Spanish clubs hit by fire that killed 13 people were ordered to close last year
A company running the space only had a permit to operate one club there, but was running two
Two Spanish clubs which were hit by a deadly fire in the Spanish city of Murcia this past weekend had been ordered to close last year.
The company running the Teatre and La Fonda Milagros nightclubs only had a permit to run one of them, the deputy mayor, Antonio Navarro, said, adding that they had been ordered to close by the city council in January 2022. It's unclear how both venues had continued to operate since then.
Speaking to Las Mañanas de RNE, Rebeca Pérez, vice mayor of Murcia City Council, said: "We still have no indication as to whether the premises had all the safety regulations. All municipal services are already working on the investigation. Yesterday, the priority was rescuing bodies."
13 people died as a result of the fire, with people from Spain, Colombia, Ecuador and Nicaragua among the dead. Investigations into the fire are currently being carried out, with no cause yet known.
Though initial reports suggested that more people could be missing, local officials have since said they believe there are no more fatalities and that all of those people have now been accounted for.
Police believe the fire broke out in the La Fonda Milagros, before spreading to Teatre as well as a third nightclub in the complex called Golden. The fatalities, a police spokesman said, were "all concentrated in a very small area in the Fonda establishment".
Deputy mayor Navarro told AFP that the company operating the Teatre and La Fonda Milagros venues only had a license to run the former space, but had later opened La Fonda Milagros without the required approval.
Murcia Mayor Jose Ballesta declared three days of mourning in Murcia following the fire, which is the worst of its kind in the country since a nightclub fire in Zaragoza killed 43 people in 1990.
