March in Bucharest to commemorate a decade since Colectiv Club fire that killed 65

Several NGOs will organize a march in Bucharest on October 30 to mark a decade since the Colectiv Club fire that killed 65 people, many from hospital-borne infections. Organizers say justice still has not been served, and nothing has changed in the healthcare system.

The march is meant to draw attention to the fact that, ten years after Colectiv, corruption still leads to deaths.

“October 30, 2015, the moment when Romania burned collectively. 65 lives were cut short, 65 people with families, loves, professions, stories. We still don’t know how many could have been saved,” the organizers said on the Facebook page of the event.

“Nosocomial infections still claim victims, and babies die in hospitals. There is still no real chance of treatment and recovery for severe burn victims. Ten years after the Colectiv tragedy, for ordinary Romanians, it seems that nothing has changed,” they added, referencing the recent case at the Iasi Pediatric Hospital.

Those attending the march will meet in University Square at 18:00 on October 30. They will then march to the site of the former club.

On the legal side, the Colectiv case has been largely forgotten. The magistrates of the High Court of Cassation and Justice decided, in March of this year, to reopen the investigation in the Colectiv case, in which prosecutors investigated how the authorities intervened after the fire in the club in Bucharest. The case had been closed in the summer of last year by the Prosecutor’s Office.

The March also addresses this issue in particular. “Closed cases and annulled sentences are not justice! The victims deserve for the guilty to pay. Romania deserves for all those who made the Colectiv tragedy possible to be held accountable. The 65 deserve justice. Their voices have fallen silent, but we can still shout,” the organizers stated.

On the evening of October 30, 2015, a few hundred young people were in the Colectiv club, located in the former Pionierul factory in Bucharest, attending the concert of the rock band Goodbye to Gravity. At 22:32, during the concert, a fire broke out due to fireworks on stage, and the flames spread rapidly within seconds.

That night, 27 young people lost their lives, and another 162 were injured and taken to eleven hospitals in Bucharest. In the following weeks, other survivors died in hospitals.