MADRID, Spain - A Spanish court on Tuesday opened a manslaughter probe into a deadly fire that killed 13 people inside a nightclub which had ignored an earlier closure order.
Police and forensic investigators entered the premises on Monday to try and determine how the fire started and whether it was the result of negligence. The investigation will need to determine if the nightclub operators failed to take adequate safety measures, the city's top prosecutor Jose Luis Diaz Manzanera told La Opinion de Murcia newspaper.
"It's possible some people hid in the bathrooms to protect themselves from the smoke," he told Antena3 television, saying one of the bathroom walls had collapsed. The order, which they said was ignored, was issued after Teatre's management divided the venue in two to create a second club called Fonda Milagros, which bore the brunt of the blaze.