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Tuesday, Sep 18, 2012 2:45 PM UTC

RI looking at legalities of seizing club fire site

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Topics: From the Wires,

RI looking at legalities of seizing club fire sitePhotographs, wooden crosses, and personal items comprise makeshift memorials Monday, Sept. 17, 2012 on the site of the Feb. 20, 2003 Station nightclub fire that killed 100 people in West Warwick, R.I. The Station Fire Memorial Foundation has been working for years to build a permanent memorial on the land which is owned by a private company. R.I. Gov. Lincoln Chafee said Monday he was open to taking by eminent domain the site of the 2003 fire so that families of the victims and survivors could build a memorial on it. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)(Credit: AP)

WARWICK, R.I. (AP) — Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee (CHAY’-fee) says his office is examining the legalities of seizing by eminent domain the site of a 2003 nightclub fire where 100 people were killed so a memorial can be built there.

Chafee said Tuesday the state must proceed deliberately. He says the approaching 10-year anniversary of the Station fire in West Warwick is an appropriate time to renew focus on the site.

Families of the victims have been fighting for years to build a memorial at the site of the blaze, which was started by a rock band’s pyrotechnics.

The land is owned by a private company, which has so far refused to sell or donate it.

Chafee says working with the landowner is preferable to seizing the site.

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