Panaji: A jampacked nightclub in North Goa turned into a death trap after midnight on Sunday as a massive fire tore through it, claiming 25 lives and leaving six injured while raising serious questions about `illegal’ operations and flouting of safety norms.
While the police said earlier in the day that a cylinder blast seemed to have started the blaze, a tourist who survived the tragedy claimed that fireworks were set off when dancers were performing, and it was the likely cause.
Most of the deaths were caused by suffocation, as the victims, many of them employees, got trapped on the ground floor of `Birch by Romeo Lane’ nightclub at Arpora, 25 km from Panaji, a fire official said.
While Chief Minister Pramod Sawant vowed action against officials who allowed the club to operate despite flouting safety rules, and an FIR was registered against the owners, a village official claimed that the structure itself was illegal.
The deceased included four tourists and 14 staff members, while the identity of the remaining seven was yet to be established, police said.
The establishment did not possess even an NOC from the fire department or the permission to sell liquor, a Congress leader alleged.
“We have registered an FIR (First Information Report) against Saurabh Luthra and Gaurav Luthra, the owners, under the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita sections,” a senior police officer told PTI.
An FIR was also registered against the club manager and event organisers, he said, adding that the sarpanch of Arpora-Nagoa, Roshan Redkar, who had issued a trade license for the club in 2013, was detained.
President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, among others, expressed grief over the tragedy. An ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund will be given to the next of kin of each deceased and the injured would be given Rs 50,000, the PMO said.
A preliminary inquiry indicated that the fire started on the first floor, and due to congestion and small doors, customers could not move out. “Some of them rushed to the ground floor and got trapped there,” CM Sawant said.
“We will take action against the club management and also against the officials who allowed it to operate despite flouting safety norms. This is an unfortunate incident during the peak tourist season,” the CM said, adding, “We will conduct a detailed inquiry through a magistrate and stringent action will be taken against the guilty.”
While the state police initially said the blaze occurred due to a cylinder blast, some eyewitnesses claimed the fire started on the club’s first floor where tourists were dancing when fireworks were set off.
Riya, a tourist from Delhi who managed to get out in time, claimed that firecrackers burst all around when dancers were performing.
“The fire must have been caused due to this. There was a stampede-like situation,” she said.
At least 100 persons were on the dance floor, and in an attempt to escape the fire, some of them ran downstairs to the kitchen where they got trapped with the staff, Fatima Shaikh, a tourist from Hyderabad, told PTI.
“There was a sudden commotion as the flames started erupting. We rushed out of the club only to see that the entire structure was up in flames,” she said.
The nightclub was jam-packed as it was the weekend, she said.
In no time, the entire club was engulfed in flames. “There was a temporary construction made up of palm leaves which easily caught fire,” said Shaikh.
The nightclub is situated in the backwaters of the Arpora river and has a narrow entry and exit. There was no access for fire brigade vehicles because of the narrow lanes and their tankers had to be parked about 400 metres away from the spot.
A senior officer from the Fire and Emergency Services told PTI that the narrow access made it difficult to reach the spot, which in turn made controlling the blaze a challenging task.
Most of the deaths were caused by suffocation as the victims remained trapped on the ground floor, he said.
Arpora-Nagoa panchayat sarpanch Roshan Redkar said earlier in the day that the club was run by Saurabh Luthra, who had a dispute with his partner. “They had filed a complaint against each other with the panchayat. We had inspected the premises and found that they did not have the permission to construct the club,” he said.
The panchayat had issued a demolition notice, which was stayed by the officials of the Directorate of Panchayats, Redkar said.
Distraught relatives and friends of the victims gathered outside the morgue of the Goa Medical College and Hospital, anxiously awaiting information about their loved ones.
Some of them, hailing from a village in Jharkhand, said they would not accept the bodies and demanded that the nightclub owner arrange for the mortal remains to be transported back home.
Four persons from their village worked as helpers and cooks at the nightclub, they said.
Another group of five persons from Assam was also seen sitting outside the morgue. While they refused to talk to the media, one of them claimed that some of the fire victims were their friends.
A senior police official said that it will take a day to identify all the bodies and conduct the postmortem, only after which the mortal remains will be handed over to their relatives.
The Goa Church expressed grief over the loss of lives in the incident.
The Opposition hit out at the BJP government in the state over the tragedy.
Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, said he was deeply pained by the incident. “This is not just an accident; it is a criminal failure of safety and governance,” he said on X.
The state Aam Aadmi Party unit claimed the Sawant government has lost the “moral right” to stay in power.
AAP Goa president Amit Palekar, in a post on X, questioned why the government had not taken any action against the nightclub, which had allegedly not followed norms despite the issue being raised in the state assembly.
The Congress too demanded Sawant’s resignation, with its Goa desk in-charge Manikrao Thakare claiming that the club had not obtained No-Objection Certificate from the fire department.
