LAST UPDATE | 2 Oct 2023
A SPANISH NIGHTCLUB which was ravaged by fire over the weekend, killing 13 people, had been ordered shut in 2022, the deputy mayor of the southeastern city of Murcia said today.
“We are going to determine all responsibilities,” deputy mayor Antonio Navarro told a news conference, without explaining why the disco was still operating.
The blaze, which broke out early yesterday in a building housing the Teatre and Fonda Milagros discos on the outskirts of the southeastern city of Murcia, is Spain’s deadliest nightclub fire in over three decades.
Two people believed to have been in the nightclub at the time of the fire are still missing, according to authorities in Murcia, despite earlier claims everyone had been accounted for.
The town hall’s announcement came after Francisco Jimenez, the central government’s official for the region, earlier said all the missing had been located and no more bodies had been found.
He later said there had been confusion in the figures for the missing.
Jimenez said the dead included people from Spain, Colombia, Ecuador and Nicaragua.
It was not known how many people were in the club when the fire broke out at 6am yesterday.
Police suspect the fire broke out in the Fonda nightclub and then spread to neighbouring venues as patrons raced to escape.
“The fatalities were all concentrated in a very small area in the Fonda establishment,” police spokesman Diego Seral said, adding that a birthday party was being held there at the time.
Video footage released by the Murcia fire brigade shows the firefighters holding a long hose approaching fierce flames inside the venue, passing bar tables that still had drinks on them.
A man named Jairo, who said he was the father of one of the victims, told reporters his 28-year-old daughter had been inside one of the clubs.
He had had no news of her since she left a desperate voice mail message at 6.06am, he added.
“Mum, I love you. We’re going to die. I love you mum,” a young woman’s voice could be heard crying on the recording, while in the background people shouted for someone to turn on the lights.
The fire appears to have spread through the air conditioning vents “which is why it spread so quickly”, said the central government’s representative in Murcia, Francisco Jimenez.
Police said three of the victims had been identified by their fingerprints.
The rest of the bodies will have to be identified using DNA samples from close relatives.
“We must be patient with the identification of the bodies … The bodies are very badly burned and it is going to be very difficult for experts to work on them,” Jimenez added.
Officials said four people – two women aged 22 and 25 years old and two men in their 40s – were treated for smoke inhalation.
Murcia city hall announced three days of mourning and a minute of silence was observed at noon on Monday for the victims.
“We are devastated, shocked,” Lopez Miras said after meeting family members of the victims.
“There is nothing we can say to console relatives and friends of the victims. You are left without words,” he added.
An information area for victims’ relatives has been set up in the nearby sports hall, where a team of psychologists will be on hand to offer support.
Firefighters dispatched to the scene at 7am were able to extinguish the fire by 8am, Murcia Mayor Jose Ballesta said.
More than 40 firefighters and 12 emergency vehicles attended the scene, authorities said.
The city’s bars and restaurants closed yesterday as a mark of respect for the victims, local hotel-restaurant association Hoytu said.
- © AFP 2023 and with additional reporting from Press Association
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