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Two weeks after the ceiling of the Jet Set disco, a tragedy that shocked the Dominican Republic and has left at least 232 dead and more than 180 injured, according to official figures, businessman Antonio Espaillat, who is co -owner of the place with his mother, spoke for the first time publicly about what happened.
In an exclusive interview with the journalist Edith Febles broadcast on Wednesday in the program El Día de Tellesystem (Affiliate of CNN), Espaillat said he does not know the causes of the collapse and said that he himself is “the first to know what happened.”
“Since this happened, I haven’t had life. (…) I’m completely devastated,” he said.
At least one complaint has been filed against the owners of the nightclub and the local authorities after the collapse of the roof of the establishment.
The civil lawsuit filed by the relatives of Virgilio Rafael Cruz Aponte, who died in the collapse, argues that the incident was the result of a combination of structural negligence and failures in state supervision, he told CNN Félix Portes, the lawyer’s lawyer.
Since April 10, just two days after the tragedy of the Jet Set, the Dominican government promised to form a technical team to investigate the reasons that led to the collapse of the nightclub roof.
The Director of the National Office of Seismic Evaluation and Vulnerability of Infrastructure and Buildings (UNESVIE), Leonardo Reyes Madera, said on Saturday, April 12 that part of the rubble have moved to avoid compromising forensic research. He also indicated that two expert teams are working to determine the causes of the disaster.
CNN has requested more details from the Dominican authorities about the progress of these investigations.
In Wednesday’s interview, Espaillat said that he has met with relatives of three victims, who, according to his version, “have expressed that they have no intention of taking any legal action” against him. During the interview, he did not refer to the existing complaint against him.
At the moment when the demand of the family of Virgilio Rafael Cruz Aponte was filed, the owners told CNN that they would not make public comments.
Espaillat said that he learned of the collapse while he was in Las Vegas, the United States, where he traveled to participate in an annual media, entertainment and technology fair. He added that it was her sister Maribel, trapped under the rubble, who called him to alert him about the disaster.
“She said: ‘Antonio, something incredible happened … we listen to an explosion, and the whole roof has fallen.’”
Maribel later told the local media Diario Libre that she managed to survive when her husband, Daniel Vera Pichardo, covered her with her body. The two survived the incident.
The businessman said he took the first flight available and arrived in Santo Domingo the next day. “I had no idea and I couldn’t believe it was something of this magnitude,” he said.
During the interview, Espaillat acknowledged that the nightclub had a gypsum ceiling roof that were frequently replaced due to leaks, which were also caused by the water of the air conditioning system. He denied having received formal warnings about major risks.
He also said that the drop in ceiling was constant and that they were always buying others to replace them. “On the same day of the event, some ceiling were changed,” he said.
Espaillat said that, in the 30 years of operation of the disco, the place was never undergoing a structural review by the authorities, nor was the matter discussed with private engineers.
He also acknowledged that he did not know the exact weight of the air conditioners located on the roof, or if they affected the structure of the building. “You never ask how much a air conditioning weighs when you buy one.” Although he added: “I cannot talk about the weight because I never had the information about the weight. We hired experts in the different areas that worked on it. We hired air conditioning companies that installed some air conditioners for us.”
Visibly affected, Espaillat said that he has been in contact with the families of employees who are deceased or injured and intends to accompany them in this process. “I am here, and I will face everything. I’m not going to go anywhere; I will be here, and everything that is within my reach and everything I can do, I will do it,” he emphasized. He confirmed that he and his mother are the only owners of the establishment, and that the building was bought by his family 30 years ago.
When asked if this could have been avoided, Espaillat said he feels “helpless.” “If there had been something that caught my attention or that they would have told me,” he says, referring to his staff, private contractors or employees, ‘Look, we need to review this, that or the other,’ I would like to have done it. I was there, my family was there, my sister was there; I mean, how could I not do it? The majority of those who were there were my friends, ”he said. Espaillat also said that his legal team is evaluating the possibility of carrying out parallel investigations together with the officers to determine precisely what the collapse caused.
