On 30 October 2015, a nightclub fire which occurred in Bucharest, Romania, killed 64 people (26 on site, 38 in hospitals) and injured 146 others. The fire was caused by a fireworks accident and is the deadliest such incident in Romanian history. It occurred during a free concert performed by the metalcore band Goodbye to Gravity to celebrate the release of their new album, Mantras of War. The band's pyrotechnics, consisting of sparkler firework candles, ignited the club's flammable polyurethane acoustic foam, and the fire spread rapidly. Most of the victims were poisoned by toxins released from the burning foam. Overwhelmed by the high number of victims, Romanian authorities transferred some of the seriously injured to hospitals in Israel, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, the United Kingdom, Norway, Germany and France. Mass protests over the corruption linked to the fire led to the resignation of Prime Minister Victor Ponta.
In advance of the concert, the band announced that they would be including customised lighting, "pyrotechnic effects", and scenic elements brought in to "give life to the science fiction artwork" of the new album. The band's guitarists Vlad Țelea and Mihai Alexandru, as well as drummer Bogdan Lavinius and bassist Alex Pascu died. Vocalist Andrei Găluț was hospitalised with injuries.
The club's main shareholder and co-founder, Alin George Anastasescu, together with two other associates, Costin Mincu and Paul Cătălin Gancea, were arrested on 2 November for negligent homicide, negligent bodily harm, and negligent destruction. The club opened in May 2013 on the location of what was previously the Pionierul shoe factory, at Tăbăcarilor Street 7 in Sector 4 of Bucharest, within 3 km (2 mi) of the Palace of the Parliament.
Because it was a high-casualty nightclub fire caused by indoor usage of pyrotechnics, the disaster is similar to the 2001 Canecão Mineiro nightclub fire in Brazil; the 2003 Station nightclub fire in the United States; the 2004 República Cromañón nightclub fire in Argentina; the 2008 Wuwang Club fire in China; the 2009 Santika Club fire in Thailand (cause is disputed); the 2009 Lame Horse fire in Russia; the 2013 Kiss nightclub fire in Brazil; the 2025 Kočani nightclub fire in North Macedonia; and the 2026 Crans-Montana bar fire in Switzerland.
Background
Club Colectiv
Club Colectiv was located on Tăbăcarilor Street 7 in Sector 4 of Bucharest and operated since May 2013 in a workshop for pieces of a former shoe factory Pionierul. The factory belonged to the Prodanof family, a well-known family of industrialists in the interwar period. Pionierul was one of the largest footwear manufacturers in Southeastern Europe. The establishment of communism meant its nationalization, and the fall of this regime in 1989 allowed the attempted recovery of the assets by family descendants. This approach failed, with the factory falling into the hands of former directors. Nowadays, the building belongs to Teamset Consulting, a firm based in Cyprus. The owners of Club Colectiv rented the location from Pionierul SA, for which Eugen Voicu signed as administrator engineer.
The shareholders of Colectiv Club SRL, the firm that owns the club, are Alin George Anastasescu – 47%, Paul Cătălin Gancea – 30% and Costin Mincu – 23%. At the time of the fire, none of the owners were in the club. A year earlier, Elephant Pub & Alive Music, one of the clubs in the old center of Bucharest where Costin Mincu has shares, had burned. Dozens of people narrowly escaped from losing their lives, and a firefighter was injured. Moreover, in 2010, Costin Mincu was part owner of Goblin Bar & Club in Vama Veche, also destroyed in a fire. Following investigations, firefighters determined that an unknown person had thrown fuel on the wooden terrace, and then set it on fire.
Goodbye to Gravity
Goodbye to Gravity was a metalcore band from Bucharest, founded in 2011. The band had five members: Andrei Găluț (vocals), Mihai Alexandru (guitar), Bogdan Enache (drums), Vlad Țelea (guitar) and Alex Pascu (bass).
On 29 October 2015, on Facebook, Goodbye to Gravity announced that they would be celebrating the release of their album Mantras of War with a free concert in Club Colectiv the following night. Doors were opened to the public at 8:30 pm. On this occasion, the band prepared a show with pyrotechnics and lights. During the fire, guitarists Mihai Alexandru and Vlad Țelea died. Bogdan Enache, the band's drummer, died on 8 November, shortly after the plane that transported him from the Burn Hospital to a clinic in Zürich, Switzerland, returned to Otopeni airport, because he had entered into cardiopulmonary arrest. Bassist Alex Pascu was hospitalized in serious condition with burns to 70% of the body at Floreasca Hospital, where he was intubated and underwent two surgeries. On 11 November he was transferred to a medical unit in France, but died at the airport in Paris. Vocalist Andrei Găluț suffered burns to 45% of the body surface (on hands, face and shoulder), burns of the respiratory tract and strong smoke poisoning. He was initially hospitalized in serious condition at Elias Hospital in Bucharest where he was tracheostomised and mechanically ventilated. On 7 November, he was transferred to the Netherlands, where he was admitted to the intensive care unit of Red Cross Hospital in Beverwijk.
Fire
Timeline of the event
30 October:
- 21:00 – The concert begins.
- 22:30 – During a song performed by Goodbye to Gravity, pyrotechnics are displayed. Sparks from two fireworks reach one of the pillars of technical scaffold and catch fire. A group of 50–90 people preventively leave the club.
- 22:32 – The first call to 112 is made. The fire spreads quickly from pillar to the ceiling covered with strips of pinewood and acoustic foam. The strips of incandescent wood collapse over those left inside. The crowd tramples, heading toward the only exit available.
- 22:40 – An agitated crowd of bewildered people, many with burns, leaves the Club Colectiv, screaming for help. Those less-affected run after taxis or cars. Hearing screams, medical staff from neighboring Bucur Maternity arrives at the scene to assist the wounded.
- 22:42 – First ambulances and fire engines arrive at the Club Colectiv.
- 23:30 – Police isolates a perimeter of several streets around the club building.
- 23:55 – Secretary of State Raed Arafat and Interior Minister Gabriel Oprea arrive at the scene.
31 October:
- 00:37 – Gabriel Oprea notifies President Klaus Iohannis about the tragedy.
- 01:55 – Health Minister Nicolae Bănicioiu calls for blood donations.
- 03:52 – The Prosecutor's Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice opens a criminal file in Club Colectiv fire case.
- 07:13 – The National Committee for Emergency Situations is convoked.
All times are EET.
At about 10:30 pm, the club was engulfed in flames because of a spark set off by pyrotechnics. Some witnesses said there was an explosion, but this was disputed and later dismissed by other sources. The club's ceiling was supported by pillars, which were coated with a flammable soundproofing foam. Soon after the pyrotechnics began, the foam on one of the pillars was ignited. The fire spread rapidly to the ceiling, eventually causing it to collapse. Media reported that club-goers initially thought the flames were part of the show and did not immediately react. When the ceiling caught fire, the approximately 200 to 400 people in the club panicked and rushed to the only working exit door at the venue, creating a stampede. The two-part door was only half opened, thus too narrow, so people climbed on top of each other in order to get out. Many of the casualties suffered from leg injuries after being trampled. A witness said terrified concert-goers had to break down the other half of the door to escape, but many people had already suffered burns, or were in respiratory distress. People also smashed windows in order to escape.
The first to arrive on the scene were nurses and doctors from nearby Bucur Maternity Hospital who were on duty that Friday night. They heard the screams of the injured and went out to the street in robes and slippers to provide first aid. The first 112 call came at 10:32 pm, and the first emergency service arrived 11 minutes after the call. The State Secretary at the Ministry of Health, Raed Arafat, and deputy Prime Minister Gabriel Oprea arrived at the scene late in the night.
Survivors were rushed to hospitals in ambulances and some were driven by neighbors, passers-by, and a few taxis. Others were treated at a field hospital set up at the scene. A code red was declared, with off-duty doctors and nurses at nearby hospitals being called in to help deal with the emergency. Some of the unconscious were resuscitated by the light from fire trucks' headlights. Intervention crews worked with 75 special vehicles of the Inspectorate for Emergency Situations, including 11 with water and foam, and 57 SMURD trucks and ambulances. Around 500 emergency services personnel were mobilised – firefighters, gendarmes, police, and medical crews. Nearby residents housed concert-goers with less serious injuries overnight.
Casualties
According to initial statements by State Secretary Raed Arafat, at least 27 people died from burns and smoke inhalation. Among the 27 people declared dead were the two guitarists, Vlad Țelea and Mihai Alexandru. Another 184 people were injured, most of them young, and of whom 146 required immediate hospitalization, including four foreigners: an Italian woman, two Spanish citizens, and a German man. Adrian Despot, leader of the band Vița de Vie, was also injured in the fire. As of Saturday morning, 17 of the 27 dead remained unidentified, given that most had no identity documents on them. By Sunday night, all the fatalities had been identified; however, 29 of the 146 hospitalized victims could not be identified due to the severity of their burns.
The injured were taken to 12 hospitals in Bucharest and Ilfov County, with the most at Floreasca Hospital (57), Burn Hospital (29), University Hospital (25), and Military Hospital (15). The band's bassist and vocalist were taken to Floreasca Hospital. Arafat acknowledged that due to the large number of victims in some hospitals there were no beds available, and the injured were redirected to other hospitals. Ventilation devices also had to be moved from hospitals where they were not being used, to those that needed more. Many residents of Bucharest reportedly flocked to blood donation centres in an effort to help the injured. Previously, health officials had launched an appeal to residents to donate blood. By the morning of 31 October, almost 600 people had donated blood at the Bucharest Transfusion Centre.
As of the evening of 31 October, 23 of 27 dead had been identified—14 men and 9 women. On the morning of 1 November, three more victims of the fire died, one at Burn Hospital, and two at Bagdasar-Arseni Hospital, bringing the death toll to 30. Arafat said the death toll could double, as 80–90 people remained in very serious, and critical condition. Two more victims died the following days.
On 7 November, nine patients (eight Romanians and an Italian—Neapolitan Tullia Ciotola) died, bringing the death toll to 41. Seven of them died at Burn, University and Floreasca hospitals in Bucharest, the other two after arriving or on the way to a hospital in Rotterdam. A further 14 patients were transferred with Army's Spartan aircraft to three hospitals in the Netherlands and the Erasmus Hospital in Brussels. The day was marked in Romanian media outlets as Black Saturday due to the number of people killed. During the morning of 8 November, three other wounded died, including a Turkish student—Ayberk Manci, the death toll rising to 44—12 deaths in just 24 hours. By 22 November, the death toll topped 60. Out of 39 injured transported to hospitals abroad, 12 died: four in United Kingdom, one in Israel, two in Netherlands, one en route to Switzerland, one in France and three in Germany. On 14 March 2016 another victim died at Floreasca Emergency Hospital, raising the death toll to 64. The victim was the last treated in a Romanian hospital. At least 13 of the victims that died in hospitals were killed by bacteria, probably because the disinfectant used was diluted by the manufacturer to save money.
One year and nine months after the fire, on 29 July 2017, a Colectiv survivor died by suicide. His girlfriend died because of the fumes caused by the fire on 30 October. One of those injured in the fire at the Colectiv club was Viorel Andrei Bud, winner of bronze and silver medals at the International Mathematical Olympiads in 2013 and 2014.
Reactions
Domestic
Romania's president, Klaus Iohannis, wrote on his Facebook page that he was "deeply grieved by the tragic events that happened this evening in the center of the Capital". He added: "It is a very sad day for all of us, for our nation and for me personally". He visited the scene, saying safety regulations seem to have been ignored. Prime Minister Victor Ponta said he was cutting short a visit to Mexico to return to Bucharest. On 31 October, the government decreed three days of national mourning, which was the first time in 15 years when three days of national mourning had been decreed in Romania. Halloween concerts and parties scheduled for that evening were cancelled across the country, and a campaign on Facebook urging people to avoid clubs and bars that night, and intended both to show respect to the victims and as a form of protest against inadequate safety precautions in such establishments, garnered over 100,000 supporters.
Former King Michael I said in a press release: "I am wholeheartedly with families grieving the loss of loved ones. My family and I pray for them all, as for the mourners, who have tears in their eyes today".
Following the fire, the Bucharest School Inspectorate suspended all dances organized by schools in city clubs. The Inspectorate is also requiring school principals in Bucharest to check the pubs and clubs where student parties and balls are to be organized.