Brunonians involved in nightclub fire investigation

A new group, Forensic Archeology Recovery, got its start in the wake of the World Trade Center attack.

by Tracie Sweeney

On Feb. 25, just days after the deadly fire at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, the Rhode Island State Fire Marshal engaged the services of a new volunteer organization called Forensic Archaeology Recovery (FAR).

The group, organized by Brown anthropology Professor Richard Gould, includes several graduate students in anthropology, along with some Brown faculty and staff. They worked at the site daily through March 9.

Brown graduate students sift the debris at the West Warwick fire site. (Photo courtesy of Richard Gould)

“Our primary goal was to repatriate personal items,” said Gould. Using archaeological recovery methods, the volunteers found jewelry, cell phones, buttons, clothing, keys, wallets, lighters and other personal effects. Because the work was conducted as part of the state’s formal investigation into the fire, the items were placed into evidence bags and delivered to the state medical examiner’s office, where they will remain until a private contractor gets the go-ahead to return the items to survivors of the fire or to families of those who died in the fire.

“We’ve learned that this kind of effort is a really important part of closure” for the survivors and victims’ families, Gould said. “Our No. 1 priority was as a humanitarian effort – to show that someone really cares enough to do this. … Because we were called in a timely manner, we were able to respond and be effective.”

Gould and the graduate students know from firsthand experience that forensic archaeology can be used effectively. Nearly a year to the day they were called to the West Warwick fire site, they were testing their hypothesis – that archaeological field methodology can play a role in responding to mass-casualty disasters – just outside of ground zero in New York City. Their work yielded several bone fragments, which were delivered to the New York Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for further investigation.

Since that time, the New York City group, which also included members of the Providence Police Department, has grown to 22 members, is an official part of the R.I Salvation Army Emergency Disaster Services, and trains and deploys with police and fire officials from around the state. Just days before the fire, the group had developed a name – FAR – and distributed a draft of the protocol members would use if they were ever called to respond to a natural or manmade disaster. They never dreamed that they’d be pressed into service so soon or so close to home, Gould said.

Gould continues to spread the word about what forensic archaeology can accomplish. He is a member of DMORT (Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team), the forensic recovery unit sponsored by the National Health Service, which identified the West Warwick fire victims. Gould and Sgt. Napolean Brito, chief of the Bureau of Criminal Identification of Providence Police, and several Brown students recently attended the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeologists, where they presented a special two-hour session comparing lessons from their work near the World Trade Center and in West Warwick.