Nightclub death toll hits 225, Dominican officials say all bodies returned to loved ones

SANTO DOMINGO - The official toll in a nightclub roof collapse in the Dominican Republican rose to 225 on April 12, as authorities said they had now returned all bodies to their loved ones.

Two hundred twenty one people died inside the Jet Set club in the early hours on April 8 when its roof caved in during a performance by a popular singer, and four more have died in hospital, Health Minister Victor Atallah told reporters.

He cautioned that the final toll could still rise, with other badly burned victims in hospital struggling for their lives.

Desperate relatives had waited for days in tents at the forensic morgue in the capital Santo Domingo, where disaster struck as several hundred people gathered to see merengue singer Rubby Perez.

The 69-year-old was on stage and died at the scene. He was given a sendoff on April 10 at the National Theatre attended by President Luis Abinader and the singer’s daughter Zulinka, who had escaped the calamity alive.

The roof collapse, the Caribbean nation’s worst tragedy in decades, has cast a deep pall over the nation. The toll surpassed that of the 136 inmates who died in a 2005 prison fire in the eastern city of Higuey.

The president’s office had earlier put the final death toll at 221, with 189 people pulled alive from the nightclub, now reduced to mounds of twisted steel, zinc and brick.

Aerial images of the site showed a scene resembling the aftermath of an earthquake.

Evening vigil

Several dozen people attended an improvised vigil near the nightclub on the night of April 11.

“A painted flower for each angel up above,” read the message on a makeshift altar. “May their rest be eternal... This great injustice must be explained.”

Ms Arlenne Matos, 47, lives near the club and that night heard the sound of “an explosion” or “an earthquake,” followed by harrowing cries.

“People were shouting “Let’s get out of here! I’m alive! Help me!” she said. “It’s the greatest tragedy I could imagine in all my years... It was heart-breaking.”

A steady stream of vehicles stopped near the vigil, some people getting out to stare in sombre silence, others bringing candles, flowers, messages or black and white balloons.

‘Several’ Americans

The extent of the tragedy had outstripped capacity.

Health Minister Mr Atallah said April 10 that “no pathology institute has the capacity to handle so many bodies so quickly.”

But authorities had vowed on April 11 that all victims’ remains would be returned to their families by 2am on April 12.

Some reported errors, however.

“They gave us a body that wasn’t hers,” said a distraught Mr Julio Alberto Acosta, who lost his stepdaughter in the tragedy.

“They gave us a bag and we said we had to open it to see if it was her, but it wasn’t... We want them to give us the right one so her mom can see her and go to bury her.”

The preliminary victims list included a Haitian, an Italian, two French citizens and, according to the US State Department, “several” Americans.

The victims also included two retired Major League Baseball players and a provincial governor.

What, why, how

Twelve extra forensic pathologists were brought on board to aid in the identification process, according to the health ministry.

The government extended an initial three-day national mourning period for another three days to April 13 and announced the creation of a special commission of national and foreign experts to determine the cause of the disaster.

Hundreds of rescuers, aided by sniffer dogs, had worked tirelessly since April 8 to pull survivors from the rubble.

They called off the search for live victims late on April 9 and shifted their focus to recovering the dead.

President Abinader on April 11 pledged to find out “what happened, why it happened, how it happened.” AFP