There are 13 people dead and 1 person is still missing
The Teatre and La Fonda Milagros nightclubs should have ceased their activity more than a year ago and stopped operating, since there was a closure order that the premises did not comply with, so that both have operated “without authorization since the order of cessation of activity” issued by the previous socialist Government, in January 2022.
Precisely, it was up to the inspection services to check whether the closure of the premises had been carried out and the City Council has confirmed that the company never obtained municipal permits to divide its establishment into two premises, Teatre and La Fonda, and was operating without authorization from January 2022.
This was confirmed in an urgent press conference by the deputy mayor of Urban Planning, Garden and Environment, Antonio Navarro (PP), who appeared accompanied by the previous deputy mayor of Urban Planning and Ecological Transition, Andrés Guerrero (PSOE), as well as other members of the Government team, including the vice mayor and spokesperson for the Government team, Rebeca Pérez, who has confirmed, in statements to Europa Press, that of the 18 missing, 13 are dead, 4 have appeared alive in others places and 1 person is still missing.
Navarro has assured that the Murcia City Council will appear as a private accusation in this process against the company and that they will go to the end by demanding “the purging of all responsibilities in the file, whoever falls.”
The company, he lamented, “failed to comply with the cessation orders and this is an unprecedented tragedy”, so that “we will act forcefully to purge all responsibilities for what happened to the final consequences, whatever the cost.”
To this end, the City Council will file the accusation in the proceedings opened in the Investigative Court Number 7 of Murcia to investigate the fire, after having confirmed that the commercial company Teatre Murcia S.L. It has been operating without a municipal permit since January 10, 2022, when an order to cease activity was issued by the previous Government team that has not been complied with.
And the thing is, the Teatre company presented a project to divide the premises in two and for this it was required to obtain a new license which it did not present, since the 2008 license was not valid. The company failed to comply with the orders to cease and close the nightclub.
Specifically, the councilor explained, in January 2022 the closure of Teatre, the only existing premises, was ordered, the appeal was resolved in March 2022 and was dismissed and in October 2022 the inspection was required to carry out the closure. , at which time it should have closed and there is an “inspection report”. So from the Consistory “we are going to purify all the responsibilities that may exist on the part of anyone in these procedures”, he has asserted.
Administratively, it is a single establishment, Teatre S.L., which had a license to open and start operating the activity on December 18, 2008 as a nightclub with a kitchen, explained Navarro, who stressed that the establishment presented a communication to modify the activity in June 2019 and divide into two. In this way, La Fonda has never existed “administratively”, meaning the capacity “has never existed”, but in Teatre.
In January 2022, the PSOE councilor “issued an order to cease activity because he understood that this modification of the division of the premises was substantial and required a new license; and in March 2022 the company presented a project, not having completed this procedure today.”
The previous socialist councilor, Andrés Guerrero, has effectively pointed out that in January 2022 the closure of the premises was decreed, given that the documentation presented by the company “did not correspond to what had to be present.”
For this reason, the inspection services were ordered to close both premises. The socialist councilor understands that “the only person responsible is the company that, despite the communications made in the sense of closing the premises, ignored them.”
Specifically, the order to cease activity was issued by the previous Urban Planning Councilor, Andrés Guerrero, after the company was denied the authorization it had requested to divide the warehouse that had operated since 2008 as a nightclub into two (Teatre and La Fonda). The City Council’s technicians considered that this requested modification required obtaining a new license, since the interior configuration had been modified.
The company filed an administrative appeal against the order to cease activities, which was dismissed on February 23, 2022, leaving the order to cease operations in force. Later, on March 8, 2022, the company requested legalization, although this procedure has not currently been concluded. In this way, the Teatre company has failed to comply with the decree that ordered the cessation of its activity by the City Council, which at no time authorized the premises to be divided into two.
The Deputy Mayor for Urban Planning, Huerta and Environment, Antonio Navarro, has declared that “we are facing an unprecedented tragedy and we are going to act forcefully to clarify responsibilities for what happened to the final consequences, whatever the cost.” He has made it clear that they will act decisively before the courts and purge “all responsibilities.”
However, when asked if the City Council was aware that both Teatre and La Fonda were open, Navarro said that they did not.
