November 11, 2015

UPDATE Death toll from Bucharest nightclub fire reached 51

Elena Enache, 11.11.2015, 21:39

Alexandru Pascu, the bassist of Goodbye to Gravity, the heavy metal band that was holding a free concert in the Colectiv club when fire broke out on October 30, died in a French hospital on Wednesday evening, where he had been transferred on the same day, raising the death toll in the disaster to 51.

Alexandru Pascu is the fourth member of Goodbye to Gravity who died of injuries sustained in the horrific fire. Guitarists Vlad Telea and Mihai Alexandru died in the club, while the band’s drummer, Bogdan Enache, died on November 8th, his condition having worsened while he was being transferred to a hospital in Switzerland.

Andrei Galut, the band’s lead singer, is currently being treated in a hospital in the Netherlands, where he underwent surgery.

Over 70 people who suffered severe burns are still in Bucharests hospitals, some of them in critical and serious condition. Around 30 patients have been transferred to hospitals in Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Britain, Norway, Israel and Switzerland. All expenses related to transport and treatment are covered by the Romanian state. A crisis group made up of specialist doctors has also been created to provide psychological counseling to the injured and the families of the victims.

According to the tests run by the National Coroner’s Institute in Bucharest, toxic doses of carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide have been found in the blood of all the people who died on the very evening of the tragedy at the Colectiv nightclub.

The victims with respiratory, cardiovascular and kidney failure had levels of hydrogen cyanide above lethal limits. Since the toxic effects of those substances can occur even later and not right away, the people who escaped safe and sound from the fire have been advised to have a medical check up.