In Olneyville, after-hours 'nightclub' shut down after inspector finds numerous fire-code violations.

PROVIDENCE — At 3:45 a.m. on Aug. 30, 2015, police responded to an after-hours "nightclub" in full swing at a 116-year-old Olneyville industrial building.

It was their third visit in 24 hours to the brick outbuilding behind the mill at 91 Hartford Ave. Police knew it "as an illegal after-party sip joint."

The first two times, police dispersed crowds outside.

On this third visit, a property manager let police and a fire marshal inside, where 144 people were "packed tight" on the second floor.

A DJ spun tunes, people were drinking beer and smoking hookahs. Police found drink tickets and a metal box with a few dollars in it. A security guard was on scene. More than 60 cars were parked outside.

In the aftermath, fire and safety officials called it a recipe for disaster — much like the recent "Ghost Ship" warehouse fire in Oakland, California, or the 2003 Station nightclub fire in West Warwick.

The Dec. 2 fire at the Oakland underground artists' collective killed 36 people. The Station fire — the fourth-worst in the country's history — left 100 dead and hundreds injured.

The Olneyville mill outbuilding "was almost the definition of a death trap," says Providence arson investigator Paul Doughty.

No power, water or working smoke detectors. Sprinklers “cut off and disconnected." Exposed, "illegally jumped" and dangerous wiring dangling from circuit boxes.

There was one entry/exit door: a too-narrow stairwell. The fire escape doors were "nailed and locked shut."

"They had gasoline stored in the premises," Doughty said. "There was a ladder on the second floor to the roof through a hatch. There was gasoline up there, plus a generator on the roof."

“If anything had happened on the first floor, the smoke goes up the stairs, that was the only way out. If anything happened on the second floor, now you have 100 to 200 people trying to make their way down the stairs,” and they would be trapped, he said, “similar to what happened at The Station nightclub.”

The inferno at the “Ghost Ship” reverberated in Rhode Island in more ways than one.

It claimed the life of Nicolas Gomez-Hall, a 25-year-old Brown University graduate and Providence-based musician who had lived and worked in Olneyville, including at the William D'Abate Community School, through Brown's Swearer Center for Public Service. He had recently moved back to California.

The fire also underscored the hazards of using vacant industrial and commercial buildings for habitation or other activity — vacant spaces that are a low priority for overtaxed inspectors and code enforcers.

“Once you are not occupying the building, it changes the requirements," says Doughty. "If you are trying to operate [legally] as a nightclub, it's the highest priority. If it's empty — drops to the lowest level, or none."

Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steven M. Paré says, "From time to time we get complaints about after-hours bars .... There are places that are underground ... obviously they are not advertised and we don’t know about them until someone complains about noise or whatever."

"I’m sure the demand for housing and the intention is good, out in California and even here," Paré continued. But when there are violations of codes that are put in place for people's safety, "whether to gather for music, alcohol consumption or residence, it’s dangerous for them [and] for potential firefighters who have to respond."

He adds, "So, luckily, last August we came upon this place. … We were glad to shut this down and do as much as we can to end this kind of thing. What happened in California could happen anywhere in America."

Boston resident Joseph Romano bought the mill complex at 91 Hartford Ave. in spring 2015, when it was in receivership. It includes Building #1, a 126,500-square-foot mill building fronting on Hartford Avenue, and Building #2, the 7,488-square-foot building that housed a boiler that supplied power to the mill.

The second floor of Building #2 "was empty space," Romano said in a phone interview.

Romano said he is rehabbing the 1884 main mill building for 102 residential housing units.

"The city's been very good working with me there," Romano said. "I'm doing everything they want."

Romano said his building manager had given an acquaintance, Edward Leftwich, a key to the former boiler building. Leftwich "was going to put in an art gallery there. Great. Bring it up to code."

Romano said Leftwich was not living in the building or paying rent.

"He wasn't there long. When I found there was a full-blown nightclub in there, that's when I took action myself, to have this guy shut down," Romano said. "I'm the one that called police. I'm the one that called the Fire Department. I'm the one who called all the agencies to get him removed ... I didn't want that kind of situation happening."

He said police told him they couldn't order Leftwich out — "and that I would have to evict him, even though he wasn't a tenant."

Romano filed an eviction notice, after which Leftwich "agreed to leave," says Romano and his attorney, Steve Conti.

Leftwich would not comment when a reporter knocked on his door in Providence. He referred The Providence Journal to his lawyer, Richard H. James, who said he helped Leftwich and others incorporate the "Hartford-Woonasquatucket Native American Social Club."

Club members started using the second floor of the old boiler building as a meeting space around May of 2015.

"They fixed up the place nicely," James said in a phone interview. "I think the place already had sprinklers. [Leftwich put] fire extinguishers all over the place. If they did any kind of alcohol, it was just the people who brought their own stuff."

James maintained that police "were aware of that club; they were at the club, in the parking lot, virtually every single night," checking people's ID's and looking inside their cars. They were trying to make people very uncomfortable so they wouldn't return."

James admitted that using a generator breached the fire code: "Could something have happened? Yes. But did it? No." He added, " ... There's the real story. People didn't die. There's the headline."

James noted that there were never any charges brought. He added, "We fought the law, and the law won."

Doughty said he and enforcement authorities told Leftwich he would be arrested under the fire code unless he ceased operations. Leftwich agreed, "and kept his word." Romano was told he shared fault, Doughty said.

One need only consider what happened across from the Hartford Avenue mill to understand what potential tinderboxes these old buildings are, particularly with oil-soaked wooden floors, and wooden frames.

In 1993, dozens of Rhode Island artists and musicians and two theater groups lost their work and studios when fire consumed the Riverside Mills in Olneyville.

In 2003, a nine-alarm fire destroyed the Florence Dye Works mill complex in Woonsocket. In 1995, a suspicious fire that ranked among the worst in Central Falls' history consumed an abandoned 95-year-old mill.

Central Falls Fire Chief Robert E. Bradley Jr. says the Oakland fire “makes you kind of take a step back, to think of if anything like that could happen in this area." It prompted a conversation in his department, including with two firefighters who do inspections.

"They keep eyes and ears open; if they see something doesn’t look right, they let us know," says Bradley. "They’re very vigilant. We definitely know which buildings to look out for. Any good firefighter knows what’s in their district."

“Obviously we put more of a priority on life hazards," he says.

Firefighters do periodic fire alarm inspections, "but we don’t really have a schedule. Everybody’s working with short staffing. Sometimes, unfortunately, they get — not neglected, but pushed off to the side so we can maintain all the residential areas."

Providence Police Chief Hugh T. Clements Jr. says, “I’ve been on the job since the mid-'80s. I can tell you about active, unsanctioned, unauthorized nightclubs. I can remember going way back to the coal yards in Olneyville or the old farmer’s market, or the back side of North Main Street."

Groups or individuals "look for an opportunity to host a party and look for a vacant building," he said. "... A friend of a friend, who is a caretaker for the building — has a standing in that building, and there you go."

Clements says the department has done "a very good job over the years" handling such scenarios, "but it's a recurring issue. We’ve got to pay attention to this constantly."

- kziner@providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7375

On Twitter: @karenleez