This week, two municipal police officers and an urban planning inspector from the City of Murcia announced the cessation of activity at the Koala and Golden nightclubs and at the Spectrum concert hall, which was sealed for lack of a license. The inspections were carried out after the Council admitted that there are more establishments under a closure order, but which are inexplicably still operating.
The tragedy just a week ago at the F onda Milagro s nightclub, in which 13 people died, revealed the administrative chaos and laziness that businessmen took advantage of to keep businesses open. The fires do not know about licenses, but they do about inspections that precisely try to check that everything is in order in the event of an accident.
The question is mandatory. And in Barcelona, ??what? La Vanguardia requested this week from the City Council officials a list of the city’s nightclubs and party halls and the details of the inspection activity carried out in three areas by technicians from each of the ten districts, the Guardia Urbana and the Barcelona Fire Department. Inspections to which the Mossos d’Esquadra, the National Police and staff from the Labor Delegation are sometimes added to check that the employees have the documentation and contracts in order.
In the city there are a total of 113 nightclubs or party rooms that before lifting the shutter had to go through numerous inspections that certified that they met the requirements to open. In terms of security, the entertainment and recreational activities regulations establish a series of conditions. For example, that the activity is limited to only one floor, without continuity in rooms. In addition, they must comply with the requirements of the municipal ordinance for public activities and establishments and conform to the technical building code. It should be added that each of the nightclubs complies with the regulations of the use plan of the respective district.
Before obtaining the license, technicians, city guards and firemen of the city must approve each of the requirements. It is then when the most important of the inspections is carried out.
In terms of fire prevention, a former head of the Barcelona Fire Department reminds this newspaper that during the inspection the material, which can only be fireproof, is taken into account in the entire room, from the curtains to any carpet or decoration material. And that they must have an evacuation plan marked with emergency plans that the staff must know.
And once the premises are open and while they are operating, are they inspected? According to the data provided by the City Council, all nightclubs in the city are inspected at least once a year. Surprise visits during the night, or arranged, which can be done either randomly or based on some complaint or indications of disparate origin.
Fede Sardà is one of the owners, director and soul of Luz de Gas, a classic of Barcelona’s nightlife. It opened its doors in 1995 keeping the space of the old Belle Époque cabaret theater. Do you receive an inspection every year? “One? At least four, and I’m not complaining, on the contrary, we’re happy for them to come as often as necessary because we always learn something”, he says. The businessman explains that there is not a year that he does not receive, by surprise and without warning, the visit of the city’s firemen, urban guards or district inspectors.
“They check again that the emergency exits are enabled and unobstructed; that the evacuation routes are perfectly signposted, the fire extinguishers approved and reviewed, and that no new material that is not fireproof has been incorporated into the decoration”, he explains.
“There can always be an accident, always, but at our house we will have done everything possible to minimize the consequences if there are any and to act diligently”, explains Sardà.
Luz de Gas is one of the many rooms that does not allow the use of flares or the so-called cold ice inside. A classic of many discotheques, which adorn the bottles served to the reserved with flares. “The problem is not the flares. The important thing is that the material of the reservation, the sofas, the carpet if there is any, the curtains if there are any, be of an absolutely fireproof material that prevents the spread of a fire”, says a fire technician.
Since 2019, Barcelona City Council has carried out 632 technical inspections in nightclubs, most of which were also attended by city guards. The surprise visits, from ten at night to five in the morning, that is, with the room open and with the public, aimed to verify compliance with the technical premises conditions, mainly everything that has to see the regulations against fires, evacuation routes, protective elements and emergency doors; in addition to those derived from the regulations against noise.
Firefighters from the prevention area carried out, for their part, 108 more inspections in establishments with a capacity of more than 500 people, of which 22 were nightclubs and party rooms. This is without counting the fact that in the days leading up to the New Year’s Eve festivities and the St. John’s Eve party, checks are also carried out in a large part of the premises that celebrate parties on both nights.
In addition to the inspection task, each of the districts is responsible for keeping up to date with the licensing situation of the nightclubs in their area. For this reason, the municipal sources consulted unequivocally assure the impossibility of a place, a nightclub, operating in the city of Barcelona today, with a closure order or without a license. “It’s impossible”, they say.
The last two nightclubs to be closed were the Women’s Arena, for a limited period after a penalty for overcapacity, and the Brisas del Caribe. The controversial Latin nightclub Paral·lel accumulated an infinite number of sanctioning files, but linked to criminal activity inside. It finally closed its doors in February, after the district of Sants-Montjuïc included the site of the nightclub in the neighborhood improvement plan. In less than 24 hours, the cranes put an end to the premises and the long history of conflict inside and outside the walls.
Precisely, safety in terms of fire prevention will be the focus of the international nocturnal leisure congress that will be held in Barcelona at the end of November.
