Clubs in Murcia, southern Spain, where at least 13 people died in a fire on Sunday, were operating without a license and have been ordered to close from 2022, the city council said. Monday.
Originally, two of the nightclubs, including the one where the fire started and where the 13 confirmed victims died so far, were a single space that began operating at the end of 2008 with a “nightclub with restaurant” license, they said this Monday. Councilors Andrés Guerrero and Antonio Navarro spoke at a press conference.
The company that owns the clubs informed the local authority that it intended to split the space into two in June 2019 and authorities concluded that the license it had held since 2008 was no longer valid.
After a company project, the authorities denied a new operating license and since January 2022 there was an order to close the spaces that was never fulfilled.
The company presented a legalization project and an appeal in March 2022, but there had not yet been a decision from the authorities, so the two clubs “are operating without authorization since the closure order,” said Antonio Navarro.
The chamber, according to the two councilors, will be presented as an accusation in the judicial process opened as a result of Sunday’s fire and “all responsibilities will be established.”
On Sunday, the mayor of Murcia, José Ballesta, had already said that “everything will be clarified to the last consequences, no matter who falls, whether public or private.”
The authorities confirmed this Monday that at least 13 people died in the fire, of different nationalities (Colombia, Ecuador, Spain and Nicaragua).
The fire started around 06:00 local time (05:00 in Lisbon) in a nightclub and spread to two other adjacent nightclubs.
The causes of the fire are unknown and firefighters continue searching through the rubble, with authorities admitting the possibility of registering another fatality, since there is an alert about a missing person.
Source: TSF
