Dominican nightclub collapse: Survivor recalls the “total chaos”

At 01:00, Tuesday morning, Carwin Javie Molleja was dancing with his mother in the nightclub of the Santo Domingo jet set when he noticed that something falls from the ceiling.

At the time, he didn’t think about it much. “No one thought only because a small stone fell, the whole roof was going to collapse,” he said.

The percussionist, who had moved to the Dominican Republic eight years earlier, was released with his mother, carmine and his friends to see a concert by the singer of Merengue, Rubby Pérez.

It was the first time that Carwin, 32, and his mother saw each other in three years and it was supposed to be a night of joy and celebration.

But in the early hours of Tuesday morning, a disaster struck.

“What I have in my head are the cries, the loud noise of the falling ceiling, my mother’s cries asking me if I am well, I asked her if she is fine,” recalls Carwin.

“Everything happened so quickly. I guess I closed my eyes and my instinct was to hug my mother.”

Carwin and his mother, who stood near the stage, were struck by the heads of falling ceiling, but had the chance to avoid serious injuries. Rubby Perez was one of the people killed.

In the chaos that took place quickly, Carwin managed to find a door through which he and his mother escaped outside.

But her friend Jessica and her sister were still in the club. Desperate to find them, he decided to return inside.

Inside the club, Carwin has desperately shouted the name of Jessica but no one answered.

He says he felt powerless to help those who had trapped under the debris.

“The stones were huge. I felt unnecessary.”

Carwin says he then left the building several times, where he would try to call paramedical paramedics, then return inside to shout the name of his friend and call his phone.

“After that, calls have stopped making.”

Carwin describes the consequences of collapse as “total chaos”.

“People were getting crazy,” he said.

“They withdrew people injured. I saw when they released the deceased saxophonist.”

A few minutes after collapse, the emergency services arrived, while ambulances and civilians “kept coming”.

Carwin says he stayed on the scene for about an hour and a half after collapse.

Meanwhile, he says he has not seen any machine arriving to remove the debris.

He said he wanted to continue trying to find his friend, but that he had to bring his mother, who suffered.

“I needed to bring her home and calm her down.”

Later in the day, Jessica and the lifeless bodies of her sister were found among the rubble. At least 221 people were killed in the disaster.

Carwin says he regrets not having been able to do more for his friend.

“It was horrible not to be able to help her. I shouted her name, but she didn’t answer. It’s horrible to do nothing.”

With report by Isabel Caro and Alicia Hernández.