Heartbreaking Last Message To Mum From Murcia Fire Victim

One piece of news filtering through from the tragedy of the Murcia nightclub fire yesterday morning was the heartbreaking farewell message left by one of the young people who was missing and presumed dead

The 28-year-old woman from Caravaca de la Cruz had gone to the nightclub with her boyfriend and friends. At shortly after six in the morning her Father received a distressing voice message via the WhatsApp service from his daughter, saying “Tell Mommy, I love her, we are going to die.” The woman, as yet un-named, is on the list of people still missing. Some of the other victims were from the group from Caravaca de la Cruz and the Mayor of the town was seen touring the location of the fire yesterday.

In the aftermath of the inferno, more information is filtering through. Yesterday it was thought that the fire had broken out in the Teatre nightclub however, emergency services at the scene have now reported that the fire began in the Fonda club next door and quickly spread to the adjacent Teatre and Golden clubs.

The toll of victims rose steadily throughout the day yesterday and now stands at 13 people dead, 24 injured and 13 missing. Most of the fatalities appear to have been in the Fonda nightclub where, firefighters say, the first floor collapsed onto the clubbers below.  So far, authorities have only been able to identify three out of the 13 dead by fingerprint. They are trying to identify the other remains via DNA matching with relatives who have reported loved ones missing from the club. Three people presumed missing have since been found in good health.

The Mayor of Murcia, José Ballesta, confirmed that the area where emergency services were able to access first, and where 13 bodies were found, has now been extensively combed and does not contain any further dead. The Chief Inspector of the Murcia Police, José María Mainar, spoke about those unaccounted for, saying that the only information about them has been provided by the people who reported them missing but that, at this stage, it may be that they were not in the club at the time and turn up in due course.

Firefighters have now shored up the remains of the nightclubs in order to make them safe and enable crews to get in and search the rest of the buildings for bodies. Whilst the search continues, a team of psychologists has been put in place at the nearby Palacio de los Deportes to provide support to the family and friends of the victims.

On Sunday evening the Mayor Tweeted that, “His Majesty King Felipe VI has just conveyed to me the condolences and grief of the @RoyalHouse for the tragedy we are currently experiencing in the city of Murcia. I appreciate his solidarity and closeness with the families and with this land to which he is so closely linked.“