“We never believe that we are going to experience something like this, the pain is permanent and the frustration is very great because we know that his death was accompanied by immense suffering.” This is Jairo, father of Leidy Paola, one of the 13 dead in the fire that ravaged the Teatre and Fonda Milagros nightclubs in the early morning of October 1, a year ago, in Isla Cristina street, in the capital of Murcia, in the Atalayas leisure area. The two stores had been opening their doors for almost two years without authorization and with an unexecuted closure order.
A few minutes before dying, Leidy Paola had the courage to send a farewell audio to her mother “and it does not leave us, we are psychologically destroyed”, says Jairo on the other end of the line from the city where he lives, Caravaca de la Cruz.
Her daughter would have turned 29 in February. That evening, she had decided to go out to party in Murcia with her boyfriend, Kevin Alejandro Gómez (27), and another couple of friends, Jorge and Rosa, but they never returned home. Jorge and Rosa were parents of three children. Jairo, from Leidy Paola, like the rest of the victims’ relatives, failed to recover emotionally.
To remember the memory of their loved ones “and demand justice”, they called a rally this Monday in front of the doors of Murcia City Hall, which they also consider “responsible” for the event.
All the victims were of Colombian, Ecuadorian and Nicaraguan nationality. The Fonda Milagros was one of the favorites of the Latin public in the Murcian capital. Eric Hernández was originally from Nicaragua and had lived in Spain for 15 years. That evening, he celebrated his birthday in hut number 18 with his family and friends. Seven of the victims, including Eric, were present at the celebration.
It had not yet been lifted when the first warnings alerted the 112 first from the Teatre, then from the Fonda, the customers and the surrounding inhabitants were worried about the thick column of gray smoke which rose above buildings.
At 6:02 a.m., on this tragic Sunday, emergency services were activated to evacuate the nightclubs. The sirens of ambulances and patrol cars mingled with music from the surrounding venues, which continued the party. Soon the news made headlines as firefighters rushed to see if anyone was still alive inside the nightclubs.
“The smoke was at ground level”
They still had time to find a survivor, who was wandering around Fonda, according to the testimony of Pedro Antonio Guirao, head of the Murcia Fire and Rescue Service. According to his testimony before the investigating judge, the fire was already developing on the bridge when they arrived and “the smoke was at ground level, at ground level”. At 9:30 a.m., the first victim was located. It was not until 3:30 p.m. that the last one was found.
“There are children who have become orphans and who have no one to answer for them,” says Jairo sadly: “Imagine what it is like to travel with the hope of progressing because in our countries we are obliged to ’emigrate, to arrive with that’. energy and find death”.
Lawyer Pedro López Graña, who represents a dozen relatives of two of the victims, reiterates the same complaint: “Many people find themselves helpless; After the tragedy, it was all “good intentions,” but all those promises “dissolved like rain.” And he asks for greater commitment from administrations: “We consider that they must make a minimum of effort and provide emotional and economic support.”
All the victims were on the second floor of Fonda Milagros; although the fire started in the adjacent room, the Teatre, where the “We Remember” evening was taking place. According to what the firefighters said those days, they found themselves in a “very complicated” situation; They had to travel more than 60 meters to reach the place where they had taken refuge.
The flames, caused by a cold fire engine rented for the occasion, could only be brought under control two and a half hours after the start of the operation.
The spark machine, according to the investigation, was purchased from Ali Express. Its owner – Alfonso G. – claimed that “according to the newspapers, it bore the CEE logo (…)” and that he had seen “other similar machines with the same certificates as the machines purchased”.
Around six o’clock in the morning, continue the investigators, “some witnesses saw a small flame coming out of one of the speakers or one of the projectors on the ceiling, touched by the sparks of the flares; They realized this because the doorman who was on the stairs received a spark and looked up to see how the loudspeaker had turned on.
Two days after the event, even though the capital was in mourning, Murcia’s investigating court number 3 resumed the proceedings opened for 13 crimes of reckless homicide. 24 hours earlier it was made public that none of the nightclubs had a municipal license and that they had been ordered to close their doors in 2022.
Unlicensed modifications
Teatre was the original nightclub, and in 2019 changes were made for which no license was obtained and which resulted in the creation of the Fonda by dividing the premises with a plasterboard wall.
The greatest negligence, says Jairo, “is that this fire should not have happened because everything was abnormal and illegal, thus avoiding any responsibility on the part of those who corresponded to the City Hall, the owners of the nightclub, the municipal police, of all people,” he complains. “These two stores had to be closed; react.”
One of the Theater’s emergency doors was deactivated by a grille and closed with two padlocks, according to the report of the firefighters, who had to fight that morning against the high temperatures of the fire (500 degrees Celsius), the rapid spread of smoke and the risk of the false ceiling of the building collapsing.
A multitude of safety measures were not respected, insists José Manuel Muñoz, lawyer for the family of Jairo and Kevin Alejandro: “There was no smoke detection system, the emergency measures were not did not comply with legal requirements and the premises operated as two nightclubs but they shared the same space.
“The Teatre employees managed to get all the customers to leave before there were any victims, but no one warned the La Fonda nightclub in time,” remembers Pedro López Graña.
“We were very scared”
One of Fonda’s survivors speaks of a “miracle” because no one alerted them: “It smelled burning and we realized we had to leave (…) everything was dark and the cell phone flashlight “We were tripping, we were very scared (…) I looked for the emergency lights but they didn’t go off, nor the alarm, there was absolutely nothing.”
The Scientific Police described a chain of “circumstances” which contributed to this “fatal outcome”: there was no common emergency system compatible with a single establishment with two spaces.
According to investigators, on the part of the Teatre, “the plan was seriously violated, there are indications that no notification was given to the neighboring establishment, which caused this lack of notification and the delay in the detection of the fire, a tragic and fatal event” due to which the Prosecutor’s Office could charge the six people under investigation so far with the crime of reckless homicide.
In recent months, the six have been paraded before the courts: the managers of the Teatre y Fonda nightclub, the DJ who organized the “remember” party and the owner of the cold fire machine.
“There has been legal progress,” recognizes lawyer José Manuel Muñoz, “even if there is still a long way to go to determine responsibilities.” Muñoz is waiting for the court to rule on a separate document he presented at the request of his clients to resolve the involvement of Murcia City Hall in the fire.
A municipal inspector did not respect the order to seal the premises
Murcia City Hall had detected security flaws in the nightclub five months before the fire, but did not close it. Contrary to an express instruction from the planning councilor at the time, who had requested an inspection of the premises, a municipal inspector instead accepted new documents provided by the owner to keep the two premises open without a permit. For this reason, the City Hall of the capital Murcia has temporarily suspended several officials for not having sealed the burned nightclubs.
The lawyer López Graña also considers “relevant” to investigate the City Hall as a subsidiary civil party, and has expanded the investigation to another alleged party, for reckless homicide, to the engineer who signed the responsible statements , affirming that the premises complied with the regulations to obtain an opening permit.
In addition to the accused, statements from 17 witnesses were taken this year and more than 3,800 files were generated. This week, the instruction period was extended for a further six months, pending expertise on firefighting and ship evacuation measures, as well as engineering expertise on spark machines.
