Monuments can stand for more than one thing. The monument on the main avenue in town, with the bell tower, was built to remember the Memorandists, protestors who wanted more state-funded institutions to use the Romanian language. But we often see flowers strewn along it in memory of the victims of the Colectiv fire.
Colectiv was a nightclub that shouldn’t have been allowed. The place was illegal, over occupancy, only one exit, flamable walls and without adequate fire preventive measures. When heavy metal was playing, something lit up, and people were trapped.
But most of the deaths happened afterwards.
A detailed documentary about the Colectiv fire and later tragedy can be seen on HBO. A government resigned, and technocrats took over. It could be said that USR was brought to the forefront; a lot of changes were promised. (But, the fire happened not because of a lack of regulation, but because the regulations in place were not enforced.)
Here is a shorter version of the story, made by France 24 five years ago.
A few years after this documentary, a more sentences were handed out.
The fire and unsafe building were not the end of the scandal. The hospitals were not yet up to standard, and national pride prevented patients from being transported to better hospitals in other countries. Some of the materials used to sanitise the hospital were diluted.
One of the chief investigators of the fire was a journalist who later felt censored by a foreign newspaper boss, in another story over a decade later.
Now, in North Macedonia, we see another nightclub fire in a dimly lit place. As Romania has improved much of its infrastructure, and improved inspections, Europe still has a long way to go. I can name recent buildings through Eastern and Western Europe that still have only one exit. Macedonia is not a member of the European Union, but EU countries are helping to evacuate victims. Macedonia did ask for help, so they do seem to have learnt something from the Colectiv scandal.
Romania was one of the first nine countries to offer assistance, immediately upon hearing the news of the tragedy. Romania is helping transport patients to Lithuania, and Luxembourg is helping bring patients to Hungary.
We are sad to hear of the scale of the tragedy, and hope everything that can be done is done to help the victims and prevent future tragedies like this in the future.