Death toll from Romania nightclub fire set to rise ‘significantly’ (See)

The death toll from a fire and explosion in a Bucharest nightclub climbed to 29 on Sunday with a Romanian doctor warning the number of deaths is expected to rise "significantly". Ioan Lascar, a doctor at the Floreasca Emergency Hospital, made the comment on Sunday in reference to the many injured who had suffered severe burns.

Forensic experts, meanwhile, began the first autopsies of victims on Sunday, as authorities continued to collect evidence from the scene.

Doctors say over 140 people are still hospitalised around the Romanian capital, dozens of them in serious condition.

In one of the capital’s worst disasters in decades, about 400 people, mostly young adults, stampeded for the exit as the club in the basement of a Communist-era factory filled with smoke.

Witnesses say the fire erupted after a spark on stage from a heavy metal pyrotechnics show ignited foam decor. Colectiv Club’s Facebook page had said the show would feature pyrotechnic effects.

A pillar and the club’s ceiling went up in flames and then there was an explosion and heavy smoke, the witnesses said.

TV footage showed police officers and paramedics trying to resuscitate young people lying on the pavement while sirens wailed with more ambulances deployed to the scene.

Stampede of people

“There was a stampede of people running out of the (Colectiv) club,” a man who escaped without shoes told Reuters.

A young woman who was released from the hospital after minor injuries described the club bursting into flames.

“In five seconds the whole ceiling was all on fire. In the next three, we rushed to a single door,” she told television station Antena 3.

The victims were admitted to 10 hospitals in Bucharest, said Deputy Interior Minister Raed Arafat.

“The situation is slowly stabilising ... we have many people with burns, intoxicated with smoke and people squashed,” he said, adding many victims have no identification.
The health minister launched a public appeal for blood donations.

Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis said in a statement: “I want to assure you of all support from rescuing forces and ask you to trust they put all efforts to limit the impact of this catastrophe.”

An emergency meeting of cabinet ministers was set for early on Saturday to assess the incident after which the government decreed three days of mourning.

Some of the deadliest nightclub disasters in the world were started by fireworks.

In the southern Brazilian college town of Santa Maria in 2013, a musician lit an outdoor flare inside the Kiss nightclub and started a fire that killed at least 241 people, investigators said.

Fireworks were also blamed for nightclub fires in Russia’s Perm that killed 156 people in 2009 and in Argentina’s Buenos Aires in 2004 that killed 194.

(FRANCE 24 with AP and REUTERS)