section_path: Casualties/Deaths
section_name: Deaths
paragraph_text: Deaths
  
  At least 62 people aged between 16 and 48, died from the fire, with six of the victims being minors. This was the deadliest nightclub fire in Europe since the 2015 Bucharest nightclub fire (also caused by pyrotechnics), and the deadliest fire in North Macedonia's history. A hospital director in Kočani, Kristina Serafimovska, said most of the dead suffered injuries from the stampede of people trying to escape the club, but the Director of the Institute of Forensic Medicine, Aleksandar Stankov, said that the majority of the victims died of asphyxia. Many victims were difficult to identify due to their lack of identification cards, with only half of them possessing identity documents. An ambulance driver in Kočani, Ile Gocevski, who was transporting victims to the hospital throughout the day, died in his sleep on 17 March, a day after the fire, after he had returned home to rest. He died of a heart attack caused by overexertion after completing 11 hospital runs overnight. One of his colleagues wrote a social media post calling Macedonian ambulance drivers overworked and underpaid and praising Gocevski's actions. Macedonian Minister of Health Arben Taravari responded to the post, pledging to improve the working conditions and pay of ambulance drivers, and said that their work is often overlooked.
  
  Andreja Gjorgjieski, one of DNK's lead singers, was confirmed dead along with the band's photographer Aleksandar Efremov, backing singer Sara Projkovska, drummer Gjorgji Gjorgiev and keyboard player Filip Stevanovski. Two other band members survived the initial fire, but died later in the afternoon. Vladimir Blažev, the other lead singer, suffered burns to his face and hands and was provided with oxygen therapy; he was the only survivor from DNK. Shortly after the fire, rumors spread on social media that Gjorgjieski was alive and receiving treatment at his home, but his wife denied them and requested that social media outlets refrain from posting misinformation and for her and her family's privacy to be respected. Per witnesses and his manager, Gjorgjieski returned to rescue the people inside the club, and died when the roof collapsed upon him, killing him instantly. Another backing singer, Ana Kostadinovska, was injured in the fire and received treatment at her home; she was initially reported missing.
  
  A police officer at the club checking for drugs and minors died as a result of the fire. KF Shkupi football player Andrej Lazarov suffered from smoke inhalation and burn injuries while trying to rescue club patrons, and died a short time after in the hospital. Lazarov's mother said that he suffocated after falling off a bench in a hospital in Štip while waiting for treatment. Damjan Taneski, a young football goalkeeper from Štip, and Petar Ivanovski, a basketball player for Basket Dino Delicacies from Kočani, were also among the victims of the fire.
  
  Parents of some of the victims claimed that hospitals did not provide adequate medical attention to their children, leading to their deaths. A mother of a victim said that she was informed that her daughter was being treated in Skopje, but when her and her family arrived there, they were told that she was actually in a hospital in Kočani. They were blocked from entering the room by the police, and later learned of her death. According to the mother, oxygen had likely not been administered to her daughter, even though she was in critical condition, since the Kočani hospital did not have any supply of medicinal oxygen.