The head of the Social Services of the Murcia City Council assured that the deceased were mainly of Ecuadorian origin and some already had Spanish nationality.
Exteriors of the two nightclubs in Spain, where a fire claimed the lives of 13 people, on October 1, 2023.
One day after the fatal accident that left 13 young people dead in two nightclubs in Murcia, Spain, some information is known about the legal situation of the burned premises.
“The majority of the victims were of Ecuadorian origin (…) many of them already had Spanish nationality,” said José Morales, head of Social Services of the Murcia City Council, on Monday.
The deceased were between 28 and 40 years old, the official explained, although he did not specify the number of Ecuadorians.
The Teatre and Fonda Milagros entertainment centers, where the fire started and most of the bodies were found, did not have permits to open to the public for 20 months.
What’s more, they had a closure order from January 2022 that was never fulfilled.
One day after the tragedy, the firefighters managed to fully access the remains of the affected buildings, located in Las Atalayas, a complex of nightclubs, restaurants and nightlife venues highly frequented by the Latin American community.
The forensic police of Spain are working to identify the bodies, including that of an Ecuadorian woman.
This October 2, the Ecuadorian Consulate in Murcia sent its condolences to the families of the victims, especially “to our Ecuadorian community that is going through moments of pain.”
And an emergency number was enabled to provide support.
At the scene, firefighters are also struggling to recognize the bodies, but it is a complicated task due to the state of the bodies, which were charred, according to the Government delegate in Murcia, Francisco Jiménez, who asked for “patience.”
They were a single location and without permission.
In a press conference, those responsible for urban planning indicated this Monday that, despite having different names, administratively both clubs were a single venue, Teatro SL
When they wanted to divide into two, the authority required the businessmen to obtain a new license different from the one they had presented in 2008.
Despite this, and although the city council ordered the closure in January 2022 and sent an inspection months later, according to its representatives, the Fonda Milagros remained open to the public a year later and announced its activity on social networks.
The Murcia City Council plans to present a “private accusation” in the judicial procedure that is going to be opened on this case, with the aim of “purging all responsibilities of any kind.”
This fire is the deadliest recorded in Spain in a leisure venue since the tragedy in 1990 at the “Flying” nightclub in Zaragoza, where 43 people died.
The biggest tragedy in a nightclub took place in Madrid on December 17, 1983, when a fire that started behind the stage curtains of the Alcalá 20 nightclub killed 81 people, most of them young people.
