The Istanbul fire department released this week a report revealing the causes of the fire that killed 29 people in early April at the Masquerade nightclub, located on the ground floor of a 16-storey building in the Istanbul district of Beşiktaş.
The tragedy occurred on 2 April during renovation work being carried out at the discotheque, which Istanbul’s Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu himself later revealed lacked of municipal licence. But the report released by the city’s fire service also reveals very serious and fundamental deficiencies in the safety of the premises, which in large part led to the disaster.
According to the report, which has been released to the Turkish press, the discotheque had no emergency lighting or any other signs to show the location of the exits; furthermore, the automatic fire extinguishing systems were not working, nor were the hoses or wall extinguishers operational. To these serious safety deficiencies must be added the fact that on the night of the fire, dozens of employees and workers had gathered in the premises at the invitation of the owners of the discotheque in order to celebrate together the iftar, the dinner to break the fast during Ramadan.
In fact, the owners of the premises were in a hurry to finish the work as soon as possible so that the discotheque could reopen on 10 April, coinciding with the public holidays for the end of Ramadan. Thus, the 29 victims of the fire were workers involved in renovation work at the club, which was closed for the month-long Ramadan.
Moments of chaos and panic in the darkness
The fire department report concludes that the fire was triggered by sparks from welding, which quickly ignited the highly flammable insulating material on the walls and floor in the hall area of the nightclub, located on the second floor of the basement of the building.
The flames soon engulfed the entire entrance area and spread to the façade of the building and the PVC windows of the upper floors, although the residents of the upper floors were evacuated in time by the firemen. The moments inside the club were moments of chaos and panic, with explosions of electrical panels further spreading the fire, which spread rapidly and began to generate dense smoke as the premises were left without electricity and in the dark.
Workers tried in vain to extinguish the huge flames with portable fire extinguishers, but their efforts proved futile: within minutes the 29 people trapped by the fire in this Istanbul nightclub suffocated to death as they tried to find their way out amidst the darkness.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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