Dominican Republic ends search for Jet Set nightclub roof collapse survivors, 184 dead
Almost 200 have died after a fire engulfed a nightclub, with a famous singer and a former MLB star among the dead.
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Dominican Republic rescue workers have ended the search for survivors of a nightclub roof collapse as the death toll surpassed 180 in the Caribbean nation’s worst disaster in decades.
Emergency personnel late Wednesday local time reported 60 more deaths compared to the morning’s count, with the total confirmed tally reaching 184.
An official statement had earlier said that “all reasonable possibilities of finding more survivors” had been exhausted, and the focus of the operation would turn to recovering bodies.
“Today we will complete the rescue effort,” Jose Luis Frometa Herasme, head of the fire service in the Dominican capital Santo Domingo, said.
The tragedy happened at the Jet Set nightclub in the early hours of Tuesday, devastating the nation.
Relatives of the missing were reportedly still waiting desperately for news Wednesday of their loved ones outside the ruined club, at hospitals and the local morgue.
Over 300 rescue workers, aided by sniffer dogs, spent two days combing through mounds of fallen bricks, steel bars and tin sheets, supported by firefighters from Puerto Rico and Israel.
Aerial images of the site resemble the aftermath of an earthquake, with a gaping hole where the roof of the club - a fixture of Santo Domingo’s nightlife for half a century - had been.
Over 500 people were also injured when the roof caved in while renowned merengue singer Rubby Perez was performing for a crowd of hundreds.
Perez and two former Major League Baseball players were among the dead.
Moment nightclub roof collapses
Shock footage shared on social media shows the moment the roof of the Jet Set nightclub in the Dominican Republic’s capital of Santo Domingo collapsed during a performance by renowned merengue singer Rubby Perez on Tuesday morning.
At least 58 people have been killed and over 150 people have been taken to hospital.
Among those who died is a governor and former Major League Baseball star Octavio Dotel, while Perez was trapped in the rubble.
Local media said there were between 500 and 1000 people in the club when disaster struck.
“It was sudden. I thought it was an earthquake, so I threw myself to the ground and covered my head,” Enrique Paulino, Perez’s manager, told reporters.
“One of our saxophonists is dead, we tried to get to the area where Rubby was but there was too much debris there,” he said.
Perez’s daughter Zulinka told reporters she had managed to escape after the roof collapsed, but he did not. She said she had confirmation that her father was “alive,” though injured and still trapped.
Dotel, 51, who played with the Houston Astros and St Louis Cardinals was pulled out alive from the nightclub but succumbed to his injuries, head of emergency operations General Juan Manuel Mendez confirmed to local news service Noticias SIN.
The Dominican Republic Professional Baseball League in a social media message expressed “its sorrow over the death” of the former World Series champion, and concluded: “Peace to his soul.”
Another death was Nelsy Cruz who was the governor of the nation’s Montecristi province.
Some 400 rescue personnel combed through the ruins as trapped people cried out for help from the debris.
Juan Manuel Mendez, director of the Emergency Operations Center (COE) told reporters: “As long as there is hope for life, all authorities will be working to recover or rescue these people.”
‘We are desperate’
Dozens of ambulances ferried the injured to hospital, as scores of people gathered clamouring for news of their missing loved ones.
Iris Pena, a woman who had attended the show, told SIN television how she escaped with her son.
“At one point, dirt started falling like dust into the drink on the table. I asked the security officers … whether the ground had shaken,” she said.
“A stone fell and cracked the table where we were, and we got out,” Pena recounted. “The impact was so strong, as if it had been a tsunami or an earthquake.” Dozens of family members flocked to hospitals for news.
“We are desperate,” Regina del Rosa, whose sister was at the concert, told the Dominican channel SIN.
“They are not giving us news, they are not telling us anything.”
At the scene, meanwhile, helicopter images revealed a large hole where the club’s roof once was. A construction crane was helping lift some of the heavier rubble as men in hard hats dug through the debris.
The authorities have issued a call for Dominicans to donate blood.
“We are rescuing all the people we can save alive and recovering those bodies we find along the way. But we have focused on people we can rescue alive because we hear them asking for help,” Mendez said.
“The main objective is to save lives,” Abinader said as he arrived at the scene.
The Instagram page of the Jet Set club said it has been in operation for more than 50 years, with shows every Monday until the early hours.
Its last post before Monday’s event invited fans to come and “enjoy his (Perez’s) greatest hits and dance in the country’s best nightclub.”
On Tuesday, the club issued a statement saying it had “collaborated fully and transparently with the authorities to help the victims and clarify what happened.”
The Dominican Republic occupies around two thirds of the large island of Hispaniola with the remainder of the island part of Haiti.
The country has the Caribbean's largest economy.
It received over 11 million visitors in 2024, according to the tourism ministry.
Originally published as Dominican Republic ends search for Jet Set nightclub roof collapse survivors, 184 dead
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