First clues of the investigation on the Colectiv Club fire reveal that the tragedy was prompted by the fireworks that should have been banned in this type of building, which lack several emergency exits and was built of ignitable materials, but also due to the high number of persons in the club, much over the limit.
Sources among the investigators say the flames extended very quickly so that the entire club burnt down in just 2 minutes.
Lucian Cebuc, a famous pyrotechnist from Arad told Mediafax that the sponge-made ceiling might have contained burnable materials and that’s why the propagation speed was so quick, the more the sponge was not uninflammable.
The fact that the air in the club contained a rare combination of poisons was revealed by the doctors themselves. Ioan Lascar, head of the plastic surgery ward at Floreasca Hospital and Dan Enescu, manager of “Grigore Alexandrescu” Hospital for children said that the poisonous air caused intoxications and burns unseen before by the experienced doctors.
Thus, besides the high temperatures caused by the fire, those in the club at that moment were also exposed to an extreme chemical aggression. Before burning, the sponge in the ceiling and on the pillars melted down and hot drops fell on the young persons’ skin.
A team of chemists from the Polytechnic University in Bucharest confirmed the extreme toxic air version. They analyzed the gas resulted from the sponge burning and tracked down a very toxic gas mix: white damp, hydrocyanic acid, hydrochloric acid, nitric oxide but also inflammables.
“We took a piece of sponge. We burnt it in special installations and analyzed the resulted gas. We were shocked, we didn’t imagine we could find so many toxic substances altogether. The white damp had the highest share. White damp links to the hemoglobin in the blood and forms the carboxy-hemoglobin, which kills anyone instantly. It’s the same when someone dies due to the gas device improvisations, for instance. Moreover, it was hydrocyanic acid which is very poisonous (…) The nitric oxide is again very toxic- it is usually released by the chemical plants, it’s the reddish gas,” said Ecaterina Andronescu, the university rector, who is also expert in organic chemistry.
At the same time, in the gas inhaled by the victims there were also phenyl methane and xylene, two inflammables used to wash the sponge in the club’s ceiling and pillars.
“It’s a very toxic mix, that’s why many died. There were many persons who got out of the club, they were fine, they entered again to help other people and did not return anymore. It’s because they got intoxicated with white damp which kills you on the spot, without any previous symptoms,” Andronescu also said.