Blaze (Season 14, Episode 5)
Premise: Pyrotechnics at a rock show set off a fire that kills 23 people in a small club, and the band’s aging frontman is charged with murder until a devoted teenage fan’s story comes apart.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 14, Episode 5
- Detectives
- Det. Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach), Det. Ed Green (Jesse L. Martin)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), ADA Serena Southerlyn (Elisabeth Röhm), DA Arthur Branch (Fred Dalton Thompson)
- Guest stars
- John Doe as Teddy Connor, Aleksa Palladino as Teresa Drosi, J. Smith-Cameron as Linda Drosi, Jenna Stern as defense attorney Kathy Teller, Gordon Joseph Weiss as Mitch Selman
- Ripped from the headlines
- The episode is based on The Station nightclub fire.
- Director
- Gloria Muzio
- Writers
- Marc Guggenheim & Aaron Zelman & Michael S. Chernuchin
Summary
The Investigation
“Blaze” opens with a deadly fire at Danzibar, a small club where the veteran rock band Wotan draws 300 to 400 fans to a room meant for no more than 74. Stage flame projectors ignite polyurethane soundproofing on the ceiling, and 23 people die, among them bassist Larry; nine are trampled near the front doors while the rear exits go unseen beneath dark signs.
Manager Tom Champa says the band’s contract banned pyrotechnics, but frontman Teddy Connor leaves contracts to band manager Maxie, who says clubs always look the other way. A fan who called 911, Teresa Drosi, recalls that Larry stood to the left that night instead of center stage, and lab tests show the left-side thrower held twice the usual powder. Pyro technician Nick Stoller denies tampering, and Larry’s affair with Connor’s girlfriend, Debbie Grimes, leads nowhere. Sound man Mitch Selman says Connor wanted bigger flames, asked him to rig a thrower after Stoller refused and was alone onstage when he left. Connor is arrested for arson and 23 counts of murder.
The Trial
Defense lawyer Kathy Teller persuades the judge to let TV cameras into the courtroom despite New York’s statutory ban. A fire expert says the rigged thrower burned about twice as hot as the others but carried no usable prints. Stoller and Selman testify against Connor, though Selman concedes nearly everyone around the band knew how to load the throwers. Teresa, 18, then testifies that she spent the time before the show having sex with Connor on the tour bus, as her mother protests from the gallery.
Connor, 52, denies asking Selman to rig anything and backs Teresa’s story, though he cannot recall her name. When the jury asks to rehear her testimony, the prosecutors study the courtroom video and see her glaring at her mother rather than at Connor. Southerlyn presses Teresa, and McCoy warns her mother, Linda Drosi, that Teresa faces perjury charges, but Linda will not say her daughter was with Connor. The prosecutors wonder why a mother would refuse such a lie to save her child, and realize Connor is Teresa’s father.
Spoiler, the ending: At a meeting with Connor, Teller and the Drosis, McCoy mocks Connor’s talent until Teresa defends him and confesses that she rigged the thrower, hoping a bigger show would put him back on top. Linda confirms Connor is the girl’s father. Teresa’s lawyer seeks a plea deal, and no verdict for Connor is shown.
Why it stands out
- The real Station fire, on February 20, 2003, in West Warwick, Rhode Island, killed 100 people after a band’s pyrotechnics set acoustic foam near the stage alight.
- The judge lets TV cameras into the courtroom despite New York’s Civil Rights Law ban, and the footage later helps the prosecutors read a lying witness.
- The fire turns out to have been set by the frontman’s 18-year-old daughter, who hoped bigger flames would restore his fame.