The head of the Institute of Forensic Medicine, Aleksandar Stankov, said on Friday that most of the 59 victims of the Kočani disco fire died of violent suffocation.
According to him, the bodies of the victims of the Kočani disco fire were found to have first and second degree burns, three had fourth degree burns, four deceased people were found to have broken ribs and suffocation from pressure during the escape (stampede), and there were no injuries from possibly collapsed beams.
“Toxicological analyses are underway to determine what was in the blood of the deceased, although according to macroscopic findings during the autopsy, most contained carbon monoxide,” Stankov said at a press conference.
He explained that a burning fire consumes oxygen, so in addition to the impact of carbon monoxide, there is also a reduced amount of oxygen, and in most cases, in such large fires, the appearance of hydrogen cyanide and hydrogen sulfide cannot be ruled out.
“Of the 59 autopsied persons, 70 percent were between 16 and 29 years old, 16 were women and 43 were men,” said the head of the Institute of Forensic Medicine.
According to him, the identification was initially carried out in the hospitals where the victims were, but only with the help of recognition and personal documents, and then DNA analysis and fingerprinting were applied, with multiple checks to make sure there were no mistakes.
As Stankov pointed out, all autopsy findings are expected to be completed by the end of the month, but toxicological analyzes may take longer.
Macedonian forensic medicine teams were offered help by colleagues from neighboring countries.
In the fire at the “Puls” discotheque in Kočani, a town in North Macedonia about 100 kilometers east of Skopje, 59 people died and 197 were injured.
The fire broke out on Sunday, March 16 at 2:30 a.m. due to the use of pyrotechnics at the DNA group’s concert, and there were about 500 people in the discotheque at that time.
