Scores killed in nightclub fire in Santa Maria, Brazil

 

 

At least 180 people have died in a fire that swept through a nightclub in southern Brazil, police say.

 

They say the fire began when a band on stage started a fireworks display at the Kiss nightclub in the city of Santa Maria, in Rio Grande do Sul state.

 

Reports say there was only one exit and panic spread as people tried to get out. Many victims reportedly died from inhaling toxic fumes.

 

The fire is now out and bodies are being removed from the scene.

 

"Fire services are looking for other victims. We can't give an exact number of victims. People started panicking and ended up treading on each other," fire chief Guido de Melo told local media.

 

A reporter at the scene told local radio that the nightclub had a capacity for up to 2,000 people and was believed to be full on a Saturday night.

 

Thick smoke engulfed the venue after acoustic insulation caught fire, officials say.

 

Fire crews reportedly knocked through a wall to help those trapped inside escape.

 

Hundreds of people have been taken to hospital.

 

Santa Maria is a major university city with a population of about 250,000 people.

 

link

Wow.

 

The usual cries of outrage and remorse aside...the headline is just awful. 'scores' is like saying 'a bunch' or 'a lot'. If you know, fucking say 'at least 180 killed', not 'some multiple of 40 or more'.

245 people have died :(

.the headline is just awful. 'scores' is like saying 'a bunch' or 'a lot'. If you know, fucking say 'at least 180 killed', not 'some multiple of 40 or more'.

Was about to say the same. How fucking tactlessly can one be!?

That city is in my state. Holy shit. I'm speechless.

 

I live in Porto Alegre, the capital city of Rio Grande do Sul. A major avenue was closed and is being used as a landing site for helicopters coming from Santa Maria bringing injuried survivors. The state football league matches of the day were postponed. Dilma, the president of Brazil, who was born in Rio Grande do Sul, came all the way from Chile to Santa Maria.

oh man :sad:

Man, I'm shocked, the city is in my state, I have friends who live there, there's a huge university there so the town is full of young people, just imagining there could be someone I know inside the club makes me sick. 245 people is more than an airplane accident, it's just stupid, I'm so sad.

A big summer festival here on the state that would happen next weekend was postponed in respect for the victms. There are 233 deaths confirmed and 92 injured.

Brazil nightclub fire: Three arrested in Santa Maria

 

 

Brazil nightclub fire: Three arrested in Santa Maria

 

Brazilian police have arrested three people in connection with a fire at a nightclub that killed 231 people in the southern city of Santa Maria on Sunday.

 

An owner of the Kiss nightclub, a member of the band Gurizada Fandangueira, and its security chief were being questioned, police said. A fourth person, reported to be a co-owner of the club, is being sought.

 

More than 50 of the victims are being buried on Monday. Brazil has declared three days of national mourning. The country's deadliest fire in five decades reportedly started after a member of Gurizada Fandangueira, which was performing at the venue, lit a flare on stage.

 

Officials are also investigating claims that many of those who died were unable to escape as only one emergency exit was available. The BBC's Gary Duffy reports from Sao Paulo that the national sense of loss is profound. Most of the victims were students who died of smoke inhalation.

 

The government postponed a ceremony scheduled for Monday in the capital, Brasilia, to mark 500 days to the 2014 football World Cup. In Santa Maria, 30 days of mourning were declared. President Dilma Rousseff, who cut short a visit to Chile, has been visiting survivors at the city's Caridade hospital along with government ministers. "It is a tragedy for all of us," she said.

 

Authorities released the names of the victims, after revising down the death toll from 245. More than 100 people were being treated in hospital, mostly for smoke inhalation.

 

The fire broke out as students from the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM) were holding a freshers' ball, the Diario de Santa Maria, a local newspaper, reported. A local journalist, Marcelo Gonzatto, told the BBC that the flare had "started a huge and fast fire that grew quickly and made a very dark and heavy smoke".

 

"Lots of people couldn't get out and died mainly because of the smoke not the fire," he said. Witnesses spoke of scenes of panic after the fire started, and a stampede as people tried to escape. One, Mattheus Bortolotto, told local television: "It was sheer horror. The emergency exits did not work, and then I lost my friend in the confusion. Then a girl died in my arms. I felt her heart stop beating."

 

A large number of victims were trapped in the club's toilets, they said, possibly after mistaking them for an exit. Survivors and police inspector Marcelo Arigony said security guards briefly tried to block people from leaving the club, the Associated Press reported. Bars in Brazil commonly make customers pay their whole tab at the end of an evening before they are allowed to leave.

 

One of the owners of the club is reported to have confirmed that they were in the process of renewing its licence to operate, and that its fire safety certificate had expired last year. He is said to have received threats on the internet - as have surviving members of Gurizada Fandangueira.

 

Its guitarist, Rodrigo Martins, told local radio: "It might have happened because of the Sputnik, the machine we use to create a luminous effect with sparks. "It's harmless; we never had any trouble with it. When the fire started, a guard passed us a fire extinguisher. The singer tried to use it but it wasn't working."

 

He said the band's accordion player had died in the fire. Brazilian broadcaster Globo said most of the victims were aged between 16 and 20. A temporary mortuary was set up in a local gym as the city's main mortuary was unable to cope.

 

Family members who came to identify the dead were led in one-by-one to see the bodies, Diario de Santa Maria reported.

 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-21232740

So this guy Fabrício Carpinejar is kinda like a famous writer around here and this text was on a lot of newspapers today, I think it sums how I'm feeling and how everyone here is feeling. I tried to translate it the best way I could.

 

The Biggest Tragedy Of Our Lives

 

I died in Santa Maria today. Who didn’t? I died on Andradas street, 1925. In a hill full of smoke.

The smoke has never been so dark on Rio Grande do Sul. A cloud has never been so wicked.

Not even the most morbid and electric storms want its company. It will continue alone, as a single piece, a page torn from a map.

The smoke corrupted the sky forever. The blue is gray, we set like the sun on Janurary 27 2013

The flames settled at 5:30 am, but death will never again be controlled.

 

I died because I have a teenage daughter that takes too long to get home.

I died because I’ve already entered a club thinking how I could get out of there in a fire.

I died because I prefer staying close to the stage to get to hear the band better.

I died because I’ve already mistaken the bathroom door with the exist.

I died because I’ve never seen the fire asking for apologies when it passes.

I died because I’ve already been in some way everyone who died.

I’ve died suffocated by the excess of death; how to wake up again?

 

The building didn’t land on the morning, like an airplane out of control.

There was only one exit and the fear was all around.

The teenagers won’t wake up on lunch time. They won’t remember anything. Or understand how they suddenly got distant from the future.

More than 240 youngsters without the last kiss from its mother, father or brothers.

The phones are still ringing inside the chest of the victims on the city’s gym.

The families are still looking for their children. The college children that will always be on silent mode.

No one has the courage to answer and tell what happened.

The words have lost their meaning.

Survivors and police inspector Marcelo Arigony said security guards briefly tried to block people from leaving the club, the Associated Press reported. Bars in Brazil commonly make customers pay their whole tab at the end of an evening before they are allowed to leave.

:|

^To be fair, I highly doubt they were aware there was a fire, otherwise humanity is done for.

^To be fair, I highly doubt they were aware there was a fire, otherwise humanity is done for.

I agree, that's true.

Although one would think they would be able to tell the difference between the venue-goers' giddy expression of "haha I'm about to cut out of here without paying" versus their sheer terror expression of "I'm about to die if I don't get out of here".