Eleonora Kitanova testifies at trial over Pulse nightclub fire

Testimony continued in the criminal trial of 13 police officers from the Shtip Regional Police Directorate and the Kochani Police Station who are charged with serious endangerment in connection with the devastating fire that killed 63 people at the unauthorized Pulse nightclub. Seventeen-year-old Eleonora Kitanova took the stand describing how she entered the club as a minor on March 16, 2025 and what happened when pyrotechnics ignited on stage.

Speaking in the presence of her mother, Kitanova told prosecutor Spasenka Andonova and presiding judge Fanka Janculeva that she had been admitted despite being underage and had twice bought a drink without difficulty. She said she had gone to the concert with a boyfriend who was seriously injured in the blaze.

“It was very crowded. I learned about the concert two days earlier. I went by chance, so I wouldn't break the group's pace. They must have announced it on the club's Facebook page. I don't follow their page, but I knew about DNK's concert,” she told the prosecutor, as the prosecution sought to show police could not have been unaware of the event that night.

Witness describes smoke, stampede and being dug out

Kitanova said she noticed a police officer at an inner door on her way back from the restroom and saw his badge, though not his face. Later she realized there were police in the venue but she did not see officers by the stage. She also identified two boxes at the sides of the stage as pyrotechnic devices visible to the audience.

She recounted that after the pyrotechnics were activated the band sang two or three songs; about two and a half hours into the event she left her phone on the table to film and within three or four minutes the fire broke out. People began to leave slowly and then a stampede formed. Hot, burning foam fell on her face and she lost consciousness.

“When I last drew breath it felt like my lungs were burning. I said: that's the end of life! Martin shielded me; burning foam and plastics fell on his back. He collapsed next to me,” Kitanova said. She testified that a firefighter eventually pulled her out: “I wanted them to pull out at least part of me. Let them cut away what cannot be pulled out, what is buried; let them pull out the rest. The firefighter saw me, with all his strength pulled me out, threw me out onto the carpet, alive.”

Kitanova added that when she regained consciousness many of the injured and dead had already been removed, and that while she was still partially buried by bodies she heard people shouting from inside: “Open the door, open the door.” Her account raised agitation in the courtroom among relatives of the victims who recalled allegations that police outside had held a door closed to prevent underage people from escaping, unaware that a fire had erupted inside moments later and temperatures reached 800 degrees Celsius.

Following Kitanova, Tijana Koceva — daughter of one of the accused, Todor Jovanov — testified she had been ID-checked that night inside the club and fainted during the blaze. She said firefighters extracted her and that when she appealed to three officers outside for help one told her that such actions were not their responsibility; when she began to scream one officer said he would arrest her if she did not stop.

The 13 police officers on trial are named in the indictment as Dejan Saltirovski, Vancho Georgievski, Marija Manevska, Tomo Donev, Dragan Petrushev, Kire Bogatinov, Stojanche Filipov, Blagica Miteva, Kristina Nikolova, Mazlu Ramadanov, Darko Miloshevski, Martin Arsovski and Marjan Radevski. The indictment alleges they failed to follow prescribed protection measures, approved an action-control plan for hospitality venues without ensuring it covered necessary checks and without complying with standard operational procedures for risk assessment and policing. According to the charges, those omissions contributed to the activation of unregistered pyrotechnics on stage at DNK's performance on March 16, 2025 at the Pulse nightclub, which led to a fire that caused 63 deaths and injured over 200 people.

Photo: SDK.MK)