Murcia ordered nightclubs that burned down closed in 2022

Murcia ordered the closure of nightclubs that burned down in 2022 without a license

There is a document signed on January 10, 2022. In it, a Murcia Urban Planning councilor orders the cessation of activity for a nightclub because the renovation of the premises is considered substantial and requires a new license. Eighteen months later, that venue—and the one next door—was packed on a Saturday night and burned down. At least thirteen people died. The order had still not been executed.

That is the core of the issue. Not that there are thousands of unlicensed nightclubs, as is claimed in the thread, but that the Administration knew about it, had put it in writing, and did nothing to shut it down. Teatre and Fonda Milagros were operating normally; according to participants, advertising 'remember' parties throughout the city and in an entertainment area patrolled by the municipal police every weekend. Anyone claiming ignorance is calling everyone else a fool.

The January 2022 closure order that no one enforced

The file began on January 10, 2022. The then Urban Planning councilor ordered the cessation of activity, understanding that the modification of the premises was substantial and required a new license. Months later, the company began steps to legalize its situation. And there the trail disappears into the administrative labyrinth that ended with thirteen dead people.

No one checked again if the venue had closed. No visits. No seals. None of the elementary checks that would be done for a bar that puts four extra tables on the sidewalk. The paperwork was processed, filed away, and drinks continued to be served for a year and a half.

Closure communicated by phone without visiting the premises

Here comes the detail that is baffling: according to an account circulating in the thread, the inspector communicated with the nightclub by phone or email to enforce the closure order. They accepted the venue's explanations, which claimed to be in the process of legalization. No City Council inspector went to check on the ground if it was still open.

The council would later confirm that the file should have been executed regardless, even if the owner had initiated other procedures in parallel. In other words: the law did not allow this shortcut, but someone took it. How many other venues were closed with a phone call and a promise?

Officials suspended and four seals in two days

The reaction came with the estimulante ilegal that was previously lacking. The City Council provisionally suspended the officials involved in the file and ordered a review of the administrative status of all entertainment venues in the municipality. The Local Police sealed four nightlife venues within hours. The representative of one of them stated that just two days earlier, Urban Planning had indicated they could continue their activity.

The contagion effect was immediate: Madrid announced it would begin verifying if venues comply with their closure orders. This implies that until then, it was not verifying them. As discussed in the thread, Valencia, Barcelona, and Seville joined the review. In the end, as one participant summarized, "every cloud has a silver lining."

Who pays the victims' compensation?

The thirteen deceased victims were of Nicaraguan, Colombian, and Ecuadorian nationality. Regarding the money, some in the thread argue that no insurance will cover a venue operating under a closure order normally, and that the bill will likely fall on the Murcian taxpayer as a subsidiary responsible party. The councilors, nor probably the owners, will pay it.

There are unconfirmed versions circulating about the owners: it is speculated that one of the responsible parties may no longer be in Spain and that another may have gone to prison for declaring insolvency. None of these claims are publicly verified, but the pattern pointed out by some participants—business without a license, without visible assets—is what usually leaves victims with no one to claim from.

How many venues operate without a license in Murcia?

The City Council itself later acknowledged that there are more entertainment venues without an operating license or with a closure order in the Atalayas and Mariano Rojas areas, the latter being the after-hours corridor: at nine in the morning, supermarket customers and those leaving the night converge there. The question of exactly how many remains officially unanswered.

And it is not an exclusive problem of Murcia. As some participants argue, city councils delay licenses for years, allowing them to avoid responsibility, and inspections only occur when tragedy strikes. Fire safety regulations in terraced buildings are expensive and difficult to comply with; the incentive to not comply, on the other hand, is cheap.

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A year and a half of phone calls and forty-eight hours of televised sealing. The question is no longer why Teatre and Fonda Milagros burned down, but how many venues remain open tonight in Spain with a closure order gathering dust in a drawer.