The Jet Set nightclub in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, a banquet hall that once hosted merengue concerts and visits from the rich and powerful, had on Tuesday morning become the stage for unfathomable tragedy. At least 113 people were killed and more than 150 others were injured when the roof fell in and into a crushing pile during a performance by the well-known merengue (a popular Caribbean music) singer Rubby Pérez, according to emergency officials. The dead included provincial governor Nelsy Cruz, and former Major League Baseball players Octavio Dotel and Tony Blanco, high-profile figures.
The disaster occurred around 1 a.m., nearly an hour after Pérez had taken the stage. Mobile-phone video verified by the BBC showed the moment the roof began to sag. And as Pérez falls, he seems to look up into the sky, and someone in the audience notices something flying in the sky, as Jeremy Anderson captures in the video. Within seconds the whole roof then crashed down, causing panic among hundreds of attendees. Witnesses said it was a sudden, crushing, overwhelming collapse as one member of the band that was playing put it, “I thought it was an earthquake.” The venue, which has a capacity of between 300 and 1,000, erupted into chaos, with audible screaming and loud crashing sounds.
Rescue efforts commenced almost immediately, with hundreds of emergency workers rushing to scour for survivors buried under the wreckage. Firefighters were using large machinery and plank-like devices to walk over the debris and specialized canine units had been deployed at key locations. It was an optimistic tone from the head of the Emergency Operations Center, Juan Manuel Méndez, who said “We presume that many of them are still alive, and that is why the authorities here will not give up until not a single person remains under that rubble.” Even with the rescue effort, however, the toll continued to rise and Méndez said that Pérez’s body was discovered on Wednesday morning.
The collapse’s victims included those whose impact in their fields proved enduring. Octavio Dotel, prodigal pitcher for 13 teams over 15 seasons, was, by his very being, an M.L.B. pitcher, a native son of Santo Domingo. He was on the World Series-winning St. Louis Cardinals in 2011, and when his agent, Dan Horwits, recalled him, he described him as a man whose “energy, positivity, and zest for life were infectious to all who had the pleasure of knowing him.” The Dominican Sports Ministry named Tony Blanco, a major league player, and a Nippon Professional baseball player and made a statement saying His legacy will live on in the history of national baseball.
Nelsy Cruz, the governor of the province of Monte Cristi, who was a brother of the M.L.B. All-Star Nelson Cruz, was also killed in the attacks. She died a hero, trapped in one of those disaster-movie scenarios piled on top of disaster-movie scenarios, somehow still able to reach President Luis Abinader by phone and plead with him to do something to address the disaster and send emergency aid. His first call was to the president, and his second was to his brother, Raquel Arbaje, the first lady, said on So Cruz’s reaction. Cruz then died at the hospital a short time later. Now, she is gone, leaving a legacy of service, dedication and community behind.
But the loss for survivors and families has been immeasurably deeper. Families of the missing gathered in front of the club and at nearby hospitals while rescue teams worked against the clock and they looked for signs of hope. A wounded woman who screamed My brothers! My brothers! was among relatives crying out to a hospital staff member reading a list of survivors as they pleaded to learn the fate of loved ones. Immigrants will take the chance to get anywhere close to the feds because they feel their bodies aren’t a capsule[s] of individual needs, said Massiel Cuevas, a godmother of a 22-year-old who came to the march some called a best in NYC protest. “I’m waiting for her. She’s in there, I know she’s in there.” Pedro Martinez, another 17-season M.L.B. veteran and three-time Cy Young Award winner, also said in an Instagram video that some of his relatives were missing and that “We’re all sad. We’re all affected by the tragedy.”
President Abinader visited the scene of the collapse on Tuesday, to oversee the effort to rescue the victims and console relatives of the dead. None of the above zeroed in on the personal injuries that were, let’s say, immediate, or even of the sort of cause with an agenda that’s knee-jerk response’s best friend: three days of national lamentation, the lowering of flags to half-mast, pledges to the public that all of this country’s rescue agencies were working day and night, in concert to help the victimized. “We deeply regret the tragedy that occurred at the Jet Set nightclub,”
The Jet Set opened in 1973 and became an icon of Dominican nightlife, showcasing local and international acts for decades. Its Monday night parties attracted a particularly glittery constellation of guests, ranging from celebrities to politicians to athletes. The clubhouse had undergone renovations in 2010 and again in 2015 and was struck by lightning in 2023, raising questions about the structural integrity of that building. It was not immediately clear what caused the roof to collapse, but the incident raised questions over building inspections and safety measures in the Dominican Republic.
This country which is still recovering from the wreckage of this disaster, continuing an outpouring of tributes across the map. So the first is a quote from Major League Baseball that I think you used in shorthand in your story, something from Commissioner Rob Manfred, about how “The connection between baseball and the Dominican Republic runs deep, and we are thinking of all the Dominican players and fans across the game today.” and condolences to Dotel, Blanco, Cruz and everyone touched by the tragedy. International stars, such as the musicians Juan Luis Guerra and Daddy Yankee, also took to social media to pray for the affected.
The shuttering of the Jet Set nightclub has created a void in some lives, from devotees of the genre of merengue music to admirers of the athletes and leaders who have died. While it is too soon to know what happened as rescues are ongoing and investigations begin, the Dominican Republic now must grapple with the realities of a disaster that has rocked the country to its core.
