The Death Toll from Friday's Romanian Club Fire Could Rise 'Significantly'

This article originally appeared on VICE Romania

A fire at a metal show in Bucharest's Colectiv Club on Friday night injured upwards of 150 people and left at least 31 dead, according to Romanian news outlets. As the band Goodbye to Gravity played in front of a crowd of nearly 400 attendees, pyrotechnics set some large sheets of soundproofing sponge ablaze and the fire spread within seconds. Yesterday, the Associated Press published an update saying the death toll is expected to rise "significantly," due to the severity of victims' injuries.

The venue had advertised the show's pyrotechnic effects on Facebook prior to the set, despite not having authorization from a fire marshal, according to state secretary Raed Arafat.

Several witnesses claim that the emergency rescue teams were sluggish. "The firemen were late and they only came after about ten calls," said concert-attendee and photographer Vlad Bușcă. "At first, they just used portable extinguishers. None of them were using hoses."

A young woman who had showed up to the scene of the accident just as it happened posted on Facebook that there were not enough ambulances for all the wounded. "A single ambulance came after about 15 minutes. I kept calling the emergency number; I asked everyone to call more emergency teams," she wrote in a post that's since been removed.

Photo by Mircea Topoleanu

Two hours after the fire, Bucharest's hospitals ran out of room for the injured, even though extra doctors and staff were called in. The Ministry of Defense announced that two planes and two helicopters were prepared, in case some of the wounded needed to be transported to other hospitals.

Later that night, the Ministry of Internal Affairs issued a press release, claiming that professional intervention was swift and that 11 fire trucks, 21 ambulances, 28 first-aid vehicles, and two intensive care vans arrived to help. The case is now being investigated.

Photo by Mircea Topoleanu

I reached the venue approximately one hour after the fire started. The air was stifling. The wounded had already been transported to the hospitals and the area was barricaded by rescue teams. Behind them, hoards of people watched ambulances come and go as they sat and looked on helplessly.

"Those fireworks seemed harmless, but once they hit the acoustic foam covering a pole in front of the stage the roof caught fire and the flames extended rapidly," said Bușcă. "That is all I could remember. After that, I wasn't paying attention anymore; I just wanted to get out of there."

A witness, quoted by Hotnews, explained that people could not get out of the club because it had only one exit. "It was like there was a giant cork in the doorway," he said.

Another survivor told Adevărul, "We had no air. It smelled of burnt flesh. I had to climb on corpses to try to get out."

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis asked for compassion and solidarity in a Facebook post and the Minister for Healthcare, Nicolae Bănicioiu, encouraged people to donate blood for the wounded. The government is planning on covering the cost of victims' medical expenses, too. Romanian leaders have even proposed a new law that would increase fines for clubs that break rules that could injure the public, according to a Romanian news source.

On the morning after the fire, the country's government declared three days of national mourning.