The nation's leading brewer and a distributor that sponsored a concert the night of a tragic 2003 nightclub fire in Rhode Island will pay $21 million to victims and their families, the Associated Press reported May 23.

Anheuser-Busch has agreed to pay $5 million to settle lawsuits related to the February 2003 fire at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, in which 100 people died. Anheuser-Busch distributor McLaughlin & Moran will pay $16 million.

Neither company admitted wrongdoing in the case. McLaughlin & Moran ran a Budweiser promotion at the nightclub the night of the show, and plaintiffs said that both the brewer and distributor helped promote that concert by the heavy metal band Great White.

McLaughlin & Moran also paid for local radio DJ Michael Gonsalves to appear as the emcee of the nightclub show; Gonsalves died in the fire, which was caused by pyrotechics set off by the band.