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Another club fire in Bucharest, venue seemingly unlicensed
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 24 January 2017
A nightclub in Bucharest was destroyed this weekend by a fire that injured more than 40 people, echoing the more deadly fire at the Colectiv club in the city in 2015.
Some eyewitnesses have claimed that the fire at the city’s Bamboo nightclub was started by clubgoers smoking inside the venue. Meanwhile a local government spokesperson has said that the club did not have a current operating licence.
A number of venues were closed in the Romanian capital over safety concerns after 64 people were killed in the fire of the Colectiv club in 2015. Four of the five members of the band playing at Colectiv on that night, Goodbye To Gravity, were among the fatalities.
Other new safety measures were also introduced at those venues still operating, while the Romanian live industry launched a new trade association, in part to promote health and safety measures across the sector, and in part to ensure that promoters had a voice where government was considering new regulation.
Commenting on this weekend’s fire, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said that Bucharest had been “very close to another big tragedy; rules and laws have apparently been broken again”.
Local media report that the authorities staged spot checks on 162 clubs across Romania on Saturday night following the fire at Bamboo earlier that day, issuing nearly 45,000 euros in fines and shutting one venue down on safety grounds.
