232 killed in Brazil nightclub fire
SAO PAULO, BRAZIL — A blaze at a Brazilian nightclub left 232 dead
early Sunday morning, in what appears to be the world's deadliest
nightclub fire in more than a decade.
More than 100 were injured
when the fire broke out at 2 a.m. in Santa Maria, Brazil, at a
nightclub called Kiss, which was hosting an event for a local
university. Most of the attendees were students of that school, the
Federal University of Santa Maria.
Television images showed smoke
pouring out of the nightclub as shirtless, young male partygoers joined
firefighters in wielding axes and sledgehammers, pounding at windows and
walls to break through to those trapped inside. Teenagers sprinted from
the scene desperately trying to find help — others carried injured and
burned friends away in their arms.
"There was so much smoke and fire, it was complete panic and it took a
long time for people to get out, there were so many dead," survivor
Luana Santos Silva told the Globo TV network.
Rodrigo Moura, identified by the newspaper Diario de Santa Maria
as a security guard at the club, said it was at its maximum capacity of
between 1,000 and 2,000, and partygoers were pushing and shoving to
escape.
However, Dr. Paulo Afonso Beltrame, a professor of the
medical school at the Federal University of Santa Maria who raced to the
hospital to help victims said he was told the club was filled far past
its capacity.
The fire may have started as a result of faulty pyrotechnics on stage during a live band performance, media outlet G1 reported.
Michele Pereira told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that she was near the stage and that the fire broke out after band members lit flares.
"The
band that was onstage began to use flares and, suddenly, they stopped
the show and pointed them upward. At that point the ceiling caught fire.
It was really weak but in a matter of seconds it spread," Pereira said.
The
group Gurizada Fandangueira, which plays a driving mixture of local
Brazilian country music styles, was playing. It was not immediately
clear if the band members were among the victims.
Some
survivors claimed revelers tried to escape before the fire got out of
control, but were held back by security guards because they had not yet
paid their bar tab, according to Radio Estadao ESPN. There's also
uncertainty if there was an emergency exit and one survivor told G1 that
the only exit was the front door.
"I don't think there was an
emergency exit," Fernanda Bona told G1. Bona, who was at Kiss taking
photos for the club when the fire broke out, added, "We didn't know what
was happening inside. It all happened in five minutes, not even. Five
minutes after I got out, I saw a lot of panic and lots of people trying
to get out. "
Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff flew back from a summit in Santiago, Chile, because of the blaze.
"We are together necessarily. We are going to make it through this tragedy," Rousseff said.
