ARGENTINA: Lessons from the Tragedy

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Analysis by Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Jan 7 2005 (IPS) - The nightclub fire that recently claimed 190 lives in the Argentine capital exposed huge shortcomings and flaws in inspections and enforcement of safety standards. However, there were also a number of public institutions that did their job, and functioned well, both before and during the disaster.

The Buenos Aires ombudsman's office urged the Subsecretaría de Control Comunal (where the city's safety inspectors are located) last May "not to wait for a catastrophe to happen before reacting" to the irregularities in the city's dance clubs.

"All that it would take is an accident or disaster. The rest would be just explanations, judicial processes and deaths," architect Atilio Alimena, the report's author, wrote at the time.

In the study, the ombudsman's office estimated that every weekend, some 400,000 young people flock to discotheques in the city of Buenos Aires that either have no licence to operate or do not meet the minimum safety standards.

"These are establishments that lack adequate safety and fire prevention mechanisms, such as emergency exits," said the report.

"We launched that investigation a year ago because of complaints from local residents who told us about discotheques that did not live up to prevention and safety standards or regulations for evacuation, ventilation, and maximum capacity restrictions – in other words, all of the things that failed" in the República Cromagnon dance club, when the fire broke out on Dec. 30, Alimena told IPS.

Alimena, the Buenos Aires assistant ombudsman, who specialises in public spaces, said that "In February we asked the fire fighters to inform us which locales had the necessary licences for operating, and they responded that only 20 had everything in order, and that 16 had applied for licences, which were pending."

"Then we asked the Subsecretaría de Control Comunal to inform us of the number of nightclubs in the city, and they responded that there were 258, before revising that number downwards to 220. But even in the best of cases, that figure revealed that there were 180 discotheques without the proper licences, that should be closed down," Alimena added.

The city inspectors at the Subsecretaría de Control Comunal promised to work on the issue, and shut down 80 clubs.

But in August, the ombudman's office asked the government to explain what specific measures it had taken with respect to the problems pointed out in the office's May report, and received no response.

Congress did the same in October, but failed to receive a response as well.

"There was bungling and a lack of will on the part of the government," said Alimena.

The Auditoría General (audit office) of the city of Buenos Aires also warned last year that in the city government there was "total mismanagement" in terms of controls, monitoring and the granting of licences, as reflected by the scant inspections of institutions like nursing homes, child care centres, hotels and dance clubs.

The Subsecretaría de Control Comunal has 183 registered child care centres in Buenos Aires to monitor. But the audit office's investigation indicated that there are actually more than 500 operating in the city.

Even staff from the Subsecretaría de Control Comunal take their children to unlicensed day care centres that have never been inspected.

The ombudsman's office is an autonomous, independent body in charge of defending the human rights of local residents, and overseeing city institutions and officials to ensure that they comply with their duties and local laws.

The audit office is also autonomous. Its members are proposed by the city legislature, and its job is to ensure accountability in the public sector in economic and financial areas – a task it is widely recognised to have carried out efficiently in 2004.

But the government turned a deaf ear to the warnings from public offices (and activists), and on Dec. 30 the "tragedy foretold" occurred.

A flare shot off by a fan during a rock concert in the República Cromagnon club in a neighbourhood near central Buenos Aires sparked a fire when it hit the highly flammable foam on the ceiling. Most of the victims died of smoke inhalation.

The disaster revealed total negligence on the part of the club's owner, as well as a lack of municipal enforcement of safety standards. That night, the rock club was packed with between 4,000 and 6,000 concert-goers, even though the club had a licence to hold a maximum of just over 1,000.

Playing that night was the rock group Callejeros, whose followers traditionally set off flares during the band's concerts, even though fireworks are prohibited in closed spaces.

There was even a makeshift nursery set up in the women's bathroom where concert-goers left their infants and small children, despite the fact that children are banned from nightclubs, and special shows for 15 to 18-year-olds can only be held on Saturdays and Sundays, from 16:00 to 22:00.

And although the dance club had wide emergency exits, they were padlocked and wired shut. Many young people collapsed of smoke inhalation or were trampled to death next to the doors as they desperately tried to find a way out.

By Friday, the death toll had risen to 190, including 64 children and adolescents under 18.

The Buenos Aires city government attempted to justify the lack of controls – the club had not undergone any inspection in 2004 – by stating that there are more than 200,000 establishments to be inspected and monitored in the city.

But Alimena explained to IPS that the great majority are shops and businesses where there are few risks or dangers.

On the other hand, he said, there are a much smaller number of shopping malls, gas stations and discotheques where enforcement must be stepped up.

Although it was perhaps not obvious to the casual observer, the emergency response system also functioned smoothly after the fire broke out.

Fire fighters, ambulances and medical personnel, along with psychiatrists and psychologists specially trained to provide assistance in catastrophes, flocked to the area and worked ceaselessly for a day and a half.

If it were not for the speed with which the fire fighters responded, the number of victims would have been much greater, since there were thousands of people trapped in the club.

Psychiatrist Sandra Novas and emergency room Dr. Juan Rodríguez del Sel commented to IPS that they were summoned to report immediately to the area, and worked without a break during the New Year holiday to assist the victims and their desperate families.

Rodríguez del Sel said the city's public hospitals were not completely overwhelmed thanks to the fact that during holidays, many patients are discharged, elective surgeries are not scheduled, and there are more hospital beds available than during normal periods.

"There were enough beds, oxygen and medicines for everyone, even in intensive care," he said.

When the heavy TV coverage drove home the magnitude of the tragedy, many doctors and nurses on their day off or on holiday rushed to the public hospitals to volunteer their services and provide back-up to the on-duty medical staff. Private hospitals also sent out calls for all hands on deck.

Thus, public institutions and mechanisms demonstrated not only shortcomings but also strengths in the face of the disaster, and showed that although there has been some deterioration since Argentina's December 2001 economic meltdown and the resultant depression – the worst in this South American country's history – the state has not collapsed.

But it was the flaws and failings on the part of public institutions tasked with taking care of the citizens that received the most attention in the media.

Since the fire, parents have begun to stage informal, improvised inspections, much to the chagrin of their young charges. "Okay, you can come in now," shouted the mother of two teenagers waiting outside of a discotheque in Villa Gesell, a resort town in the province of Buenos Aires.

The mother and an aunt had checked to make sure there were functioning emergency exits, good ventilation, and clean bathrooms before leaving the two adolescents there to dance.

In other districts, dance club owners and managers are offering "guided tours" to parents to show them that everything is in order.

But parents are not in a position to replace the state when it comes to guaranteeing that establishments are effectively complying with safety standards.