India, Dec. 8 -- The nightclub in North Goa, where a fire on Saturday night killed 25 people, did not have a fire safety clearance, had been served a demolition notice by the local panchayat for constructing the premises without a licence, lacked emergency exits (most of the deaths happened due to suffocation), and was holding fire shows in a building with highly combustible interiors. Rewind to similar tragedies in the past, and the resemblance to the tragedy at Birch by Romeo Lane in Goa will be shocking.

This was the case in Rajkot, where a fire at a gaming venue last year killed 33 people. The high toll in the 1997 Delhi Uphaar Cinema tragedy (89 deaths) was because there were not enough exits in the cinema hall. As always, the execu...