Rescuers continue search for bodies at Spanish nightclubs after deadly blaze

#englishnews #Spanishnightclubsfire

News Article :-
The death toll from a fire that tore through three adjoining night clubs in Spain is expected to rise as rescuers search the wreckage for a further five people reported missing after the blaze that has killed at least 13 people.

The blaze in the south-eastern town of Murcia broke out at around 6am on Sunday morning in the La Fonda club, before spreading to the neighbouring Teatre and Golden clubs, officials said.

Reports on the number of people unaccounted for varied. The local newspaper, La Verdad de Mercia, cited the town’s mayor, José Ballesta, as saying 18 people had been reported missing. That number could include some of those already found.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Only three bodies had been identified as of late Sunday, using their fingerprints. Officials said identification of the remaining bodies could take days, as DNA samples would have to be sent to Madrid for processing.

Among the missing were a couple, Jorge and Rosa Bajiota, who had travelled to Murcia from the nearby town of Caravaca with two friends, El Mundo reported. The couple had three children.

One friend who had accompanied them to the club that night sent an audio message to her mother during the fire, saying, “I love you mum. We’re going to die, mum I love you.” In the background, people could be heard shouting for the lights to be turned on.

It was not clear if the 28-year-old woman was among the dead, but her father, identified only in Spanish media as Jairo, said he had not heard anything further from her.

Ballesta said structural damage to the buildings had made access very difficult.

“What we are doing right now is trying to extract the bodies, secure the area, care for the families, identify them, which isn’t easy at all,” Ballesta said.

Officials said four people, two women aged 22 and 25 years old and two men in their forties, were treated for smoke inhalation.

“According to initial information, the fire broke out on the first floor of the nightclub, which has a ground floor and a first floor,” Diego Seral, the national police spokesman told Radio Onda Regional de Murcia.

Eleven of the 13 bodies so far recovered were found on the first floor of la Fonda, while two were found among the rubble on ground floor. The police said the temperature in the night club may have reached between 1,000 and 1,500C, according to La Verdad de Mercia.

One of those missing was Éric Hernández, originally from Nicaragua and who was celebrating his 30th birthday with friends and family including his brother, Sergio, and his mother, Marta, at La Fonda, the paper reported.

A cousin, Walter Hernández, who survived after leaving the group to have a drink on the lower floor, said eight members of the party were missing.

The city declared three days of mourning for those who had died and flags were lowered to half mast outside Murcia’s city hall.

Spain’s king said he felt “p