As the first anniversary of the fire that devastated two nightclubs in Murcia and claimed the lives of 13 people approaches, the industrial warehouse that housed the premises has begun the demolition process. Early on Monday, a backhoe with a special, enormous tongs began to tear down the exterior façade of Teatre, where judicial reports place the origin of the fire, and of Fonda Milagros, the establishment frequented mostly by Latinos where all the victims died. The work will continue for another two to three days, and it will take the whole week to finish the tasks of clearing and cleaning the area, where five workers are working.
The demolition of the nightclubs that suffered the fire on October 1, 2023 was authorized by the Court of Instruction Number 3 of Murcia, which is investigating the case, just a month and a half after the tragic fire, but was put on hold when several of the parties involved in the process, mainly lawyers of relatives of the deceased, demanded to be able to bring their own experts to the rooms to make their reports. The judge did not give them permission to enter the premises until last June, eight months after the fire. Despite the time that had passed, the technicians found during that visit signs of serious structural deficiencies in the premises, which shared the same industrial warehouse and were separated only by a plasterboard wall, with the same air conditioning and electrical systems.
Since then, three more months have passed until the final demolition of the warehouse, whose owner did not manage any of the party rooms that were affected, but rented the space to the managers of Teatre, who in turn had rented part of the premises to the managers of Fonda Milagros. In total, four managers of the rooms (three from the first and one from the second) are under investigation in this case, as well as the DJ who organised the theme party that was held at Teatre on the night of the fire and the owner of a “cold fire” machine that was used at the party and which all reports place as the cause of the fire.
With barely a week to go until the first anniversary of the fire, the lawyers representing the victims’ families admit that they had been notified of the date of the demolition, although they knew that it had already been authorised by the investigating judge. The preliminary work, which is being carried out by the company D-Tres, began last Thursday and, according to its head of work, Diego Gil, will be more complicated than usual because the facilities are completely burned, which does not allow for the dismantling of the structure from the roof to the base, but rather the entire framework of iron and ashes that was the building until today will have to be mechanically demolished.
On September 30, coinciding with the day before the fire, the relatives of the deceased plan to gather at the doors of Murcia City Hall to remember their loved ones and continue to demand that those responsible for the fire be held accountable.
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As for the legal proceedings, the parties expect that in the next few days the judge will order the extension of the investigation phase, which is about to expire, and also that she will rule on the different requests that have been made. Some of the families of the victims have requested that the possible responsible parties be investigated as alleged perpetrators of a wilful and not negligent homicide, while other of those affected have even filed a complaint against the two councillors of Urban Planning who were in office while the files related to the discotheques were being processed, which at the time of the fire had a cessation of activity order in force that was never executed.
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