Survivors describe horror of deadly nightclub fire

Band singer joked about sparks before flames spread

Bucharest, Romania — When the first sparks flew, the lead singer of Goodbye to Gravity joked that they weren’t part of the heavy metal band’s performance.

Moments later, flames spread quickly through the crowded basement club in downtown Bucharest, trapping many and triggering a stampede that would leave at least 27 people dead and 180 injured — making it the deadliest nightclub blaze in Romanian history.

Two of the band members were among the dead, while the lead singer was one of the many people who were treated in the hospital for extensive burns. Witnesses said about 300 to 400 people, including some children attending with their parents, were at the club, housed in a former factory, when a pyrotechnical show went awry. They said there was only one exit.

A spark on stage ignited some polystyrene decor, club-goers told Digi 24 television. Photos posted on social media appeared to show a flame emanating from a pillar covered in foam insulation as those in the audience applauded the band.

The group, which was launching its new album “Mantras of War” Friday, had performed a song titled “This is the Day We Die” from their latest CD before the fire broke out, witnesses at the club said.

Hundreds of members of Bucharest’s medical community were mobilized in frantic efforts to save as many lives as possible. Bogdan Oprita, a spokesman for the Floreasca Emergency Hospital, said it was the worst bloodshed since the 1989 anti-Communist revolution.

“It was like a war,” he said. “Dozens of surgeons were called from home and asked to operate.”

Emergency worker Violeta Maria Naca, with 22 years of experience, described in a Facebook post how parents were kissing ambulances carrying their children, while others were hitting the vehicles begging to be transported to a hospital.

“There was a child with 70 percent burns. I was crying. The flesh was coming off him. He was asking whether he would live. If it was serious,” she wrote. “He was almost in a coma. Blood and tears were coming out of his eyes. He asked me to hold his hand. I told him I had a boy the same age.”

Children accompanied by an adult are allowed to enter nightclubs in Romania and many clubs don’t pay attention to the age limit of 18 for unaccompanied teenagers.

Delia Tugui, a Spanish teacher at the American International School of Bucharest who was at the concert with her husband and son, said on Saturday that club-goers were surprised by how fast the fire spread and panicked.