By Fatos Bytyci and Aleksandar Vasovic
The packed nightclub in North Macedonia where 59 people were killed in a blaze at the weekend had just one emergency exit, which was locked, lacked fire extinguishers and sprinklers and contained flammable materials, the state prosecutor said.
The fire broke out during a hip hop concert at the club in the town of Kocani at around 3 a.m. (0200 GMT) on Sunday when sparks from flares set a patch of ceiling alight. Hundreds of people scrambled for the venue’s only exit as flames spread across the roof in the country’s deadliest incident in years.
“It did not have two exit doors, but only one single improvised metal door at the back of the building, which was locked and without a handle on the inside,” North Macedonia’s state prosecutor Ljupco Kocevski said late on Sunday.
The “Pulse” nightclub, which local media reports described as a former carpet warehouse, had only two fire extinguishers and no fire alarm, Kocevski said. The ceiling was made of flammable materials and the plasterboard walls were not fire resistant. More than 150 people were injured.
“(The nightclub) operated in substandard conditions. It does not have this and that, and people were making money from it. Who is responsible?” said Sasa Djenic, a school teacher whose 15-year-old daughter escaped the fire with burns on her arms.
Draghi Stojanov’s son died in the fire. “After this tragedy, what do I need this life for? I had one child and I lost him,” he told Reuters.
Some people with missing loved ones queued outside the hospital in Kocani on Monday to give DNA samples in case their relatives were not immediately identifiable.
On the edge of town, which lies around 50 miles (80 km)east of the capital Skopje, bulldozers and workers with shovels dug a line of fresh graves in the Kocani cemetery.
Authorities have arrested 20 people in connection with the fire, including government officials and the nightclub’s manager.
Kocevski said his office was working to determine the criminal liability of a number of people for “serious offences against public security” and other crimes.
“The individuals acted contrary to the regulations and technical rules of the protection measures and thereby caused a danger to the life and work of people on a large scale,” he said.
ILLEGAL LICENCE
Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said the club’s licence was issued illegally by the economy ministry and promised those responsible would face justice. Former economy minister Kreshnik Bekteshi was questioned by police over the disaster, the local TV 5 broadcaster said.
Reuters pictures on Monday showed the club’s corrugated iron roof burned through and collapsed in places, its interior wooden beams exposed and blackened.
Forty-seven people were treated in hospitals in Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Turkey. Burn specialists from Serbia, the Czech Republic and Israel were expected in North Macedonia on Monday to assist local medical staff. More would be taken to hospitals in Croatia and Romania, officials said.
A nationwide week of mourning began on Monday, and a vigil for the victims was scheduled in the capital Skopje.
(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci, Aleksandar Vasovic; Writing by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Edward McAllister and Ros Russell)
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