Two young women killed, city officials say building permits in order
Herald staff
The mezzanine of a night club in the Buenos Aires city neighbourhood of Palermo collapsed yesterday killing two women and injuring 24 people, who were reportedly out of danger.
The accident occurred minutes before 4am yesterday at the VIP room of the Beara nightclub, on Scalabrini Ortiz avenue.
The two women killed were identified as Adriana Lizarraga, 20, and Leticia Provedo, 21, Fernández Hospital sources said.
Sergio Aranda, one of the members of tropical group Ráfaga which had just finished their gig at the night club, said: “We heard an awful noise and the ordeal began. There were people crying everywhere,” said Aranda, who added a private party was being held for around 300 people.
At least 20 people — all of them between 18 and 29 years of age — were transferred to different city hospitals while another five youngsters went to private clinics, according to SAME Emergency Service head Alberto Crescenti.
City Cabinet Chief Horacio Rodríguez Larreta said several inspections were conducted during the last year without registering any irregularities.
“An in-depth investigation will have to be carried out to establish what went wrong,” Rodríguez Larreta said.
The accident happened only a month after the collapse of a gym in the neighbourhood of Villa Urquiza which killed three people and injured 11 on August 9.
Relatives and friends of the victims of the gym cave-in demonstrated on Thursday to mark the first month since the accident and demand justice.
Buenos Aires City Mayor Mauricio Macri, who is currently in Rome, expressed his “condolences to the families of the victims” via Twitter and praised the work of the emergency services during the accident.
“I want to express my condolences to the families of the two girls killed today in the collapse,” Macri posted on his Twitter account.
“Also I would like to thank the doctors, firefighters and policemen who did a great job during the emergency,” the centre-right mayor wrote.
In an official statement released yesterday, the city government said Macri “brought forward his return to Buenos Aires ahead of the tragedy that occurred at the Beara club and ended his tour through Spain, France and Italy after the meeting he shared with Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno.”
Although Macri had no activities scheduled after the meeting with Alemanno, government sources explained “his return was scheduled for Monday but was brought forward for Sunday.”
Several opposition figures criticized the city government and Macri after the collapse.
Cabinet Chief Aníbal Fernández said Macri’s administration “will have to give explanations” about the inspections carried out at the nightclub, while Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman posted several messages on his Twitter account directed to the city Mayor.
“Macri is taking a walk in Paris speaks about solving ‘the isolation of the country,’ he’d better prevent the city from collapsing or the schools from falling down,” Timerman posted via Twitter.
Judge Alicia Iermini asked the city government to report on the inspections carried out at Beara, as well as the official plans and other documentation.
The judge also questioned the employees who were present at the time of the collapse and was waiting for survivors to be discharged from the hospital to summon them.
Rodríguez Larreta attributed the tragedy to the “misuse of the mezzanine” at the nightclub as he claimed “the authorization was granted correctly and several controls were carried out” and “no irregularities were found.”
In a press conference staged yesterday, the head of the Government Control Agency Javier Ibáñez said “several people moved to the mezzanine and started jumping,” while Macri’s Chief-of-staff Marcos Peña claimed “what happened was clearly a misuse” of the facilities.
An official statement said the nightclub had been controlled nine times this year, the last inspection was carried out on September 5.
The manager and one of the owners of the nightclub were in custody yesterday, while the owner’s lawyer linked the tragedy to “a failure in the construction materials.” Beara was authorized since August 29, 2009, as restaurant, coffee-bar and house for private parties and had a maximum capacity of 491 people, government sources said.
