Santa Maria, Brazil – A deadly fire swept through a crowded nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, killing at least 245 people attending a university party and leaving at least 200 injured, police and firefighters said. It appeared to be the deadliest nightclub fire in more than a decade.
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Witnesses said that a flare or firework lit by band members may have started the fire.
Police Maj. Cleberson Braida told local news media that the 245 bodies were brought for identification to a gymnasium in the city of Santa Maria, at the southern tip of Brazil near the borders with Argentina and Uruguay
Television images showed smoke pouring out of the Kiss 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.
Silva added that firefighters and ambulances responded quickly after the fire broke out, but that it spread too fast inside the packed club for them to help.
Michele Pereira, another survivor, 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.
Civil Police and regional government spokesman Marcelo Arigoni told Radio Gaucha earlier that the total number of victims is still unclear and there may be hundreds injured. Officials earlier said 180 were killed.
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.
Ezekiel Corte Real, 23, was quoted by the paper as saying that he helped people to escape. “I just got out because I’m very strong,” he said.
The fire led President Dilma Roussef to cancel a series of meetings she had scheduled at a summit of Latin American and European leaders in Chile’s capital of Santiago, and was headed to Santa Maria, according to the Brazilian foreign ministry.
“It is a tragedy for all of us. I am not going to continue in the meeting (in Chile) for very clear reasons,” she said.
“Sad Sunday”, tweeted Tarso Genro, the governor of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. He said all possible action was being taken and that he would be in the city later in the day.
Santa Maria is a major university city with a population of around a quarter of a million.
A welding accident reportedly set off a Dec. 25, 2000, fire at a club in Luoyang, China, killing 309.
At least 194 people died at an overcrowded working-class nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2004. Seven members the band were sentenced to prison for setting off the blaze.
A blaze at the Lame Horse nightclub in Perm, Russia, broke out on Dec. 5, 2009, when an indoor fireworks display ignited a plastic ceiling decorated with branches, killing 152
A nightclub fire in the U.S. state of Rhode Island in 2003 killed 100 people after pyrotechnics used as a stage prop by the 1980s rock band Great White set ablaze cheap soundproofing foam on the walls and ceiling.
rc”l
I think congress should enact swift night club ban legislation. How many more innocent people have to die because of senseless night club violence. So what if the constitution allows the right of peaceful assembly, surely the president can (by executive order) override that right. Congress should not be beholden to the bill of rights. After all, the constitution is a living document and if we the people think night club violence is dangerous and excessive, first amendment be damned.
“…maximum capacity of between 1,000 and 2,000”.
Huh? Isn’t “maximum capacity” a PRECISE number?
What is an assault gun?
The point is, if not for the second amendment, and the ability to have an armed citizenry there would be no first amazement and no fourth amendment. It amazes me, that even elected officials have no idea as to the significance of the second amendment. It has nothing to do with the ‘hunting culture’, or being on the frontier, or living in a forest. It has everything to do with solidifying and insuring the notion that freedom and liberty; all personal rights come from (God and) the individual. They are not bestowed upon the people by a ‘benevolent’ government. Because as we know, ‘benevolent’ governments are afraid of an armed citizenry.
Having an armed law-abiding citizenry allows for tolerance and pluralism in a society. A person would think twice before attacking another person’s religious ceremony or practice, or peaceful assembly because they, like you, are armed. If I recognize your right to bear arms then I recognize your right…to be.
Instead we have relegated our own self defense to government sponsored authority i.e. law enforcement.
more on this….
Nebech, terrible tragedy. To some of the cold hearted Yidden who don’t care because these weren’t from us, next time it might be. R’L
I think in NY there are countless laws that would prevent such a tragady, fire proof material, sprinkler systems and multiple exits etc…
The Bazooka or machine gun are not the point. Obviously, there should be background checks, no guns given to felons, minors or people with psychiatric conditions. But the very nuanced and arduous process of obtaining a weapon of any kind (handgun, revolver), makes it more difficult for law abiding citizens, who are rarely responsible for gun violence, to obtain a weapon to protect him or herself. Congressional gun grabs, post facto rendering of guns or clips illegal, or pronouncements from politicians does NOTHING to curb gun violence.
In NYC; the population, is about 45% white, about 25% black and 25% Hispanic, yet 90% of gun crimes in NY in 2012 were perpetrated by blacks and Hispanics, and the vast majority of those guns were illegally obtained.
So until we deal with the real issues: Black violence (black illegitimacy rates (>70%) which are a direct result of a broken family and cause for violence) , Weak enforcement of existing laws, Pronouncements about gun violence and gun control target only law abiding citizens. Not the drive-by criminal, not the convicted gang member, and not a reed haired lunatic.
Arm yourselves…
Unfortunately, these kinds of tragedies involving fires, have also occurred in the USA. In 1942, over 300 people were killed in Boston, at a nightclub fire; in 1977, there was a death toll of nearly 200 at a nightclub near Cincinnati. Also, there was a death toll of about 50 at a rock concert in Rhode Island,m around 2004, when some pyrotechnics ignited.
This is why hakadosh baruch hu doesnt want u clubbing