Blaze at Goa nightclub kills 25; four detained

Blaze at Goa nightclub kills 25; four detained

Five tourists and 20 staffers killed; club was operating without licence and emergency exit doors, says FIR; 100 people were in the dance area on first floor when fire erupted, say police; three officials suspended as Chief Minister orders investigation; ₹5 lakh will be paid to the kin of the deceased and ₹50,000 will be given to the injured by the State

A massive fire erupted at a nightclub in north Goa just before midnight on Saturday, leaving 25 people dead and six injured. The initial police investigation found that the blaze was caused by a fire show with “electric firecrackers”, organised without precautions or permits at the Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub in Arpora, 25 km from Panaji.

The absence of emergency exit doors in the nightclub resulted in the space turning into a death trap. The nightclub was operating without licences and permissions, according to the first information report (FIR). Over a 100 people were in the dance area on the first floor when the fire erupted, and some ran downstairs to the kitchen, where they were trapped with the staff. Most of the deaths were caused by suffocation.

The owners, managers, and event managers have been charged with culpable homicide and causing death due to negligence, among other charges, but questions have also been raised about the failure of the State and local administration to enforce the rules, allowing the nightclub to operate illegally. Four people have been arrested so far, but the club’s owners are yet to be nabbed.

CM orders probe

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant directed the State’s Chief Secretary and Director-General of Police to identify and act against the government officials who allowed the club to operate, though it violated safety rules. A committee comprising the South Goa Collector, Deputy Director of Fire and Emergency Services, and Director of Forensic Laboratory will probe the incident and submit its report within a week.

Late on Sunday night, three government officials responsible for allowing the nightclub to begin operations in 2023 were suspended — Siddhi Tushar Harlankar, then Director of Panchayats; Shamila Monteiro, then Member Secretary of the Goa State Pollution Control Board; and Raghuvir Bagkar, then Secretary of Village Panchayat Arpora-Nagoa.

Of those killed, 20 were staff of the nightclub, all migrant workers, including four from Nepal. Five of the dead workers hailed from Uttarakhand, three each from Jharkhand and Assam, two each from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, and one from West Bengal, according to a list released by the State government on Sunday night.

Five tourists also died in the inferno, including three from one family in Delhi, along with another tourist from Delhi and another from Karnataka.

An ex-gratia of ₹5 lakh will be paid to the kin of each of the deceased and ₹50,000 will be given to the injured from the State Disaster Management Authority Funds, the Chief Minister said, adding that arrangements will be made to take the mortal remains of the victims to their native places. President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, among others, expressed grief over the tragedy. Mr. Modi said that an ex-gratia of ₹2 lakh would be given from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund to the next of kin of the deceased, and ₹50,000 for the injured.

Pyro guns and crackers

Initial investigation by the police led to the plausible conclusion that sparks from pyro guns and crackers ignited inflammable materials like palm leaves, plastic, fibre, and foam packaging on the ceiling and the decor towers on the dance area of the first floor. A police officer at the spot, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the organisers held a fire show, without taking precautions and without obtaining due permissions from competent authorities.

On Sunday morning, Goa DGP Alok Kumar had said that investigators were suspecting a gas cylinder blast, but it was later confirmed that the cylinder exploded on the ground floor kitchen only after the blaze spread from the first floor.

The club lies on the backwaters of the Baga river, and is connected to the main road by a narrow lane. It is cut off by a small water body on one side and the river Baga on the other, making it difficult for the three fire engines to reach the front gate in the early hours of Sunday.

The police had to shift the survivors away from the main road and clear the road by moving other vehicles before the first fire engine could even enter the main gate.

No safety precautions

The FIR said that “the owners, partners, manager, event organiser and other managing staff of Birch by Romeo Lane, Arpora… without taking proper care and caution, without providing fire safety equipment and other safety gadgets, organised a fire show at their restaurant/club which resulted in a serious fire due to which 25 innocent people succumbed to death and also caused injuries to tourists and staff, inspite of having full knowledge that organising such a show may lead to serious fire accidents…”

Several violations of fire safety norms are also listed.

Four people have been arrested, including the chief general manager of the club. However, the owners of the nightclub, Saurabh Luthra and his brother Gaurav Luthra, who are named in the FIR, are yet to be arrested. According to Mr. Luthra’s social media channels, he is the chairman of Romeo Lane, which has restaurants in 16 cities, including Delhi, Gurugram, Lucknow, and Bhopal.

A local police officer said that most of the deaths were due to the lack of any escape route.