Crime Stories

Ozone Disco Fire Tragedy

Today in Philippine History
MARCH 18, 1996

Ozone Disco Fire Tragedy

#OzoneDisco #OzoneDiscoTragedy #OzoneDiscoFire #DiscoInferno #PilipinasRetrostalgia

Twenty years ago, the popular Ozone Disco Club in Quezon City, Philippines, burned down on the evening of March 18, 1996. The fire and resulting panic killed 162 people, mostly teenagers, and injured at least 93 more.

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) an international nonprofit organization & a world advocate to prevent fires with more than 70,000 members, lists the Ozone fire as the sixth deadliest fire in world history.
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Ozone Disco, located along Timog Avenue corner Tomas Morato Avenue in Quezon City, was opened in 1991. Its building had previously housed a jazz club named "Birdland".The disco was operated by Westwood Entertainment Company, Inc.
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The establishment was poorly designed for its purpose, and poorly maintained. It had one main entrance/exit, accessed from the dance floor by a long hallway, with a door that only opened inwards. There was one emergency exit. It was not equipped with fire alarm or sprinkler systems.

By 1996 the Ozone Disco was a disaster waiting to happen. The emergency exit had been sealed off by the construction of another building, and fire extinguishers no longer worked. On the evening of March 18 the club was full with over 350 partygoers, about ten times its allowed capacity. Shortly after 12:00, fire broke out. Some said that sparks flew from the DJ booth, others that a tank exploded in the kitchen. Fire spread quickly and unchecked through the structure.

The crowd headed for the only exit, creating a crush that killed many of the patrons as they tried to escape. The door, which only opened inwards instead of the mandatory in-out type, was effectively sealed shut by the pressure of the crowd. Bodies ended up piled three feet deep for the length of the hall.

The building's mezzanine level collapsed in the fire, killing more young people beneath it. The fire raged for two hours before being brought under control. By the time it was over, the Ozone Disco Club Fire was the largest and deadliest club fire in Philippine history.
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According to Col. Sammy Tadeo, one of the first investigators of the incident, the following were among the factors that led to the death of 162 people:

● Swing-in door

For safety purposes, the law requires establishments to have doors that can be opened both inward and outward. The disco room however, only had one door that could be opened inward.

When people realized that there was a fire, they all headed towards the door as they pushed their way out, making it impossible for them to open it.

There were also two more doors they had to pass through before they could get out of the builidng.

● Lack of fire exit

The disco club had no fire exit. The door which was supposed to serve as the fire exit was blocked by the establishment beside it.

● Overcapacity

Since March is when schools usually end, the club announced a discount promo. According to Tadeo, more than 300 people, mostly teenagers, were in the disco when it could hold only around 100 people.
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Six people involved with Westwood Entertainment were tried before the courts for criminal charges of "reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide and multiple serious injuries". On March 16, 2001, the president of Westwood Entertainment, Hermilo Ocampo, and the corporation's treasurer, Ramon Ng, were found guilty by a Quezon City trial court and sentenced to a four-year prison term, and fined 25 million pesos each. They and their co-accused (who were acquitted) were also ordered to indemnify the families of the deceased 150,000 pesos, and 100,000 pesos to the injured. The trial court concluded that Ocampo and Ng failed to provide fire exits and sprinklers inside the establishment, that the fire extinguishers they placed were defective, and that the lone exit was through a small door that swung inward and did not meet the standard set by the building code. A former employee who was among the survivors of the fire has claimed that the inward swinging doors were installed because it was good feng shui.

In November 2001, twelve officials of the Quezon City government were charged before the Sandiganbayan for reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicides and multiple serious injuries. They were accused of allowing Ozone Disco to secure a certificate of annual inspection in 1995 "despite the inadequacy, insufficiency and impropriety of the documents submitted by the owners." In 2007, one of the twelve — the former city engineer and building official of Quezon City, Alfredo Macapugay — was discharged from criminal and civil liability after the Sandiganbayan concluded that he had no hand in the issuance of the necessary permits to Ozone Disco management.

As of 2008, the structure which housed the Ozone Disco remained standing in Timog Avenue, Quezon City, though the site has not been commercially used since then. For a few years after the incident there was a makeshift memorial on the site featuring photographs of the victims. This has since been dismantled, and no marker or official memorial commemorates the incident or its victims.

On November 20, 2014, seven officials of the Quezon City government were found guilty under the Philippines' anti-graft and corrupt practices law by the country's anti-graft court Sandiganbayan. They were held liable for negligence in connection with the approval of the building permit and issuance of certificates of occupancy for the company which owned Ozone. The club's owners were also found to be liable as well.

In March 2015, a week before the 19th anniversary of the tragedy, the Ozone Disco building was demolished, residents near the area said. The area is now a vacant lot. Relatives of the victims still visit the site.
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info: rappler.com/ inquirer.net/ wikipedia/ atropedia net