2023-10-01 13:20:17
At least 13 people were killed in a fire at a popular entertainment center with three discos in Murcia, southern Spain, on Sunday. “Further victims are possible,” the rescue workers said on Sunday followingnoon. The city administration also stated that the death toll might rise further. Four people survived the devastating fire, some seriously injured. “We are all devastated,” said Murcia Mayor José Ballesta.
The emergency services were reportedly alerted around 6 a.m. Sunday morning following an “extremely violent” fire broke out in the discotheque in the Las Atalayas district. According to initial findings, the flames broke out in one of the three discos located there and, according to official information, quickly spread to the other bars. A police spokesman said there was a birthday party at the discotheque on Saturday. Not all of the guests at this celebration have been found yet. The recovery of possible additional bodies is the top priority. There is currently no trace of the cause of the fire.
After there was initially talk of six deaths, the death toll rose steadily over the course of the day. Already in the morning it was said that the search was still underway for missing people in the rubble of the discotheque. Forensic experts and investigators have been at the scene of the accident since dawn, the police said on the online service X, formerly Twitter.
Mayor Ballesta said firefighters arrived around 7 a.m. and had the fire under control within an hour. The cloud of smoke from the Las Atalayas shopping and entertainment center just outside Murcia might be seen for kilometers, the state television station RTVE reported. The recovery of the bodies is made more difficult by the high risk of the building collapsing, Ballesta said. The search is ongoing.
In the nearby Sports Palace of Murcia, the city set up a care center where disco guests and relatives of the victims, dozens of whom had rushed to the scene of the accident, received psychological support, among other things. For some, this help was particularly needed. Jairo, whose daughter was missing, continued to be plagued by agonizing uncertainty early in the followingnoon. “The whole family is here, we are all very nervous,” the father complained, close to tears, in an interview with the reporter from the radio station “Cadena Ser” and other media. “We want to know what happened, even if it is the worst news. But we are not told anything.”
“The missing people continue to be searched for with extreme difficulty,” said Mayor Ballesta. He tried to give the desperate relatives a little hope: “More and more families are currently arriving at the family care service who don’t know where their loved ones are. But of course it might be that they are in other places.” Shortly following the mayor said these words, the emergency services reported the discovery of bodies number eight to 13 following 1 p.m. And the search continued.
Four people were injured in the fire, two of them seriously. The injured are two men aged 41 and 45 and two women aged 22 and 25. They therefore suffered from smoke poisoning.
According to images released by the emergency services, it was the “Teatre” discotheque, also known as “Fonda Milagros”. The images showed thick smoke rising from the roof of the building. National police spokesman Diego Seral told radio station Onda Regional de Murcia: “According to initial information, the fire broke out on the first floor.” Six bodies were found there.
Video footage from the city fire department showed firefighters with long hoses in their hands approaching bright orange flames inside the building. There were bar tables around them, drinks still visible.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed his “compassion and solidarity” to the victims and their relatives on the online service X. He offered “all our support and cooperation” to the president of the Murcia region.
Mayor Ballesat announced three days of mourning. According to him, more than 40 firefighters, twelve emergency vehicles and 20 police officers were at the scene of the accident.
In Spain there have been several disasters in discos in the past. In 2017, 40 people were injured when a ceiling collapsed in a packed nightclub on the holiday island of Fuerteventura. In 1990, 43 people died in a fire at a discotheque in the northern Spanish city of Zaragoza.
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