The fire that devastated the Teatre and La Fonda Milagros nightclubs in Murcia on October 1, in which 13 people died, was “an accidental fire due to negligence” in the use of a spark or cold fire machine, according to the last police report that has been provided to the court investigating the case.
This is the final technical report prepared by the Ocular Inspections Section of the General Scientific Police Station of Madrid, which was collecting evidence and indications of the incident from October 2 to 11, and which was sent yesterday, Tuesday, to the investigating court. number 3 of Murcia, which has open proceedings for 13 possible crimes of reckless homicide.
The document, to which EFE has had access, confirms the previous reports issued by the Judicial Police and the fire brigade, which placed the origin of the fire in the Teatre room, where on the night of the tragic event a party was being held in which used a spark machine or cold fire.
For investigators, “the most likely cause of the fire is an ignition caused by sparks from the cold fire machine in the false ceiling” of the nightclub, and that would also be the “only and main source of the fire.”
Thus, the report states that the fire started “in the false ceiling of the Teatre room, more specifically, in the area where the stage where the DJs performed was located, where a speaker was located,” and was caused because there was no The safety distances established by the fire engine instructions were respected.
In this sense, the investigators indicate that the safety distances of at least one and a half meters were not met, as is evident in the numerous videos and photos provided by witnesses, in which the sparks from the machine directly on the false ceiling of the room.
“There are videos, taken by people attending the shows that took place on the night of the accident, in which it is observed that this safety distance has clearly not been respected,” the report states, which also warns that at the same party A “white smoke machine” was used that “needs a humid environment,” despite the fact that the technical sheet of the material used to produce cold fires warns that these substances “react with water, producing extremely hydrogen gas.” flammable".
The fire spread to La Fonda Milagros, where the 13 deaths occurred because “the separation between the damaged rooms was a plasterboard wall, a construction that was not very resistant to fire,” in which, in addition, there was a door at the top, “ close to where the fire develops most virulently, becoming the route by which the fire enters the room.”
The report also details the evidence collected by investigators that allows them to rule out that the cause of the fire was an electrical failure, although they point to possible irregularities in the electrical installation, which was shared by both nightclubs.
The technicians did not detect any “direct connection to the network or clandestine derivations for the electrical supply”, so they were being supplied with their own generators that the agents found in the back alley that gave access to the rooms.
