WEST WARWICK, R.I., March 4 (UPI) -- Prosecutors resumed their grand jury investigation Tuesday into the deadly nightclub fire in Rhode Island.
Officials, meanwhile, have released documents that indicate fire inspectors apparently missed the foam soundproofing that fueled the fire that killed 98 people and injured nearly 190 others.
It was not immediately known who might testify Tuesday before the grand jury, which did not meet Monday.
Jack Russell, the lead singer of the Great White heavy metal band whose pyrotechnics set off the Feb. 20 fire in The Station nightclub in West Warwick, R.I., left the state last week without testifying before the grand jury.
The Providence Journal reported Tuesday he was not expected to return to the state for several weeks.
Some 300 people, including burn victims and other survivors, have been interviewed by teams of investigators since the blaze, the fourth worst nightclub fire in U.S. history in terms of the number of deaths.
West Warwick town officials on Monday released documents that indicated fire inspectors failed to make note of the foam polyurethane material the club owners used to soundproof the stage.
Town Manager Wolfgang Bauer said it was possible the inspectors missed the foam.
"If I went into a dark club, and everything was painted black, whether I would have seen it walking through making the inspection I made, I don't know," Bauer said.
"They didn't see it for one of two reasons: either they missed it, or it wasn't there," Bauer said.
The nightclub owners, Jeffrey and Michael Derderian, were under pressure to soundproof the popular rock concert venue because of complaints from neighbors about the noise.
Attorney Kathleen Hagerty, representing Michael Derderian, has said the brothers "never doubted" the sound proofing was a "safe and legitimate material."
The material reportedly was purchased and installed in June 2000. Experts said such egg-crate packing foam was highly flammable but half the cost of fire-retardant material.
In another development, the brother of a hospitalized burn victim who later died disputes his father's statement that his daughter went to the club to see the Great White's pyrotechnic display.
"It's completely wrong," Kelly Vieira's brother, John "Jay" Richmond, said in Tuesday's Boston Herald. "It's a stupid statement. She didn't know about the fireworks."
Their father, also John Richmond, told the Providence Journal on Monday that his daughter "went there just to see the fireworks, hear one song and go home."
Club officials have said they were shocked when the pyrotechnics went off at the start of Great White's set. The owners deny knowing of any planned use of pyrotechnics.
Band members and their attorneys, however, contend they received permission for the display a week before the fire.
