Fifteen witnesses have testified so far that on the fateful night in which two stores in Murcia burned down, in which 13 people died, “they saw the flames coming out of the Teatre air conditioning unit, and that an employee of the room tried to turn them off without success.” Now there is also speculation about the possibility that the fire extinguishers were expired, one more of the many questions that hang over an event that could have been avoided.
Pedro López Graña has indicated that "the fact that the premises lacked a license is very serious and that is why we are going to act forcefully, no matter who falls." He has confirmed that "apparently, they did not have the slightest security conditions, they did not have evacuation exits, emergency lights or extinguishing systems." For the moment, the capital's investigative court 3 this Tuesday took over the proceedings opened for thirteen crimes of reckless homicide. Summary secrecy has been declared.
Hypotheses, doubts and conflicting opinions between the administration and those responsible for the affected premises. How is it possible that the establishments remained open despite the closure order that the City Council decreed on October 11, 2022 and that ended up being unfulfilled. The first and only conclusion, for the moment, is that the order ended in limbo, although there are those who believe that it is a case of “consensual irregularities.”
The decree of the former Urban Planning Councilor of the Murcia City Council Andrés Guerrero (PSOE), which the newspaper LaVerdad de Murcia has been able to access, ordered the Inspection of the Works and Activities Service of the Consistory to “tour visit” the Teatre de las nightclub. Atalayas and, “in the event that it has not been carried out voluntarily, it will proceed to forcible execution by sealing the establishment.” This was stated in the document that the then head of the department sent to this municipal area, dated October 11, 2022. This order was “non-compliance in view of the content of the report of the inspector who was in charge of undertaking said verification. This record, dated October 21, includes that, “in response to the order to cease the activity and the warning of forced execution, once contacted with the owner of the aforementioned premises, they declare and provide justification for the presentation of the technical documentation that they were missing to process the legalization.” Guerrero insists that “that is what we are investigating.” Yesterday, the city council provisionally removed the officials who intervened in the 2022 file.
On Tuesday it was learned that Teatre, despite the cease-and-desist order, satisfactorily passed a municipal health inspection in March 2023, which corroborates that "everyone knew that the premises worked." The document, prepared by the Veterinary Services of the City Council, reveals that another inspection had taken place in February due to alleged sanitary irregularities that were subsequently resolved.
The National Police is working with the hypothesis that the fire originated by chance, but derived from some recklessness in one of the three affected premises. The possibility of a short circuit has lost strength according to said testimonies, which agreed that, once the fire broke out, the light took a few minutes to go out, which seems incompatible with an electrical failure. José Luis Gómez Calvo, event security expert and author of a technical report on the Madrid Arena tragedy, considers that, when “the owners of the premises decided to divide them with plasterboard, they left null measures for evacuation” and that the compartmentalization with a False ceiling turned them into a mousetrap.
