In the early hours of 8 April, the roof of the Jet Set disco collapsed. Its Monday concerts were an unmissable event and the place was packed when the tragedy struck. A week later, the country is still mourning the loss of 225 lives and awaiting the recovery of hundreds of people injured, many of them seriously. The structure collapsed on the crowd and what should have been a night of celebration turned into one of the worst urban tragedies the Dominican Republic has ever seen.
The Dominican Red Cross responded immediately. Teams of medical, pre-hospital, psychological and emergency response specialists were mobilised from different parts of the country to help with the rescue operation, provide urgent medical care and support families who were desperately searching for news of their loved ones in the midst of the chaos.
Search in the rubble
In the early days, the priority was to find people alive under the collapsed building. Red Cross search and rescue specialists worked side by side with firefighters and others in a complex and painful operation. The extreme heat, the dust and the risk of further collapses made everything more difficult.
As well as the physical strain, there was the emotional strain. Volunteers remember hearing people crying for help from under the rubble and working tirelessly to help them. They managed to pull some out, but sadly most were found dead. But no one stopped trying. Day and night, rescuers worked until all the bodies were recovered, while on the other side of the tapes, families waited for news of their loved ones, clinging to hope.
The Dominican Red Cross joined forces with the authorities to help rescue those who remained trapped in the wreckage of the Jet Set.
Photo: Dominican Red Cross
Hearing, containing, accompanying
While some teams sifted through the rubble, others provided emotional support. In what was left of the discotheque and in the capital's hospitals, psychologists and Red Cross volunteers specialising in psychosocial support talked to mothers, siblings and partners. They held people in a state of shock; it was enough to sit next to them, offer them water, hold them. It was not just a matter of providing information, but of accompanying them in their pain.
There were also those who received the worst news right there, before the operation. The Red Cross was there to provide immediate emotional support, and that support continued throughout the week. The psychosocial support team is still in contact with some of the families today, providing support to those who are still grieving and facilitating spaces for emotional care for the Red Cross brigades that were involved in the emergency.
Having basic first aid training or being part of a humanitarian response team is not enough to deal with extreme emotional experiences such as the Jet Set tragedy. This week, individual grief has become collective grief, and the volunteers who carry the burden of their own and others' grief are particularly affected. Caring for them is one of the vital commitments of the Red Cross.
Dominican Red Cross psychosocial support team offers hospital-based support to the families of those affected by the collapse of the Jet Set roof.
Photo: Dominican Red Cross
Ambulances, blood and solidarity
Medical care was another key front. Red Cross ambulances - part of the 911 system - helped people with serious injuries and transported patients directly from the discotheque to nearby hospitals. Even members of the rescue corps who had suffered blows, cuts or decompensation due to the heat were treated.
In order to help improve hospital care, the Dominican Red Cross launched an urgent blood donation campaign. People from all over the country came to donate and the blood, plasma and other derivatives were made available to the health centres treating the injured.
And while all this was going on, solidarity was not far behind. Neighbours, companies and anonymous citizens brought food, water and medicines, which the humanitarian workers distributed to their brigades and to the families who had waited days and nights for news of their loved ones.
The solidarity of the Dominican people was as great or greater than the pain caused by this tragedy, and for this the Dominican Red Cross is moved and deeply grateful.
One week later
Although the cameras are no longer at ground zero, the emergency is not over. The Dominican Red Cross continues to support survivors in hospital, facilitating transfers and ensuring that those in need have access to blood. It also continues to look after its own staff, because intervening in a tragedy of this magnitude leaves its mark. A footprint that, it is hoped, will encourage many more people to decide to volunteer, to train, to give their time and their solidarity to the service of their community.