The nightclub where 13 people died in a violent fire in Murcia on Sunday was subject to a one-year administrative order to close, but that order was not enforced, authorities in the southeastern Spanish city said on Monday, according to AFP.
Spain club firePhoto: Handout / AFP / Profimedia
According to Antonio Navarro, Murcia’s deputy mayor, the municipality had decreed that the discotheque would cease operations in January 2022, before ordering the implementation of this decision in October – which should have led to the venue’s closure.
The cessation of activity had been ordered because the company that managed the venue only had a license for one discotheque, Teatre, while it had opened another in a part of the same space, Fonda Milagros, where the fatal fire took place, he detailed, assuring that none of them, therefore, had the right to be opened.
“The last stage was the implementation order from October 2022, and from that moment there was effectively a violation (of the closure order) by the company,” insisted Antonio Navarro, without giving further information about the possible cause of the fire.
Faced with questions about the authorities’ inability to implement their decision, he promised that the city hall would ensure that “all responsibilities” would be determined by the courts.
In turn, facility managers denied this and claimed they were fine. “No one has informed us that there is no longer a valid license,” said their lawyer, Francisco Adan.
“We are cooperating with the competent authorities and trust them to clarify the facts,” the Fonda Milagros nightclub said in a message on social media.
At least 13 people died on Sunday morning in a fire that broke out in a discotheque in the city of Murcia, in southeastern Spain.
The fire, which broke out at around 06:00 local time in a disco on Atalayas street in Murcia, an area with several nightclubs, happened inside and was of extreme gravity, according to the mayor of the city, José Ballesta.
