CRANSTON, R.I. (AP) – Jeffrey and Michael Derderian are household names in Rhode Island, public faces of a disastrous fire that killed 100 people and injured more than twice that many.

Though vilified by many victims’ relatives who hold the Derderians at least partly responsible for the fire at the nightclub they owned, those who know the brothers say they have done their best to resume low-key lives with their families even while carrying an enormous emotional burden and residing in a state where so many were personally touched by the disaster.

The Derderians plan to plead no contest today to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter for the Feb. 20, 2003, fire at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, which began when pyrotechnics from the band Great White ignited flammable foam the brothers installed as soundproofing. Eight of the victims lived or worked in Connecticut.

A judge plans to sentence Michael Derderian, 45, to four years in prison and give Jeff, 39, a suspended sentence with probation and community service.

Jody King, a longtime friend of the Derderians whose brother, Tracy, was a club employee who died in the fire, said the Derderians are accustomed to glares from strangers when they go out in public and the sense of people talking behind their back.

He cited an incident earlier this month in which the father of a man badly burned in the fire cursed at Michael Derderian outside court and said he would “get” him.

“These guys have lived here for three-and-a-half years and taken all of the abuse. They haven’t walked away, they haven’t left,” King said.

Their attorney, Kathleen Hagerty, said the brothers have been devastated by the fire and live with the knowledge that it happened at “their doorstep.”

But they still live their lives, Hagerty said, participating in school events with their children and other ordinary activities. Though the Derderians face a groundswell of anger, they also have many supporters among friends, neighbors and even strangers, she said.

“There is a large amount of people that do recognize that this was really nothing more than a horrific and tragic accident,” Hagerty said.

If anything, neighbors say, they are inclined to empathize with rather than shun them.

“There’s no scarlet letter on him in this neighborhood,” said Rick Brown, 45, a neighbor of Jeff Derderian, who lives in Cranston with his wife and two young sons.

King said both brothers have grown increasingly quiet since the fire. He graduated from high school with Michael Derderian and said he used to be a jokester. But the mood was starkly different when he went out to eat with the Derderians within the last week.

Jeff Derderian was a prominent television reporter at the time of the fire, but has since left journalism. Michael Derderian has been involved in business ventures including insurance, real estate and financial advising. Jeff Derderian now works in business development at Lang Naturals, a Middletown company that manufactures and develops food products.

The brothers held a news conference two days after the fire, when Jeff Derderian, whose face was already well-known to Rhode Islanders as a longtime television reporter, sobbed before a sea of cameras as he expressed his grief. His brother sat silently beside him. Neither of them took questions that day from reporters, and have released sporadic written statements to the media but have not spoken publicly about the fire since then.

Since the fire, the brothers have unwittingly occupied the limelight, their every court appearance covered by the media, their finances and household possessions disclosed in bankruptcy petitions.

Pauline Webb, who lives across the street from Michael Derderian in Narragansett, said she has never discussed the fire with him and feels it’s not her place to judge him. She said she felt bad for the brothers because of the legal trouble they were in.

“The way I feel about it, I’ll wait until the court decides what happened before I make my judgment,” she said. “Because really, the judgment I make doesn’t mean a thing.”

The brothers will plead no contest to a theory of involuntary manslaughter accusing them of committing a misdemeanor – installing flammable foam that violated the fire code – that led to the deaths. The foam was used to answer neighbors’ complaints about loud music at the club.

Hagerty says they were never warned the foam was dangerous or illegal.

King said his support for the Derderians has never wavered, even though he lost a brother at their club.

“They apologize to me every time they see me for my loss and for my family’s loss,” King said. “And I tell them he was your friend, he was my brother, don’t apologize.”

King said he plans to sit behind the Derderians in court on Friday.

“If someone could sit behind them and support them, I will do that.”