Before the Institute of Forensic Medicine, in the course of the trial over the fire at the „Puls" nightclub in Kočani, details were given about how the 59 victims actually lost their lives. The experts confirmed - toxic gases, oxygen depletion in the space, and compressive asphyxia, with the temperature at peak moments reaching around 700 degrees Celsius.

In some bodies, cyanide was also detected, but the experts stressed that it was not the „dominant factor in death". What actually killed people was a combination. Carbon monoxide in a space with no ventilation. Smoke that destroys lung structures. A crushed mass of people rolling over one another in panic. And suffocating air that doesn't leave enough room to breathe even for those who make it to the exit.

„The characteristics of the Puls fire are the same as in many other fires in enclosed spaces", the expert testifies - a formulation that's a technical truth at one level, but politically heavy. Because that very „same as many others" is what must not be. The Puls fire wasn't the first case of its kind in an enclosed nightclub space. And the question we at Metla are asking again - what did the system do to make sure this one is the last?

The club's permits, fire-safety checks, number of exits, state of insulation, night-time capacity versus issued permits - all of these are questions asked only after a tragedy. As they were asked after Kočani, they'll be asked after the next one. Because the system - everywhere in the Balkans - works on the same principle. First it happens, then it's investigated, then forgotten, then it happens again. The cycle doesn't stop.

For the families of the victims, these technical details from the trial are just additional pain. For us as a society, they're an indictment - not of a single nightclub owner, but of all the institutions that were supposed to prevent events like this. And of citizens who keep walking into spaces without exits, without insulation, without a plan - because we rarely vet those „fun" venues.