This article originally appeared on VICE Romania.Last week, about 5,000 people gathered on the streets of Bucharest to mourn the 64 people who lost their lives in the devastating fire in nightclub Colectiv one year ago.On the night of October 30, 2015, the band Goodbye to Gravity decided to enhance its performance at Colectiv with pyrotechnics that were set off close to the stage. The flammable foam used to soundproof the venue caught fire, which quickly spread through the club, which at that moment housed about 400 people. The crowd fled to the only fire exit, trampling one another in their panic. At the same time, Romanian hospitals were unprepared to deal with the great number of patients coming in with complicated wounds.
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Even though the club's owners were held responsible for the lack of safety measures, many Romanians see corruption within local authorities as the underlying cause of the fire—Colectiv and other venues like it were allowed to be open in dangerous circumstances. In the days after the fire, thousands of Romanians protested against corruption, which led to the resignation—and in some cases prosecution—of a few local and national politicians.A year after the tragedy, I spoke to some victims of the Colectiv club fire to see how they are doing.
Alex Plingu, 27, Architecture Student
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Oprea Mariana (Tedy), 29, Architect
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Alex Teodorescu, 23, Engineer and Musician
Corina Gabriela Ioniță, 31, Civil Servant
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I spent months going from one institution to the next trying to get what I deserved. I went to the National Health Insurance Agency countless times to file all sorts of requests. To get there, I'd ride on cabs with open wounds on my back."