At least 59 people were killed and 155 were injured after a night fire broke out at a nightclub in northern Macedonia. The flames – the most deadly national tragedy in recent memory – terrified the small nations of Southeastern Europe.
“The loss of so many young lives is irreparable and the pain of our families, loved ones and friends is immeasurable,” Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski wrote to X:
Police said they are detaining 15 people, including the son of the club’s manager and the home minister, the son of the owner. He said the company that ran the club did not have a license. He added that several former or current officials have been arrested in connection with the incident.
“This license is linked to many other things in Macedonia’s past — bribery and corruption,” he said. “But I would like to tell the Macedonian public that unlike other times in the past, those who issue these illegal licenses are named and responsible for that.”
Toshkovski said that there were around 500 people inside the club, but only 250 tickets were sold at the Kocani club, about 50 miles east of the capital Skopje. The flames tore clubs in the eastern town of Kokhani during a pop concert, he said, adding that the fireworks burned the roof.
Police officers died while working at the club to check on drugs and minor guests, he said.
Patients being treated for the injury ranged from 16 to 24 years old, Dr. Christina Serafimova, director of the Kokani hospital, told reporters. She said many died at Stampede as panic people tried to escape the flames.
“It’s devastating,” Golan Georgiev, 47, who lives just a short walk from the club, said in a phone interview. He said the daughter of a 17-year-old neighbor died in the fire. They were 21 and 22 years old, he said.
“We can’t even call and call,” Georgeef said of his friends and neighbors. “I don’t know what to say to them.”
Georgeef will go to nightclubs when he was younger, he said, adding that it was inadequately built and has a cloth-covered ceiling. He said he heard the cracks around 3am and then heard the sirens scream.
“I knew something terrible was going on,” he said, adding, “It’s a tragic day for all of us.”
The death toll could still rise. Health Minister Arben Taravari told reporters that 20 people were in danger and some patients were sent to hospitals in other countries.
And for many in North Macedonia, the flame, a small country of about 2 million adjacent to Albania, Greece, Bulgaria, Kosovo and Serbia, brought the painful memories of other tragedy.
At least 14 people died in a hospital fire in 2021 with coronavirus patients. That same year, 45 people were killed when a tourist bus in North Macedonia crashed in flames.
“Every year, we have a fire-related tragedy,” said Ognen Janeski, who heads the Council of Ethics at the Association of Journalists in Macedonia, in an interview.
The situation of the fire at the club remains unknown, but Janeski said official corruption contributed to many such accidents in North Macedonia. People had already assumed that was the case for the latest tragedy, he said.
“This overwhelming sense of sadness and frustration is among the masses,” he said. “No one believes in the system,” he added.
Some people portrayed their connections with Serbia in social media posts, he said. More than 100,000 people marched in protest in Belgrade on Saturday in response to the 15 deaths of 15 people killed at railway stations last year in the collapse of a canopy. Many have condemned the catastrophe of tinsel work that has been linked to corrupt officials.
The North Macedonian government has declared a week-long national mourning period and ordered inspections of all nightclubs over the next three days.
“All those who have been involved in this tragic event and willfully contributed to putting human lives at risk are brought before the judicial authorities and are accountable,” the government said in a statement.
This fire has been one of several deadly infernos in clubs around the world in recent years. The rooms are often dark, crowded and noisy. People can have a hard time evacuating quickly – or even realise there is an emergency.
At least 29 people were killed in a club fire in Istanbul last year. In 2023, 13 people died when a club complex broke out in Spain. The 2015 fire killed at least 27 people in Romania, and in 2013, one person killed at least 233 in Brazil. In 2003, a fire at a Rhode Island club, launched by pyrotechnology, killed 100 people.
Ognen Cancarevik, a reporter for Telma, a national television station, said in a telephone interview that Kokani, a small town in the area where many people work in farming, was devastated by the tragedy.
“People are angry,” he said. “People want answers and people want to know who is responsible.”
Young people often leave the country, looking for jobs abroad or higher pay, and many Macedonians are unhappy with low pay and corruption, he said.
“Morale is low,” Kankeavik said. “What we need in the end is a tragedy of this scale where young, innocent children die.”
Yan Zhuang contributed the report.
