Dozens die in Istanbul nightclub inferno
At least 29 people were killed, and several more injured by a fire at a nightclub in Istanbul on Wednesday (3 April).
The daytime inferno happened as workers were in the basement of the Masquerade club, which had been undergoing renovations.
Authorities stated that the victims of the blaze were all thought to have been involved in the renovation project, which was taking place during Ramadan ahead of the club’s scheduled reopening at the Eid holiday, next week.
Situated on the ground floor and basement levels of a high-rise building in the residential Gayrettepe district of Istanbul, the venue is apparently being treated as a crime scene, with Istanbul governor Davut Gül noting that the cause of the mid-day fire was yet to be determined.
However, police issued warrants for the arrest of eight people, including the nightclub manager and a person responsible for the renovations, as part of their investigations. At press time, six people had reportedly been arrested, while warrants are outstanding for others.
Turkish television showed flames and a columns of smoke billowing from upper floor windows as the fire spread up the 16-storey building
Emergency services were alerted to the inferno at 12:47 pm and firefighters faced the grim task of finding bodies and rescuing severely injured victims as they battled for several hours to bring the blaze under control. Throughout the afternoon, the governor’s office was forced to increase the death toll in ever more shocking updates as more victims succumbed to their injuries in hospital.
Images from Turkish television showed flames and columns of smoke billowing from upper floor windows as the fire spread up the 16-storey building, but it is believed all the deaths had been individuals who were in the club premises.
As investigations began, Mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, revealed that the club’s operators had not applied for the correct construction permit. “There is no application [to the local municipality] for a renovation or a construction regarding the place and as it was two floors down from the ground level, it [the work] wasn’t visible,” he said.
On a later post on X, formerly Twitter, Imamoglu added, “May God have mercy on our citizens who lost their lives, and I wish a speedy recovery to our injured.”
The venue could apparently host up to 4,000 people for DJ performances and stage shows
The Masquerade website notes that the club would be closed from 10 March to 10 April for “our new design renovation”. The venue could apparently host up to 4,000 people for DJ performances and stage shows, according to local reports.
The tragedy evokes memories of similar venue tragedies in the likes of Brazil, Romania, and the United States over the past decade. In January 2013, 242 people – mostly university students – died, and more than 600 others were injured when acoustic foam in the ceiling of the Kiss nightclub in the southern Brazilian city of Santa Maria.
In December 2016, 36 people died when fire broke out in the unlicensed Ghost Ship venue in Oakland, California, while in 2003, a fire at the Station nightclub in Rhode Island claimed 100 lives, and injured 230 others, with investigators again pointing to pyrotechnics setting light to the venue’s acoustic foam.
And in 2015, 64 revellers lost their lives when pyrotechnics caused a devastating blaze at the Colectiv nightclub in Bucharest.
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