A merengue icon, a baseball star and others killed when a cement roof collapsed at a preferred nightclub in the Dominican Republic have been buried on Thursday (April 10, 2025), as authorities referred to as off the search for our bodies with the dying toll at 221.
Mourners clad in black and white streamed into Santo Domingo’s National Theater, the place the physique of singer Rubby Pérez lay inside a closed coffin. Pérez had been acting on stage at the packed Jet Set membership early on Tuesday when mud started falling from the ceiling and, seconds later, the roof caved.
President Luis Abinader and first woman Raquel Arbaje arrived at the theater and stood beside Pérez’s coffin for a number of minutes. Some mourners doubled over in tears as a recording of Pérez singing the nationwide anthem performed. Renowned Dominican musician Juan Luis Guerra was amongst these gathered to pay their respects.
Pérez, 69, had turned to music after a automotive accident left him unable to pursue his dream of turning into an expert baseball participant. He was identified for hits together with “Volveré,” which he sang with Wilfrido Vargas’s orchestra, and “Buscando tus besos” as a solo artist.
After a five-hour memorial, mourners launched dozens of white balloons exterior the theater and spontaneously sang “Volveré” in unison. One girl put her hand over her coronary heart and patted it as she cried.
At the cemetery, Zulinka Pérez, one in every of his daughters, mentioned: “I knew he was loved but I never imagined this.”
Just blocks from the memorial for Pérez, heavy tools started withdrawing from the website the place Jet Set as soon as stood and rescue crews packed up their tools.
Meanwhile, a bunch of prosecutors arrived.
It continues to be unclear what precipitated the roof to collapse or when the constructing was final inspected. The authorities has mentioned it would launch an intensive investigation, and the membership’s homeowners have mentioned they’re cooperating with authorities.
Juan Manuel Méndez, director of the Center of Emergency Operations, broke down as he addressed reporters.
“Thank you, God, because today we accomplished the most difficult task I’ve had in 20 years,” he mentioned, shifting the microphone away from his face as he cried. Other officers patted him on the again as he continued, “Please forgive me,” earlier than passing the microphone to a military official.
Officials mentioned 189 individuals have been rescued alive from the rubble. More than 200 have been injured, with 24 of them nonetheless hospitalized, together with eight in important situation.
“If the trauma is too great, there’s not a lot of time” left to save lots of sufferers in that situation, mentioned Health Minister Víctor Atallah. He and different medical doctors mentioned a few of the injured suffered fractures to the cranium, femur and pelvis.
Many individuals have been anxiously ready for information of their family members, rising pissed off with the drip-drip of data offered by hospitals and the nation’s forensic institute.
At least 146 our bodies have been recognized, authorities mentioned on Thursday.
María Luisa Taveras instructed TV station Noticias SIN that she was trying for her sister.
“We have gone everywhere they have told us,” she mentioned, her voice breaking.
Taveras mentioned the household has unfold out, with a relative stationed at every hospital and at the National Institute of Forensic Pathology. Dozens of individuals waited at the institute Thursday, carrying face masks and complaining about the odor as they demanded the launch of their family members’ our bodies.
“The odor is unbearable,” mentioned Wendy Sosa, who has been ready since Wednesday morning for the physique of her cousin, 61-year-old Nilka Curiel González. Sosa instructed The Associated Press by telephone that the scenario there was “chaotic,” and that officers had arrange a refrigerated container to deal with the quantity of our bodies being delivered.
She wept as she described her cousin as gracious, genuine, and “very empathetic.”
Victims recognized to date embody former MLB gamers Octavio Dotel and Tony Enrique Blanco Cabrera; and Nelsy Cruz, the governor of the northwestern province of Montecristi whose brother is seven-time Major League Baseball All-Star Nelson Cruz.
Dotel was buried Thursday in Santo Domingo. Hundreds of individuals attended his wake on Wednesday, together with Hall of Famer David Ortiz, previously of the Boston Red Sox. Ortiz mentioned the quantity of people that attended Dotel’s wake spoke volumes.
“He was a person whom everyone loved,” Ortiz instructed reporters. “It’s very hard, very hard, truly.”
MLB Hall of Famer Pedro Martínez attended one other wake Thursday.
“There are no words to describe the pain we are all feeling,” mentioned Martínez, including that he knew greater than 50 of those that died. “Life is but a breath.”
Also killed was a retired United Nations official; saxophonist Luis Solís, who was enjoying onstage when the roof fell; New York-based dressmaker Martín Polanco; the son and daughter-in-law of the minister of public works; the brother of the vice minister of the Ministry of Youth; and three staff of Grupo Popular, a monetary companies firm, together with the president of AFP Popular Bank and his spouse.
More than 20 victims got here from Haina, Rubby Pérez’s hometown, simply southwest of Santo Domingo.
The governor held a communal wake, organising 10 stands for coffins beneath a banner that learn: “Haina bids farewell to her beloved children with immense sorrow.”
Among the mourners was Juancho Guillén, who misplaced his spouse three months in the past and whose brother, sister and brother-in-law died at Jet Set.
“This family is in shock, is devastated,” he instructed Noticias SIN. “We’re practically dead too.”
Published – April 11, 2025 05:25 am IST
