Romanian
nightclub fire leaves 27 dead, 184 injured
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[October 31, 2015]
By Radu-Sorin Marinas
BUCHAREST (Reuters) - A fire in a
Bucharest nightclub killed 27 people and injured 184 during a rock
concert that featured fireworks late on Friday, Romanian government
officials and witnesses said.
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In one of the capital's worst disasters in decades, about 400
people, mostly young adults, stampeded for the only available exit
as the club in the basement of a Communist-era sport-shoe factory
filled with smoke.
Several witnesses said there were fireworks inside the club.
Colectiv Club's Facebook page said the show would feature
pyrotechnic effects.
Deputy Interior Minister Raed Arafat said 17 of the 27 dead had yet
to be identified and that 146 people remained in hospital.
"Unfortunately, the death toll may change taking into account the
severity of their injuries," he said after an emergency meeting
early on Saturday.
A pillar covered with foam panels and the club's ceiling went up in
flames and then there was an explosion and heavy smoke, the
witnesses said. Many people admitted to hospitals had suffered burn
and smoke inhalation injuries or were trampled.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Oct/31/images/ads/current/hartsburggrain_daily_sda_021115.png) TV footage showed police officers and paramedics trying to
resuscitate young people lying on the pavement while sirens wailed
with more ambulances deployed to the scene.
"There was a stampede of people running out of the (Colectiv) club,"
a man who escaped without shoes told Reuters.
A young woman who was released from the hospital after minor
injuries described the club bursting into flames.
"In five seconds the whole ceiling was all on fire. In the next
three, we rushed to a single door," she told television station
Antena 3.
Deputy Prime Minister Gabriel Oprea said a criminal investigation
into the causes of the incident was already under way, and the
health minister launched a public appeal for blood donations.
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Romania's President Klaus Iohannis said in a statement: "I want to
assure you of all support from rescuing forces and ask you to trust
they put all efforts to limit the impact of this catastrophe."
The government said it would declare three days of national mourning
later on Saturday.
Some of the deadliest nightclub disasters in the world were started
by fireworks.
In the southern Brazilian college town of Santa Maria in 2013, a
musician lit an outdoor flare inside the Kiss nightclub and started
a fire that killed at least 241 people, investigators said.
Fireworks were also blamed for nightclub fires in Russia’s Perm that
killed 156 people in 2009 and in Argentina’s Buenos Aires in 2004
that killed 194.
(Reporting by Radu Marinas; Additional reporting by Luiza Ilie;
Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Susan Thomas)
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