HOUSTON — Houston officials are speaking out about video that went viral from inside a club last week showing what appears to be hundreds of maskless partiers crowded inside of a downtown venue.
At the same time as the Lil' Baby performance, officials were telling residents it was unsafe to meet with extended family members for the holiday.
“The club that we were talking about earlier, the governor’s order allowed them to have 800 people in that building,” Houston Fire Department Chief Samuel Pena said. “If they’re all crowded together, that’s the gamechanger.”
Pena explained the governor’s order allows for a bar to transition to a restaurant and operate at 75 percent capacity.
Bars may remain open as they apply for restaurant status.
“The governor’s orders are pretty clear," Pena said. "If they’re a bar they should not be open unless they’re transitioning to a restaurant."
We reached out to Spire management, which said the club was well below its legal occupancy that night.
"Every night we deal with keeping people socially distant," they said in a statement. "We get visited by [the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission] and Fire Marshall almost every night we are open and follow the rules doing our best. Once Lil Baby started to perform, people got out of their seats and rushed towards the front area, so we had to cut the concert short.”
TABC said Spire has had its liquor license suspended twice during the pandemic so far. The agency says the club is currently under investigation for possible non-compliance issues.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said he will be scheduling personal visits to city establishments that may be in violation of the governor’s order.
He said he may ultimately be forced to take extreme measures.
“The last resource that we have as local officials, at least within my arsenal, is to impose a curfew to just shut it down at a certain time,” Turner said.
Local officials said individuals need to take personal responsibility to control the spread as well, through social distancing and properly wearing masks in public.