And why before, when -- the first transplant, they had brought up nothing about this, about the brain, and about the inflammation, swelling in the brain. And now that everything came out OK through the second surgery, now this complication, because she sees that everything, all her vital signs are good.

QUESTION: (SPEAKING IN SPANISH)

SANTILLAN: (SPEAKING IN SPANISH)

QUESTION: (SPEAKING IN SPANISH)

SANTILLAN: (SPEAKING IN SPANISH) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's saying -- the reporter is asking if there's already proof from the CT scan or -- that the doctors are telling her that there's already -- that the inflammation of the brain is not irreversible. And my aunt is saying that she really doesn't understand all that stuff, but that she doesn't understand, because they told her that it was 100 percent, the brain, that there wasn't brain waves 100 percent.

They got a senior neurologist that said -- now they're saying they're going to do another procedure tomorrow at 7:00 and then at 1:00. She's, like, well, they're already telling me there's nothing there. And why are they going to still do another procedure tomorrow, two more procedures, if they're already telling me that this is what's going on?

QUESTION: What was 100 percent?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That it was -- (SPEAKING IN SPANISH)

SANTILLAN: (SPEAKING IN SPANISH)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That the brain was already dead, that it was 100 percent.

SANTILLAN: (SPEAKING IN SPANISH)

COOPER: You've been listening to a press conference, the family of 17-year-old Jesica Santillan. Jesica's mother obviously does not speak any English, voicing her suspicions, saying that she believes doctors are not really giving her the full story.

Jesica's surgeon, according to a family spokesman, had told her mother that, on Saturday, she will have to consider taking her daughter off life support. That seems to be something Jesica's mother, at this point, is unwilling to entertain.

We'll be covering this story as developments warrant.

And we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, after a day like this, with news as bad as it can get, we are happy to end tonight with one those simpler questions in life, namely: bottle of red, bottle of white? Well, thankfully, Brenda and Eddie aren't here tonight.

It's a real-life couple, the wine couple for "The Wall Street Journal." Tomorrow is their fourth annual Open That Bottle Night, the night to stop saving that precious bottle and start enjoying it by uncorking it with someone you love.

Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher joining us now.

Thanks for being with us.

JOHN BRECHER, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": Thank you.

DOROTHY GAITER, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": Thank you.

COOPER: All right, so I'm unfamiliar with it. What is Open That Bottle Night?

BRECHER: When we started our column five years ago, we realized that the question we were asked most often was: I have this one very special bottle of wine. I got it for my wedding.

COOPER: Right.

BRECHER: It came from a loved one who is no longer with us. When do I open it? We finally decided, let's all open it at the same time. So, September 22, 1999...

COOPER: So you just created this night as a national holiday.

BRECHER: ... is Open That Bottle Night.

(LAUGHTER)

GAITER: People from all over the world open bottles that night. It created a really wonderful community.

COOPER: What's the point? Why have a night to open up that bottle? What's important about it?

GAITER: Wine should be drunk. It shouldn't be held and revered. It's for sharing. So we're going to be opening this.

COOPER: Why that bottle in particular?

GAITER: Well, this was from our very first trip to Italy and we went to Aldo Conterno. And he signed it. And so we could never open it. It's a signed bottle from a famous wine-maker.

BRECHER: It's way too special to ever open.

And that's really the point. It' not about the liquid. It's not about the wine. It's about the memories. It's about the people it brings back. It's about the times it brings back. That's what a great bottle of wine is all about. And it doesn't matter whether it's really a great bottle of wine. But it's a great bottle of wine if it has great memories attached it.

COOPER: And readers write in and tell you all about the memories that their great bottle of wines that they're going to open up. What are some of the stories?

GAITER: The first year that we did this, we got a 1,000 letters. This was before e-mail, stamps.

BRECHER: Real letters.

COOPER: Real letters. Wow. GAITER: Yes. We heard from a John Watson (ph), who said, if only you'd created this holiday a year earlier, I could have shared it with my bride, who can now only enjoy it in spirit. We heard from him two years ago. He was on a wine trip and had met Mary. So, we hope that we hear from both of them this year.

COOPER: Now, I understand, this bottle, you will not open?

GAITER: No, no, no.

BRECHER: We can't stand to.

GAITER: Always Elvis.

COOPER: What is this?

GAITER: Always Elvis, with a

(CROSSTALK)

GAITER: ... by the colonel.

BRECHER: You know, we appreciate there's some bottles that people will never open, that they can never stand to open. That's Always Elvis. We just can't stand it.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Where did you get this bottle?

BRECHER: We bought this in 1980 in Miami for $3.09. And it probably should have been drunk in 1979.

(LAUGHTER)

BRECHER: But that's not what important. What's important is, it's one of the very last bottles we bought in Miami before we moved to New York. And so to us, aside from the spectacular label, it's got spectacular memories attached to it.

COOPER: All right, well, tomorrow night, Open That Bottle Night.

BRECHER: Open That Bottle.

GAITER: Be there or be square.

COOPER: Thanks very much for joining us tonight. Appreciate it.

BRECHER: Thank you.

COOPER: And that is NEWSNIGHT for tonight. I'm Anderson Cooper. Thanks for watching. Have a great weekend.

I'll be working all weekend. I hope you join me. Aaron returns on Monday.

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