The nightclub where 13 people died in a violent fire in Murcia on Sunday had been the subject of an official closure order for a year that had not been implemented, authorities in this city in southeast Murcia said on Monday. Spain.
• Also read: At least 13 dead in nightclub fire in Murcia, Spain
According to Antonio Navarro, the deputy mayor, the municipality had actually ordered the cessation of nightclub operations in January 2022, before ordering the implementation of this decision in October – which should have resulted in the closure of the establishment.
The suspension of operations was ordered because the company that manages the premises only had a license for one nightclub, the Teatre, while it had opened another in part of the same space, the Fonda Milagros, in which The fatal fire occurred, he explained, to ensure that neither one nor the other had the right to open.
“The last step was the implementation order of October 2022 and from then on there was actually a violation (of the closure order) on the part of the company,” emphasized Antonio Navarro, without providing further details on the possible origin of the disaster.
Faced with questions about whether the authorities would be unable to enforce their decision, he promised that City Hall would ensure that “all responsibilities” were determined by the courts.
For their part, the facility’s managers denied this and claimed to be in good standing. “Nobody informed us that there was no longer a valid license,” assured her lawyer Francisco Adan.
“We are working with the relevant authorities and have confidence in them to clarify the matter,” assured the Fonda Milagros nightclub in a statement on social networks.
The fire, which Murcia’s mayor said was marked by “extreme” violence, broke out at around 6 a.m. (0400 GMT) on Sunday at the Fonda Milagros before spreading to the Teatre and another adjacent nightclub, the Golden, assault.
According to police, the thirteen victims died inside the Fonda Milagros. When the fire broke out, they were “gathered in a small space,” said a spokesman, Diego Seral.
“The search is now over, all the missing people and victims have been found,” said Murcia Mayor José Ballesta on Telecinco.
The venue is popular with young people from Latin America, and the victims included people from Colombia, Ecuador and Nicaragua as well as Spaniards, according to a government spokesman.
The city’s residents, who declared three days of mourning, were invited to observe a minute’s silence on Monday while a psychological reception unit was set up.
“It’s the shock, the desolation. “We cannot say anything to comfort the families and friends of the victims, there are no words,” stressed the region’s president, Fernando López Miras. “What they need is for their loved one to be identified” in order to begin their grieving process.
A police spokesman confirmed to AFP on Monday evening that “six of the victims were identified using their fingerprints.”
“The bodies are calcined and the work (on their identification) will be very complicated,” explained the prefect of Murcia, Francisco Jiménez.
The still-unresolved investigation into the causes of the tragedy was delayed by the heat and the risk of collapse at the nightclub. The firefighters had asked the scientific police on Sunday to wait until the temperature had dropped before returning.
According to the prefect of Murcia, the fire “started in Fonda (Milagros) and was able to spread very quickly through the air conditioning channels”.
The press reports that the fire broke out on a floor of the nightclub where people had gathered to celebrate a birthday.
This particularly deadly fire caused turmoil in Spain, with King Felipe VI. expressed his “pain and dismay” after “that tragic day.”
A man named Jairo, who identified himself as the father of one of the victims, played a voice message from his 28-year-old daughter to the press at 6:06 a.m. Sunday.
“Mom, I love you, we are going to die, I love you, mom,” the young woman says crying as we hear screams behind her.