15 celebrities who died right in front of their fans (With Photos)

6. Ty Longley: February 20th, 2003

Their hair was long and their music was loud, like all glam rock bands from the day. Great White reached their peak in 1989 with the album Twice Shy. Eventually like many musicians, they used this success to continue their careers as road warriors, playing show after show. For many bands from the 80s, the fog machine was the go-to stage prop. Unfortunately on February 20th, 2003, the fog machine became associated with something much worse, as the Station Night Club in West Warwick, Rhode Island, burned to the ground taking 100 lives along with it.

Just seconds after the band launched into their first song “Desert Moon,” pyrotechnics lit by their tour manager caused a fire to ignite toward the back of the stage. Jack Russell, the lead singer, seeing the flame behind him tried to douse it with water. Eventually the band just walked out of the night club through a fire exit thinking that the show would resume after firefighters put out the the small fire. The club staff probably thought the same thing, as two of the four doors were sealed forcing all 420 fans to crowd around a couple of doors. Just 90 seconds later, panic finally struck as a rolling camera managed to catch several patrons stacked one atop the other under a black cloud of smoke trying to get out. They never did as the building just burnt to the ground leaving behind nothing but ashes.

In the aftermath, a guitarist from the band went missing. Initial reports said the missing guitarist was Kendall. Later it was discovered that guitarist Ty Longley was one of the dead, as he went back into the club to get his guitar. Many of the band members couldn’t function after the fire until they decided to tour for a couple of years to raise funds for the victims.