The Albany Gazette - Spain nightclub ravaged by fire ignored closure order

Questions multiplied over the ferocity of the blaze, Spain's deadliest nightclub fire in three decades, with officials saying all the people listed as missing had been found.

The fire erupted around 6:00 am (0400 GMT) on Sunday in a warehouse housing two discos, Teatre and Fonda Milagros, located on the outskirts of Murcia, a city in southeastern Spain.

The venue was popular with Latin Americans and among the dead were victims from Colombia, Ecuador and Nicaragua, as well as Spaniards, a government spokesman said.

The two nightclubs had been slapped with a closure order by city hall in January 2022, deputy mayor Antonio Navarro told reporters.

He said the company running the venue only had a licence for Teatre but had undertaken work to divide the space in half to create a second venue, Fonda Milagros, which suffered the brunt of the fire.

He didn't say why the two venues were still operating but vowed to get to the bottom of who was responsible.

But Maria Dolores Abellan, a spokeswoman for Teatre, told Murcia's Channel 7 television that the club had safety procedures in place "and its licence was in order".

Speaking to Antena3 television, Abellan said the clubs were managed by "completely different companies" despite being in the same warehouse and that Teatre had recently passed a safety inspection.

"It passed the latest inspection but I don't remember the date. These discos are inspected regularly and must have security procedures in place... or they wouldn't be able to operate," she said.

- 'We're going to die' -

After combing through the wreckage, firemen left the venue on Monday with Mayor Jose Ballesta confirming that the five people listed missing on Monday morning had all been found.

"The search is now over as all the missing people and the victims have been found and forensic and legal experts have been able to enter the venue," he told Telecinco television, confirming the toll of 13 dead.

"The fatalities were all concentrated in a very small area in Fonda," explained police spokesman Diego Seral saying that those inside had been celebrating a birthday.

The fire appears to have moved through the air conditioning vents "which is why it spread so quickly" explained Francisco Jimenez, the central government's representative in Murcia.

A man named Jairo told reporters his 28-year-old daughter was inside one of the clubs, saying he'd heard nothing since she left a desperate voicemail at 6:06 am.

"Mum, I love you. We're going to die," a young woman could be heard weeping down the phone with loud shouting behind her.

- Six victims identified by fingerprints -

By Monday evening, a police spokeman confirmed to AFP that "six of the victims have been identified by their fingerprints".

"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.

Bars and restaurants in Murcia closed on Sunday as a mark of respect for the victims, and on Monday, city hall observed a minute's silence at noon as it began three days of mourning.

"We are devastated," Murcia's regional leader Fernando Lopez Miras said after meeting the victims' families.

It was the worst nightclub fire since 1990 when 43 people died in a blaze in the northeastern city of Zaragoza.

Spain's worst-ever nightclub fire occurred in December 1983, when 81 people were killed in Madrid. Smoke, a failure in the lighting system and a closed emergency door all contributed to the disaster.

(H.Schneide--BBZ)