Brazil nightclub fire kills more than 230 people
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) - Flames raced through a crowded nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, killing more than 230 people as panicked partygoers gasped for breath in the smoke-filled air while stampeding toward a single exit partially blocked by those already dead. It appeared to be the world's deadliest nightclub fire in more than a decade.
Witnesses said a flare or firework lit by band members may have started the blaze.
Television images showed smoke pouring out of the Kiss nightclub as shirtless young men who had attended a university party joined firefighters using axes and sledgehammers to pound at windows and walls to free those trapped inside.
Guido Pedroso Melo, commander of the city's fire department, told the O Globo newspaper that firefighters had a hard time getting inside the club because "there was a barrier of bodies blocking the entrance."
Teenagers sprinted from the scene desperately seeking 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.
The fire spread so fast inside the packed club that firefighters and ambulances could do little to stop it, Silva said.
Another survivor, Michele Pereira, told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that she was near the stage when members of the band lit flares that started the conflagration.
"The band that was onstage began to use flares and, suddenly, they stopped the show and pointed them upward," she said. "At that point, the ceiling caught fire. It was really weak, but in a matter of seconds it spread."
Police Maj. Cleberson Braida Bastianello said by telephone that officials counted 232 bodies that had been brought for identification to a gymnasium in Santa Maria, a major university city with about 250,000 residents at the southern tip of Brazil, near the borders with Argentina and Uruguay.
An earlier count put the number of dead at 245.
Federal Health Minister Alexandre Padhilha told a news conference that most of the 117 people treated in hospitals had suffered intoxication from gases they breathed during the fire. Only a few suffered serious burns, he said.
Brazil President Dilma Roussef arrived to visit the injured after cutting short her trip to a Latin American-European summit in Chile.
"It is a tragedy for all of us," Roussef said.
Most of the dead apparently suffocated, according to Dr. Paulo Afonso Beltrame, a professor at the medical school of the Federal University of Santa Maria who went to the city's Caridade Hospital to help victims.
Beltrame said he was told the club had been filled far beyond its capacity during a party for students at the university's agronomy department.
Survivors, police and firefighters gave the same account of a band member setting the ceiling's soundproofing ablaze, he said.
"Large amounts of toxic smoke quickly filled the room, and I would say that at least 90 percent of the victims died of asphyxiation," Beltrame told The Associated Press by telephone.
"The toxic smoke made people lose their sense of direction so they were unable to find their way to the exit. At least 50 bodies were found inside a bathroom. Apparently they confused the bathroom door with the exit door."
In the hospital, the doctor "saw desperate friends and relatives walking and running down the corridors looking for information," he said, calling it "one of the saddest scenes I have ever witnessed."
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.
The event featured a group called Gurizada Fandangueira, which plays a driving mixture of local Brazilian country music styles. It was not immediately clear if the band members were among the victims.
Santa Maria Mayor Cezar Schirmer declared a 30-day mourning period, and Tarso Genro, the governor of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, said that all possible action was being taken.
"Sad Sunday" Genro tweeted. He planned to be in the city later in the day.
The blaze was the deadliest in Brazil since at least 1961, when a fire that swept through a circus killed 503 people in Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro.
Sunday's fire also appeared to be the worst at a nightclub since December 2000, when a welding accident reportedly set off a fire at a club in Luoyang, China, killing 309.
In 2004, at least 194 people died in a fire at an overcrowded nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Seven members of a band were sentenced to prison for starting the flames.
Several years later, in December 2009, a blaze at the Lame Horse nightclub in Perm, Russia, killed 152 people after an indoor fireworks display ignited a plastic ceiling decorated with branches.
Similar circumstances led to a 2003 nightclub fire that killed 100 people in the United States. Pyrotechnics used as a stage prop by the 1980s rock band Great White set ablaze cheap soundproofing foam on the walls and ceiling of a Rhode Island music venue.
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Associated Press Writer Stan Lehman contributed to this report from Sao Paulo.
Witnesses said a flare or firework lit by band members may have started the blaze.
Television images showed smoke pouring out of the Kiss nightclub as shirtless young men who had attended a university party joined firefighters using axes and sledgehammers to pound at windows and walls to free those trapped inside.
Guido Pedroso Melo, commander of the city's fire department, told the O Globo newspaper that firefighters had a hard time getting inside the club because "there was a barrier of bodies blocking the entrance."
Teenagers sprinted from the scene desperately seeking 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.
The fire spread so fast inside the packed club that firefighters and ambulances could do little to stop it, Silva said.
Another survivor, Michele Pereira, told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that she was near the stage when members of the band lit flares that started the conflagration.
"The band that was onstage began to use flares and, suddenly, they stopped the show and pointed them upward," she said. "At that point, the ceiling caught fire. It was really weak, but in a matter of seconds it spread."
Police Maj. Cleberson Braida Bastianello said by telephone that officials counted 232 bodies that had been brought for identification to a gymnasium in Santa Maria, a major university city with about 250,000 residents at the southern tip of Brazil, near the borders with Argentina and Uruguay.
An earlier count put the number of dead at 245.
Federal Health Minister Alexandre Padhilha told a news conference that most of the 117 people treated in hospitals had suffered intoxication from gases they breathed during the fire. Only a few suffered serious burns, he said.
Brazil President Dilma Roussef arrived to visit the injured after cutting short her trip to a Latin American-European summit in Chile.
"It is a tragedy for all of us," Roussef said.
Most of the dead apparently suffocated, according to Dr. Paulo Afonso Beltrame, a professor at the medical school of the Federal University of Santa Maria who went to the city's Caridade Hospital to help victims.
Beltrame said he was told the club had been filled far beyond its capacity during a party for students at the university's agronomy department.
Survivors, police and firefighters gave the same account of a band member setting the ceiling's soundproofing ablaze, he said.
"Large amounts of toxic smoke quickly filled the room, and I would say that at least 90 percent of the victims died of asphyxiation," Beltrame told The Associated Press by telephone.
"The toxic smoke made people lose their sense of direction so they were unable to find their way to the exit. At least 50 bodies were found inside a bathroom. Apparently they confused the bathroom door with the exit door."
In the hospital, the doctor "saw desperate friends and relatives walking and running down the corridors looking for information," he said, calling it "one of the saddest scenes I have ever witnessed."
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.
The event featured a group called Gurizada Fandangueira, which plays a driving mixture of local Brazilian country music styles. It was not immediately clear if the band members were among the victims.
Santa Maria Mayor Cezar Schirmer declared a 30-day mourning period, and Tarso Genro, the governor of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, said that all possible action was being taken.
"Sad Sunday" Genro tweeted. He planned to be in the city later in the day.
The blaze was the deadliest in Brazil since at least 1961, when a fire that swept through a circus killed 503 people in Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro.
Sunday's fire also appeared to be the worst at a nightclub since December 2000, when a welding accident reportedly set off a fire at a club in Luoyang, China, killing 309.
In 2004, at least 194 people died in a fire at an overcrowded nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Seven members of a band were sentenced to prison for starting the flames.
Several years later, in December 2009, a blaze at the Lame Horse nightclub in Perm, Russia, killed 152 people after an indoor fireworks display ignited a plastic ceiling decorated with branches.
Similar circumstances led to a 2003 nightclub fire that killed 100 people in the United States. Pyrotechnics used as a stage prop by the 1980s rock band Great White set ablaze cheap soundproofing foam on the walls and ceiling of a Rhode Island music venue.
___
Associated Press Writer Stan Lehman contributed to this report from Sao Paulo.
Guess they legally don't have to deal with fire marshalls down there. Dunno how it works down there, but between the band and the club bringing more in past capacity, not to mention allowing the band to do that stupid stunt, can only imagine the number of lawsuits and whatever else that would be involved, not to mention the amount of sheer absolute stupidity!
 @Zoso Most of South America does not have lawsuits as we know them. This is one of those sad situations, go out for a night of fun and die.
I wonder what they do with idiots in Brazil?
230 dead and countless lives altered because some idiot thought shooting flares in a packed venue with 1 exit would be a good idea? Â I have no words.
So preventable. Just sad.
Hasn't this happened enough times before that everyone should know better by now than to light off pyrotechnics inside venues?
 @jowsuf Nope. Brazilians do not read much from my vantage point. If you can read Br. Portuguese and visit their news sources ( O Globo for example) you would see that the vast majority of the daily consumption of news here revolves around Brazil (ie, street violence, sex, food, entertainment, the beach, football, F1, and which police personnel have been arrested for multiple killings).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Station_nightclub_fire
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>>Â How many times do we have to learn that pyrotechnics are absolutely NOT appropriate in these nightclubs???? It seems like just yesterday that 100 people were killed in The Station fire in Rhode Island at a Great White concert. Again, the band and nightclub management were responsible for the pyrotechnics disaster.Â
One exit, and the pyro is a pretty big part of the show? Â Well you may need to think ahead, PYRO + 1,000 -2,000 people and one EXIT = DISASTER.
Setting off flares or fireworks indoors is just a recipe for disaster. If I owned a nightclub I sure as hell wouldn't allow anyone to set off pyrotechnics or anything of the sort. Those band members are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people.
 @Tattooed_Angel The band members would not have gotten the chance had the buildings owner \ manager been enforcing the law.
Likely not the first time that illegal parties have been held here so the City is also likely at fault.
What an atrocity this is. These night club fires and resulting stampedes have killed thousands of people around the world since time began. the United Nations should ban night clubs.
 @Rick4001CS Pretty shameful there Ricky.Â
 @Rick4001CS You're joking right? Night clubs should be banned because of a couple of stupid peoples decision to set off pyrotechnics within an enclosed space? How bout a prohibition of the use of pyrotechnics in clubs, that might be a more rational decision.
 @MossMan Not defending @Rick4001CS at all, but I think it's kind of disturbing that you seem to identify the problem as being the band's pyro, not owner cramming one to two thousand people into a room with only one exit.
This sort of thing is why we have many of our "nanny-laws." Too many business owners willing to endanger their customers to make a buck. Even so, they still don't go far enough. How many times have you gone in to a grocery store late at night and found all but one entrance/exit blocked with shopping carts? They're gambling with the customer's life to keep someone from possibly stealing a Snickers bar.
 @Fooey Patooey!  @MossMan  @Rick4001CS The owner is probably paying bribes to the City to allow these parties in the first place. There may not even be any business license or insurance. Likely not the first time and I have little doubt the Fire Dept. knew they were taking place.
We have mostly the same laws here as you have there, the difference is they are not enforced here due to inefficiency (ie accountability) , lack of funding, corruption and most of all laziness.
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When will these idiots realise that using flares and fireworks inside a building is NOT a good idea? I'm sure it happens hundreds of times a year around the world but why risk it?