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14 March 2025
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Major fire at nightclub kills 59 people, 196 injured, North Macedonia
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On Sunday, 16 March 2025, a fire at the Pulse nightclub in Kočani, North Macedonia, killed at least 59 people. According to interior minister Panče Toškovski, the cause was pyrotechnics. The fire injured 196 people and many people were hospitalized in Kočani and other cities, domestically and abroad. It is the deadliest nightclub fire in Europe since the 2015 Bucharest nightclub fire and the deadliest fire in North Macedonia's history.
At 02h35am on 16 March 2025, about 500 people were attending a concert of Macedonian hip-hop duo DNK in the Pulse Nightclub in Kočani, although only 250 tickets were sold. Perpendicular sparkling gerbs or "stage fountains", a type of indoor firework, were lit during their performance. Their sparks ignited flammable acoustic foam sheets that burned across the roof structure, rapidly engulfing the entire venue in flames and toxic smoke.
Videos of the pyrotechnics and subsequent fire showed attempts to extinguish the flames, with some patrons observing the firefighting while others evacuated. One survivor said that she shouted at a group of children to leave the disco, but they laughed at her. Survivors reported a crowd crush when people rushed towards the club exits. One survivor described being trampled by the crowd after falling down the stairs. A band member urged the crowd to evacuate during the firefighting, stating, "Everyone get out, we'll be back". Some of the victims attempted to escape through the club's bathroom but were met with barred windows.
The first call to emergency services was received at 20h48am. Fire crews from nearby cities were also deployed. The rescue efforts were hampered by the inability of fire trucks to access the nightclub, as it was located in a densely populated neighbourhood. Authorities rushed dozens of injured people to nearby hospitals in Štip, Kočani and Skopje. Bulgaria sent the military plane "Spartan" to transfer some of the victims to hospitals in Sofia and Varna.
Deaths
As of 17 March 2025, 59 people aged between 14 and 24 were killed in the fire, with three of the victims being minors. This was the deadliest nightclub fire in Europe since the 2015 Bucharest nightclub fire, and the deadliest fire in North Macedonia's history, both caused by pyrotechnics. A hospital director in Kočani, Kristina Serafimovska, said most of the dead suffered injuries from the stampede of people trying to escape the club. Many victims were difficult to identify due to their lack of identification cards. An ambulance driver in Kočani, Ile Gočevski, who was transporting victims to the hospital throughout the day, died in his sleep on 17 March 2025, a day after the fire, after he had returned home to rest. One of his colleagues wrote a social media post calling Macedonian ambulance drivers overworked and underpaid and praising Gočevski's actions. Macedonian Minister of Health Arben Taravari responded to the post, pledging to improve the working conditions and pay of ambulance drivers and said that their work is often overlooked.
Andrej Gjorgieski, one of DNK's lead singers, was confirmed dead along with the band's photographer Aleksandar Efremov, backing singer Sara Projkovska, drummer Gjorgji Gjorgiev and keyboard player Filip Stevanovski. Two other band members survived the initial fire, but died later in the afternoon. Vladimir Blažev, the other lead singer, suffered burns to his face and hands and was provided with oxygen therapy, making him the only survivor from the band. Shortly after the fire, rumours spread on social media that Gjorgieski was alive and receiving treatment at his home but his wife refuted them and requested that social media outlets refrain from posting misinformation and for her and her family's privacy to be respected.
A police officer at the club checking for drugs and minors was killed in the fire. KF Shkupi football player Andrej Lazarov suffered from smoke inhalation and burn injuries while trying to rescue club patronsand died a short time after in the hospital. Damjan Taneski, a young football goalkeeper from Štip and Petar Ivanovski, a basketball player for Basket Dino Delicacies from Kočani, were also among the victims of the fire.
Injuries
As many as 196 people were injured, including 20 minors. Some of those were hospitalised in hospitals of Kočani and Štip. Beside those, some were transported to the hospitals of Skopje. This includes 17 with severe burns who were taken to the St. Naum of Ohrid hospital, 49 to the Clinical Centre of Skopje and 18 to the "September 8th" General Hospital, two of whom were in critical condition. The Kočani regional hospital was severely unequipped for the influx of victims, having only two ambulances and one van with a bed. Radio Kočani reported that the injured were left lying in the street, since there were not enough emergency vehicles to transport them all. Some of the victims were transported to the hospital by civilian bystanders. A brother of one of the victims said that there were corpses in the hospital corridors, and that he had to step over them to check on his injured sister. Due to the severity of the injuries as a result of burns and smoke inhalation, some of the injured were transferred to specialized units at hospitals and clinics in Skopje and Štip. By 17 March 2025, all of the remaining patients at the Kočani general hospital had been transferred to clinics in Skopje. Since the drywall installed on the ceiling of the nightclub contained asbestos, a carcinogen, Minister of Health Taravari instructed the injured and anyone else who was at the scene of the fire to see a doctor because they may have inhaled the asbestos. According to Meri Cvetkovska, a professor of civil engineering at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje, theories that the asbestos burnt are not true, as asbestos breaks under heat instead of burning. Doctor Bojan Trajkovski said that anyone that was inside the nightclub should be monitored for signs of mesothelioma for the rest of their lives.
On 16 and 17 March 2025, some of the more severely injured persons were transferred to hospitals in other countries; Nine patients were transported to Turkey (three to Istanbul and six to Ankara), 14 patients were transported to Bulgaria (eight to Sofia and three each to Varna and Plovdiv). Five people were transferred to Thessaloniki, Greece. Twenty-nine of the injured were sent to four different hospitals in Serbia (Military Medical Academy and Clinical Centre of Serbia in Belgrade, Niš Military Hospital and the Clinical Centre of Niš). Four patients were sent to Lithuania and two each to Budapest, Hungary and Vienna, Austria. On 18 March 2025, two injured patients were transported to Zagreb, Croatia, for further treatment.
On the evening of 17 March 2025, Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić visited the injured at the Clinical Centre of Serbia in Belgrade together with health minister Zlatibor Lončar and eleven photojournalists. The citizens of North Macedonia and Serbia on social media accused Vučić of using the occasion for PR and scoring political points. Vučić was photographed touching a patient with his bare hands and later took off his medical mask while speaking to the press in front of a patient. Similarly, Macedonian Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, accompanied by several other officials, visited the injured in Skopje hospitals on the evening of 17 March and again on 18 March 2025, before their families were allowed to see them, and without all proper safety measures. One man in Mickoski's company was seen without a mask.
International medical assistance
Bulgaria sent an Alenia C-27J Spartan military aircraft to transport eight of the most critically wounded victims to the Pirogov Hospital in Sofia and the Military-Medical Academy in Varna, while six more were transported with ambulances to Sofia and Plovdiv. The director of the Pirogov Hospital said that the hospital expects the death toll to rise, as all the victims of the fire that they have received are in "very poor condition", suffering burns to their respiratory tracts. On 18 March 2025, the Bulgarian Red Cross, the Pirogov Hospital and the National Centre for Transfusion Haematology organised a blood donation campaign to help the injured in Bulgaria, supported by the Military Medical Academy. By 19 March 2025, more than 600 Bulgarians had donated blood in three cities for the victims of the fire.
On 16 March 2025, Serbia sent a CASA C-295 of the Serbian Air Force to pick up 12 of the most critically injured victims, who were transported to the Military-Medical Academy and the Clinical Centre of Serbia. Additionally, Serbia sent five ambulances with 14 medical personnel to assist crowded hospitals in North Macedonia. Two ambulances drove two of the most critically injured to Niš, where they were admitted to the Clinical Centre of Niš and the Niš Military Hospital, and three other ambulances drove to Belgrade, where an additional three injured were admitted to Military-Medical Academy and Clinical Centre of Serbia. An anaesthesiologist at the Military Medical Academy, Goran Rondović, said that both patients that they received were in critical condition but were stable. Out of 10 patients transported to the Military Medical Academy, six were in the intensive care unit and four were receiving reconstructive surgery, as of 19 March 2025.
A Romanian Air Force C-27J Spartan aircraft, configured for medical missions, departed on 17 March 2025 from Otopeni to carry out a humanitarian mission to transport four patients diagnosed with burns from Skopje to a hospital in Vilnius, Lithuania, including Aleksandar Karadakoski, the owner of the company that ran the nightclub. Three more victims were transported to Turkey and three to Greece. In the Netherlands, burn centres in Groningen, Beverwijk and Rotterdam committed to providing medical assistance and shelter to victims. Slovenia sent a military aircraft to transport two burn victims to the Ljubljana University Medical Centre with another two being transported to the Maribor University Medical Centre. On 17 March 2025, a Hellenic Air Force C-130 aircraft transported three critically injured victims in intensive care to a military hospital in Athens. According to Greek Minister of Health Adonis Georgiadis, three hospitals in Athens and one in Thessaloniki were put on heightened alert. That same day, three flights took place from Vogler Air Force Base to Skopje with an Austrian Air Force Medevac C-130 Hercules to hospitals in Graz and Vienna. Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković announced on 17 March that two Croatian Army helicopters would transport four of the wounded on 19 March to Croatia for treatment. On 17 March 2025, Czechia announced the deployment of ten military medical personnel from the Central Military Hospital to North Macedonia after North Macedonia requested assistance. On 18 March, Poland announced that it would provide care for two injured people at the Eastern Centre for Burn Treatment and Reconstructive Surgery, an Independent Public Health Care Facility in Łęczna, with the transport of patients carried out by the Air Ambulance Service.
Belgium deployed its Belgian First Aid and Support team (B-FAST) to provide emergency medical aid to the victims of the fire on 19 March 2025, taking four patients.
Investigation
North Macedonia's Interior Minister, Panče Toškovski said that the nightclub's operating license was obtained as a result of corruption and bribery. Toškovski said that the homes of two former Ministry of Economy employees were searched and technical equipment, documentation, weapons, ammunition were seized. On 18 March 2025, Toškovski said that local police from Štip and Veles that were investigating the fire would be replaced with officers from Skopje, to ensure that "process proceeds without pressure, suspicion or undue influence" but added that the decision does not "imply guilt" upon the local police officers. The government ordered a three-day inspection of all nightclubs and cabarets in the country. An inspection found significant safety violations at the Pulse Nightclub:
At a press conference on 17 March 2025, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski announced that only 12 legal licenses for nightclubs had been issued throughout the country and the Pulse Nightclub was not one of them. Just one day later, the government spokesperson announced that there were in fact 22 legal licenses, out of 50 inspected establishments. A further 15 of the 50 did not have licenses or had expired licenses. As a result, many nightclubs and entertainment venues were shut down. Three licensed nightclubs were closed down and their licenses were revoked after investigations found numerous deficiencies. Police visited all 12 companies in North Macedonia that are licensed to handle pyrotechnics.
Arrests
At least 20 people were arrested. Former Ministry of Economy State Secretary Razmena Čekić Đurović was arrested after investigators discovered she signed the forged license the nightclub was operating under. Authorities confirmed that the Pulse Nightclub's license document was not found in the government's license database, even though it was issued on official government stationery and was signed by employees of the Ministry of Economy. The owner of the nightclub, Dejan "Deko" Jovanov, was arrested. Jovanov's son was also arrested. Seven police officers were arrested for having allegedly "prepared, signed and approved" a consent form for the nightclub to obtain a catering license, even though the club did not meet the minimum requirements to do so.
On 17 March 2025, former State Market Inspectorate Director Goran Trajkovski was also arrested. On the same day, former Minister of Economy Kreshnik Bekteshi was arrested, questioned at a Skopje Police Station and brought to testify before a pre-trial judge.
Sources: BBC, Deutche Welle, The Brussels Times and various others
At 02h35am on 16 March 2025, about 500 people were attending a concert of Macedonian hip-hop duo DNK in the Pulse Nightclub in Kočani, although only 250 tickets were sold. Perpendicular sparkling gerbs or "stage fountains", a type of indoor firework, were lit during their performance. Their sparks ignited flammable acoustic foam sheets that burned across the roof structure, rapidly engulfing the entire venue in flames and toxic smoke.
Videos of the pyrotechnics and subsequent fire showed attempts to extinguish the flames, with some patrons observing the firefighting while others evacuated. One survivor said that she shouted at a group of children to leave the disco, but they laughed at her. Survivors reported a crowd crush when people rushed towards the club exits. One survivor described being trampled by the crowd after falling down the stairs. A band member urged the crowd to evacuate during the firefighting, stating, "Everyone get out, we'll be back". Some of the victims attempted to escape through the club's bathroom but were met with barred windows.
The first call to emergency services was received at 20h48am. Fire crews from nearby cities were also deployed. The rescue efforts were hampered by the inability of fire trucks to access the nightclub, as it was located in a densely populated neighbourhood. Authorities rushed dozens of injured people to nearby hospitals in Štip, Kočani and Skopje. Bulgaria sent the military plane "Spartan" to transfer some of the victims to hospitals in Sofia and Varna.
Deaths
As of 17 March 2025, 59 people aged between 14 and 24 were killed in the fire, with three of the victims being minors. This was the deadliest nightclub fire in Europe since the 2015 Bucharest nightclub fire, and the deadliest fire in North Macedonia's history, both caused by pyrotechnics. A hospital director in Kočani, Kristina Serafimovska, said most of the dead suffered injuries from the stampede of people trying to escape the club. Many victims were difficult to identify due to their lack of identification cards. An ambulance driver in Kočani, Ile Gočevski, who was transporting victims to the hospital throughout the day, died in his sleep on 17 March 2025, a day after the fire, after he had returned home to rest. One of his colleagues wrote a social media post calling Macedonian ambulance drivers overworked and underpaid and praising Gočevski's actions. Macedonian Minister of Health Arben Taravari responded to the post, pledging to improve the working conditions and pay of ambulance drivers and said that their work is often overlooked.
Andrej Gjorgieski, one of DNK's lead singers, was confirmed dead along with the band's photographer Aleksandar Efremov, backing singer Sara Projkovska, drummer Gjorgji Gjorgiev and keyboard player Filip Stevanovski. Two other band members survived the initial fire, but died later in the afternoon. Vladimir Blažev, the other lead singer, suffered burns to his face and hands and was provided with oxygen therapy, making him the only survivor from the band. Shortly after the fire, rumours spread on social media that Gjorgieski was alive and receiving treatment at his home but his wife refuted them and requested that social media outlets refrain from posting misinformation and for her and her family's privacy to be respected.
A police officer at the club checking for drugs and minors was killed in the fire. KF Shkupi football player Andrej Lazarov suffered from smoke inhalation and burn injuries while trying to rescue club patronsand died a short time after in the hospital. Damjan Taneski, a young football goalkeeper from Štip and Petar Ivanovski, a basketball player for Basket Dino Delicacies from Kočani, were also among the victims of the fire.
Injuries
As many as 196 people were injured, including 20 minors. Some of those were hospitalised in hospitals of Kočani and Štip. Beside those, some were transported to the hospitals of Skopje. This includes 17 with severe burns who were taken to the St. Naum of Ohrid hospital, 49 to the Clinical Centre of Skopje and 18 to the "September 8th" General Hospital, two of whom were in critical condition. The Kočani regional hospital was severely unequipped for the influx of victims, having only two ambulances and one van with a bed. Radio Kočani reported that the injured were left lying in the street, since there were not enough emergency vehicles to transport them all. Some of the victims were transported to the hospital by civilian bystanders. A brother of one of the victims said that there were corpses in the hospital corridors, and that he had to step over them to check on his injured sister. Due to the severity of the injuries as a result of burns and smoke inhalation, some of the injured were transferred to specialized units at hospitals and clinics in Skopje and Štip. By 17 March 2025, all of the remaining patients at the Kočani general hospital had been transferred to clinics in Skopje. Since the drywall installed on the ceiling of the nightclub contained asbestos, a carcinogen, Minister of Health Taravari instructed the injured and anyone else who was at the scene of the fire to see a doctor because they may have inhaled the asbestos. According to Meri Cvetkovska, a professor of civil engineering at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje, theories that the asbestos burnt are not true, as asbestos breaks under heat instead of burning. Doctor Bojan Trajkovski said that anyone that was inside the nightclub should be monitored for signs of mesothelioma for the rest of their lives.
On 16 and 17 March 2025, some of the more severely injured persons were transferred to hospitals in other countries; Nine patients were transported to Turkey (three to Istanbul and six to Ankara), 14 patients were transported to Bulgaria (eight to Sofia and three each to Varna and Plovdiv). Five people were transferred to Thessaloniki, Greece. Twenty-nine of the injured were sent to four different hospitals in Serbia (Military Medical Academy and Clinical Centre of Serbia in Belgrade, Niš Military Hospital and the Clinical Centre of Niš). Four patients were sent to Lithuania and two each to Budapest, Hungary and Vienna, Austria. On 18 March 2025, two injured patients were transported to Zagreb, Croatia, for further treatment.
On the evening of 17 March 2025, Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić visited the injured at the Clinical Centre of Serbia in Belgrade together with health minister Zlatibor Lončar and eleven photojournalists. The citizens of North Macedonia and Serbia on social media accused Vučić of using the occasion for PR and scoring political points. Vučić was photographed touching a patient with his bare hands and later took off his medical mask while speaking to the press in front of a patient. Similarly, Macedonian Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, accompanied by several other officials, visited the injured in Skopje hospitals on the evening of 17 March and again on 18 March 2025, before their families were allowed to see them, and without all proper safety measures. One man in Mickoski's company was seen without a mask.
International medical assistance
Bulgaria sent an Alenia C-27J Spartan military aircraft to transport eight of the most critically wounded victims to the Pirogov Hospital in Sofia and the Military-Medical Academy in Varna, while six more were transported with ambulances to Sofia and Plovdiv. The director of the Pirogov Hospital said that the hospital expects the death toll to rise, as all the victims of the fire that they have received are in "very poor condition", suffering burns to their respiratory tracts. On 18 March 2025, the Bulgarian Red Cross, the Pirogov Hospital and the National Centre for Transfusion Haematology organised a blood donation campaign to help the injured in Bulgaria, supported by the Military Medical Academy. By 19 March 2025, more than 600 Bulgarians had donated blood in three cities for the victims of the fire.
On 16 March 2025, Serbia sent a CASA C-295 of the Serbian Air Force to pick up 12 of the most critically injured victims, who were transported to the Military-Medical Academy and the Clinical Centre of Serbia. Additionally, Serbia sent five ambulances with 14 medical personnel to assist crowded hospitals in North Macedonia. Two ambulances drove two of the most critically injured to Niš, where they were admitted to the Clinical Centre of Niš and the Niš Military Hospital, and three other ambulances drove to Belgrade, where an additional three injured were admitted to Military-Medical Academy and Clinical Centre of Serbia. An anaesthesiologist at the Military Medical Academy, Goran Rondović, said that both patients that they received were in critical condition but were stable. Out of 10 patients transported to the Military Medical Academy, six were in the intensive care unit and four were receiving reconstructive surgery, as of 19 March 2025.
A Romanian Air Force C-27J Spartan aircraft, configured for medical missions, departed on 17 March 2025 from Otopeni to carry out a humanitarian mission to transport four patients diagnosed with burns from Skopje to a hospital in Vilnius, Lithuania, including Aleksandar Karadakoski, the owner of the company that ran the nightclub. Three more victims were transported to Turkey and three to Greece. In the Netherlands, burn centres in Groningen, Beverwijk and Rotterdam committed to providing medical assistance and shelter to victims. Slovenia sent a military aircraft to transport two burn victims to the Ljubljana University Medical Centre with another two being transported to the Maribor University Medical Centre. On 17 March 2025, a Hellenic Air Force C-130 aircraft transported three critically injured victims in intensive care to a military hospital in Athens. According to Greek Minister of Health Adonis Georgiadis, three hospitals in Athens and one in Thessaloniki were put on heightened alert. That same day, three flights took place from Vogler Air Force Base to Skopje with an Austrian Air Force Medevac C-130 Hercules to hospitals in Graz and Vienna. Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković announced on 17 March that two Croatian Army helicopters would transport four of the wounded on 19 March to Croatia for treatment. On 17 March 2025, Czechia announced the deployment of ten military medical personnel from the Central Military Hospital to North Macedonia after North Macedonia requested assistance. On 18 March, Poland announced that it would provide care for two injured people at the Eastern Centre for Burn Treatment and Reconstructive Surgery, an Independent Public Health Care Facility in Łęczna, with the transport of patients carried out by the Air Ambulance Service.
Belgium deployed its Belgian First Aid and Support team (B-FAST) to provide emergency medical aid to the victims of the fire on 19 March 2025, taking four patients.
Investigation
North Macedonia's Interior Minister, Panče Toškovski said that the nightclub's operating license was obtained as a result of corruption and bribery. Toškovski said that the homes of two former Ministry of Economy employees were searched and technical equipment, documentation, weapons, ammunition were seized. On 18 March 2025, Toškovski said that local police from Štip and Veles that were investigating the fire would be replaced with officers from Skopje, to ensure that "process proceeds without pressure, suspicion or undue influence" but added that the decision does not "imply guilt" upon the local police officers. The government ordered a three-day inspection of all nightclubs and cabarets in the country. An inspection found significant safety violations at the Pulse Nightclub:
- The venue lacked basic fire safety equipment, including sufficient fire extinguishers and a functional fire alarm system.
- The club had only one accessible exit, as the back door was locked, severely hindering evacuation efforts during the fire.
- The building had undergone unauthorised modifications, including the use of illegal soundproofing materials, which may have contributed to the rapid spread of the fire.
At a press conference on 17 March 2025, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski announced that only 12 legal licenses for nightclubs had been issued throughout the country and the Pulse Nightclub was not one of them. Just one day later, the government spokesperson announced that there were in fact 22 legal licenses, out of 50 inspected establishments. A further 15 of the 50 did not have licenses or had expired licenses. As a result, many nightclubs and entertainment venues were shut down. Three licensed nightclubs were closed down and their licenses were revoked after investigations found numerous deficiencies. Police visited all 12 companies in North Macedonia that are licensed to handle pyrotechnics.
Arrests
At least 20 people were arrested. Former Ministry of Economy State Secretary Razmena Čekić Đurović was arrested after investigators discovered she signed the forged license the nightclub was operating under. Authorities confirmed that the Pulse Nightclub's license document was not found in the government's license database, even though it was issued on official government stationery and was signed by employees of the Ministry of Economy. The owner of the nightclub, Dejan "Deko" Jovanov, was arrested. Jovanov's son was also arrested. Seven police officers were arrested for having allegedly "prepared, signed and approved" a consent form for the nightclub to obtain a catering license, even though the club did not meet the minimum requirements to do so.
On 17 March 2025, former State Market Inspectorate Director Goran Trajkovski was also arrested. On the same day, former Minister of Economy Kreshnik Bekteshi was arrested, questioned at a Skopje Police Station and brought to testify before a pre-trial judge.
Sources: BBC, Deutche Welle, The Brussels Times and various others
