The devastating fire that occurred at dawn on Sunday in the Atalayas de Murcia leisure area, which includes the Teatre, Golden and Fonda venues, has sowed an immense trail of pain and desolation. A consternation that is spreading as dozens of testimonies from family and friends of the, for the moment, 13 fatal victims of the tragedy – aged between 20 and 40 years – are revealed via social networks, although more victims are not ruled out after The event. Three of the 13 deceased have been identified by fingerprints; For the rest of the victims, DNA tests will be used because the bodies are burned.
Of the five people who remained missing and were believed to have died, three of them are in good condition and contacted their families last night. Sources from the Murcia City Council now estimate the number of missing persons at two.
The first reaction to which the early risers of the media had access was that of Jairo, the father of a 28-year-old woman who was with her partner and other friends at the nightclub. Minutes after six in the morning, the young woman had the nerve to contact her parents, to whom she said goodbye with a message as forceful as it was terrifying: “Mommy, I love you; We are going to die".
The events occurred around six o'clock in the morning at the La Fonda nightclub in Murcia, located in the Atalayas leisure complex, where the incident began and spread to Teatre, the adjacent venue. According to the spokesman for the National Police in Murcia, sub-inspector Diego Seral, “the fire has been of such magnitude that the entire premises has been reduced to ashes and the roof has collapsed, making it necessary to shore up the remains of the building to prevent new landslides and ensure the work of the safety teams.”
At the moment everything is speculation and we are working with the hypothesis that the fire could have started due to a short circuit in one of the lights in the nightclub. When the temperatures have dropped and the area is completely secured, officials from the scientific police brigade will carry out an investigation, together with the Fire Department and the homicide investigation group of the Murcia National Police Headquarters.
Diego Seral confirmed yesterday that the investigation may take several weeks and assured that "it is too early to determine the origin of the fire." The police spokesperson added that "it appears that the fire originated on the first floor and spread to the lower part of the premises." For his part, the city's mayor, José Ballesta, refused to talk about the security conditions and licenses of the nightclubs "until the rescue of the victims is completed and the exact causes of the incident are known." “Whatever it takes, everything will be clarified. We will go to the end,” he added after warning that the legal services will act.
Investigation sources confirm that there are four people, two women aged 22 and 25 and two men aged 41 and 45, who required treatment for smoke inhalation. Two of the poisoned people were taken by ambulance to the local Reina Sofía hospital and the other two went to a health center on their own.
The authorities of the Region of Murcia yesterday decreed three days of official mourning and set up a care point for family members at the Sports Palace. An extraordinary device was deployed in the premises, in charge of around twenty Red Cross and Civil Protection personnel, plus various local police forces. More than 500 people were treated at the facility, all family members and friends of the victims.
The La Fonda nightclub is a place frequented by the Latin community and it is believed that the majority of fatalities come from these countries. One of the most heartbreaking stories that has come to light is that of Eric, a 30-year-old young man who brought his family together to celebrate his birthday. This Nicaraguan, along with about twenty family and friends, had dinner at the La Fonda Milagros restaurant in Murcia. After dinner, nine went to continue the party at the damaged nightclub. Among the deceased are both Eric's mother and one of his cousins.
The luckiest person was Eric's cousin named Walter, whose decision to go down to the bar to get a drink saved his life. Those who also managed to escape were the customers of the Teatre nightclub, whose manager, María Dolores Abellán, has clarified that around six in the morning she received a call from the Emergency Department alerting her that a fire had broken out in the adjacent premises.
The incident that occurred now is not the only one reported in the area. In 2009, Teatre had to be evacuated due to a fire involving cables that crossed its façade. Specifically, the events occurred on June 21, 2009, when the burning cables forced the evacuation of the establishment, occupied at that time by about 50 people.
The event in Murcia is one of the deadliest in memory after the one that occurred at the Flying nightclub in Zaragoza, a fire that occurred in 1990 in which 43 people lost their lives. Now there remains a long grieving process for the relatives of victims who, according to experts, will be very difficult to identify because the bodies are completely burned. Research sources explain that "the identity will only be provided when they are completely identified through the comparison of biological samples with the DNA of their relatives, from whom samples are being taken."
Condolences arrived in the Region of Murcia yesterday from all over Spain, such as those from the acting President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and those from the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
