Romania's government prepares new rules for clubs after Colectiv tragedy

Romania’s Government is working on setting new rules for local clubs which could be approved in today’s cabinet meeting, according to Prime Minister Victor Ponta. The rules include higher fines for irregularities, of between RON 50,000 and RON 100,000 (EUR 11,000 - 22,000) as well as the possibility that the Emergency Situations Inspectorate – ISU decides to close down the clubs that don’t comply with safety rules. Until now, only local authorities have had the power to shut down clubs. The Government will also eliminate the rule that allowed clubs with capacities of less than 100 people to function without being authorized by ISU, based on affidavits from their owners. Such was the case of the Colectiv club, which had a declared capacity of 80 people seated, but took hundreds of people in every night. On Friday night, there were about 500 people in the club when it started to burn. For such a high number of people, the club would have needed six emergency exits, whereas it only had one exit. This was one of the causes for the high number of victims: 32 dead and close to 180 injured. Many club owners in Bucharest didn’t wait for the new rules or for the authorities’ controls and started to work on improving their emergency response capacity. Fire extinguisher sales strongly increased after the tragedy on Friday. editor@romania-insider.com (photo source: freeimages.com)