“Mom I love you, we are dying”: this is the desperate message, a voice message, sent by one of the victims of the fire that broke out this morning, at dawn, in a nightclub in Murcia, in southern Spain. A message intended for her mother. “I love you,” says the 28-year-old.
At least 12 people died with her and four others were injured in the fire at the Teatre nightclub in the Las Atalayas neighborhood. The woman’s father played her voice to journalists: «He sent an audio to her mother saying what was happening, that she was leaving. You could hear the screams, they couldn’t breathe,” Jairo said, her voice breaking from tears.
The toll is provisional: rescuers do not rule out that there may be other victims. “At the moment we are looking for many people, we still don’t know anything,” confirmed the mayor of the city of Murcia.
The fire apparently started from the La Fonda restaurant, which is located next to the Teatre, according to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo.
There is also no news of a group of friends who were celebrating a birthday in the club last night.
The fire consumed the roof, the flames spread everywhere quickly and were put out with difficulty by the firefighters.
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At the moment there are 4 injured: two women aged 22 and 25 and two men aged 41 and 45, all intoxicated by smoke.
Vice President Yolanda Diaz spoke on behalf of the government on X: «We are following the news of the Murcia tragedy with concern. My affection goes to all those affected and my condolences to their families.”
The disco was also on fire in 2009
It is not the first time that a fire broke out in the nightclub: already in June 2009 some cables in the facade caught fire, forcing the evacuation of the venue. The region of Murcia declared three days of mourning.
The precedents of Zaragoza and Madrid
This morning’s fire is the deadliest recorded in Spain since the tragedy experienced in 1990 in the Flying nightclub in Zaragoza, where 43 people died. The greatest tragedy to occur in a Spanish nightclub, however, took place in Madrid, on 17 December 1983, when flames devastated the premises of Alcalà 20, causing the death of 81 people, most of them very young. That disaster caused a political storm as investigations showed that what made the catastrophe even more serious was the failure of the lighting system and a closed security door. After that fire, Spain approved many regulations to increase safety in premises.
Article being updated…
2023-10-01 12:24:23
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