Colectiv fire aftermath: club owners investigated, Bucharest club closes doors, head of TVR news division resigns

The consequences of the fire at the Colectiv club in Bucharest have started to show. The shareholders in the Colectiv club fire Costin Mincu, Alin Anastasescu and Paul Gancea are being heard as suspects in the club fire that left 30 dead and 200 wounded on Friday evening.

The investigators will be going to all hospitals where the wounded victims are hospitalized in order to see who of them can tell them what happened in the fire.

Romania’s general prosecutor Tiberiu Nitu said the investigation is following the aggravated murder theory, for which the punishment is severe.

The head of the news unit of the Romanian public television (TVR), Raluca Stroe Brumariu, resigned as a result of protests that the Romanian public channel did not broadcast breaking news images regarding the fire in Colectiv club in Buchartest. The public channel apologized to the viewers for the way in which it ignored the tragedy.

Dragoş Patraru, who host a a talk-show at TVR said: “What I wish to emphasize is the lack of reaction of a very important public service, the public service called the Romanian television. TVR did not air anything on Friday night. They did not have images, only information on the crawl. This is pathetic.”

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On the other hand, Mihaela Carpa, journalist in the SRTv, the company that owns TVR, said on her Facebook account that the journalists of the TVR station were present at the place of the tragedy and the information was posted on the website of the channel and on the Facebook page, since no one who had the authority did not ask for the interruption of the regular program that was broadcast by the channel.

The owner of Expirat club, one of the most popular alternative music clubs in  Bucharest, announced that he will put the lock on the door. Andrei Şoşa said that for 12 years he put the life of thousands of people in danger but that he is not ready to assume any loss of life and he will close down the club. He said he is friends with one of the owners of Colectiv club, who will go to prison, but that he should be in the same position, too.

“We want resignations, and this is what any person with common sense should do. We still do not understand the concept of resignation for honor. It does not involve taking on the guilt, but assuming a system that you are part of and does not work well, not necessarily because of you. I resign. The Expiral club in Bucharest will close. Starting today, I can no longer assume the responsibility of lives. Or maybe I can. We shall see.”

He also said he received the control body sent by Prime minister Ponta. “20 uniforms from the local police and only one lady from the Inspectorate for Emergency Situations (ISU).”

He also said he calculated all the taxes he paid to the Romanian state over the past five years, which total RON 2.7 million (approximately EUR 609,000), and asked what the Romanian state did with these money.

Otilia Haraga