On Tuesday April 8, tragedy struck in the Dominican Republic’s capital when the roof of a popular nightclub collapsed in the middle of the night, killing over 200 people.
The iconic Jet Set nightclub in Santo Domingo was full of music the night of the collapse, hosting popular merengue singer Rubby Perez in concert, who brought in over 500 guests that night. Perez was beloved by the country, being revered for preserving the music genre that many consider a pillar of Dominican culture. Some guests even traveled all the way from North Carolina just to see Perez perform. Unfortunately, Perez was one of the victims who passed in the tragedy.
The roof collapsed at around one in the morning, leaving a gaping hole in the building right where the audience would have been. Families gathered around the club in search of their loved ones, tears and screams bursting from the crowd whenever newly identified victims were announced. Officials worked tirelessly trying to rescue survivors from the wreckage for days. On April 9, the country’s Emergency Center Operations released a statement saying “all reasonable possibilities of finding more survivors” had been exhausted and that they were shifting their focus to recovering bodies.
The country was sent into mourning after the events of April 8, some considering it one of the deadliest tragedies the country has experienced in the past decade. Along with Perez, other notable figures, including two former Major League Baseball players Octavio Dotel and Tony Blanco, were among the at least 232 victims of the night.
The reason for the collapse is unknown, but the co-owner of the nightclub, Antonio Espaillat, told CNN that the building’s structural integrity had never been reviewed by authorities during routine safety and health inspections, nor did he ever discuss it with private engineers in the 30 years of the club’s operation. Espaillat mentioned that ceiling tiles frequently fell from the ceiling after being damaged by the air conditioning units on the roof, but that he had never received any official warnings about the building’s structure.
The family of Police lieutenant Virgilio Rafael Cruz Aponte, who died during the collapse have brought manslaughter charges against Espaillat and the managers of the club, and other families have expressed plans of filing lawsuits as well. Espaillat has shown full cooperation with the investigation and shared to CNN, “I am here, and I am going to face everything. I am not going anywhere; I will be here, and everything that is within my reach and everything I can do, I will do.”
The magnitude of this tragedy is heartbreaking, as hundreds of families around the country mourn the loss of so many people.
