The six people who, for the moment, are being investigated in the case opened after the fire that destroyed two nightclubs in Murcia on October 1, leaving 13 dead, have finished giving their versions of what happened before the judge on Tuesday at a crossroads. accusations in which everyone has tried to evade their responsibility and charge it against the rest of the supposedly involved.
From last January 23 until this Tuesday, three people in charge of the Teatre room, where the police located the start of the fire, have appeared (behind closed doors, since it is still in the investigation phase);
the
DJ
who organized the party that was being held that night;
the owner of the cold fire machine that, according to the investigation, caused the fire, and the person in charge of Fonda Milagros, where the 13 victims died.
It was the latter, Daniel R., who closed the hearings with those investigated this Tuesday.
After more than an hour of appearance, in which he answered both the questions of his defense and those of the judge and the prosecutor, the businessman has pointed directly to the management of the Teatre theater as responsible for the deaths: “They are things that can be avoided, simply if they had warned us a few minutes earlier, we would have saved 13 lives,” he told journalists as he left the court, after expressing his condolences to the families of the deceased.
His lawyer, Francisco Adán, elaborated on his words by explaining that the two nightclubs, which were located in the same industrial warehouse divided in two by a plasterboard wall
,
had an emergency plan that established that, in the event of a fire, they had to to inform “the entire premises and the surrounding premises” about it, which was not done.
This caused Fonda Milagros, where the 13 people died, to vacate about four minutes later than Teatre, a time, according to the lawyer, crucial in the tragic outcome.
This lack of coordination between the two nightclubs to warn of the fire had already been highlighted by the Judicial Police in one of the expert reports sent to the judge, in which they warned that when the smoke from the fire began to be seen in Fonda Milagros, The fire was now completely out of control.
That place began to be evacuated when Teatre had been empty for several minutes.
But Daniel R. is not the only one of those investigated who has tried to remove any responsibility for the fire.
Those responsible for the Teatre room, where the police unequivocally place the origin of the fire, also did so in his statements.
Marco M., who testified on February 6, appears as the administrator of that nightclub, but in his statement he insisted that, for five years, he was a mere intermediary between the owner of the industrial warehouse and the managers of the two rooms. of parties.
He was the businessman who rented the warehouse in 2008, and operated it until 2018. At that time, he had already requested the division into two and wanted to transfer the business.
According to his lawyer, Manuel Maza, he wanted to recover with the transfer the investment of more than 1 million euros that he made to start the nightclub but, since it was such a high amount, the current managers of the venues had opted for the intermediate solution. to pay rent.
The businessman of Fonda Milagros, according to his lawyer, paid Maco M. 4,500 euros per month for the operation of the room.
Eva M., sister of Marco M. and in charge of Teatre on the night of the tragedy, also tried to evade her responsibility for the fire.
In a brief statement of just 5 minutes on January 30 in which she only answered questions from her lawyer, the businesswoman assured that she had all the papers in order and a contract with the
DJ
who organized the “We are remember” party that It was held that night in the room and in which the cold fire machine that would have caused the fire was used.
According to her version, that night she limited herself to charging a percentage of the drinks consumed by those attending the party, and it was the DJ, Carlos R., also investigated in the case, who controlled all other aspects of the celebration.
The DJ had already offered his version of the events to the judge on January 23, also to try to avoid the problem and assign possible responsibilities to the fifth of those investigated, Alfonso G., owner of the cold fire machine, already the theater businessmen.
Unlike the version offered by the person in charge of that room, the DJ insisted that he was only in charge of playing music and did not clarify whether or not he had a contract related to the spark machine.
Before the media, he insisted that he had “absolutely nothing to do with what happened.”
The owner of the spark machine, Alfonso G., was the first of those investigated to testify before the judge and also the only one who answered the questions of all the parties and who did not accuse the rest of those investigated.
During more than two hours of appearance, he acknowledged that he was the only person who operated the cold fire machine during the party and that he did not know all aspects of its operation.
The police investigation indicates that this device was used incorrectly and the relevant safety distances were not maintained, which would have caused the fire.
Alfonso G. also told the judge that he did not charge that night, but that he had provided the pyrotechnics altruistically, because he was a friend of the DJ.
The sixth of those investigated is Juan I., another businessman linked to Teatre, and who took advantage of his right not to testify.
After listening to those investigated in the process, the judge has also summoned a dozen people as “injured persons/witnesses with an offer of actions”, who are called to appear on February 20 and March 1.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
Keep reading
I am already a subscriber
_