PHOTOS-Huge Fire Kills 245+ in Nightclub Fire in Brazil
 

At least 245 killed' in Brazil nightclub blaze 'after musician set fireworks off on stage'


Estimates in local media claim that up to five hundred people were in the club

Independant UK, 27 Jan 2013


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At least 245 people have been reportedly killed in a nightclub fire in southern Brazil. According to reports at least 200 others have also been treated in hospital after the blaze ripped through the Kiss Nightclub in the city of Santa Maria in Rio Grande do Sul.

Estimates in local media claim that up to five hundred people were in the club at the time.
The fire reportedly began when the singer of a band performing let off fireworks.
According to some reports the sound proofing of the building caught fire and the victims died from smoke inhalation. Thick toxic smoke is said to have quickly filled the club.
A local governor tweeted today, “Sad Sunday. We are taking appropriate action and possible. I'll Be in Santa Maria in the late morning.”
Firefighters confirmed all the deaths were due to smoke inhalation.
"We have just taken the fire under control," Colonel Silvia Fuchs of the local fire department was quoted by Reuters as saying.
"Now we are removing the bodies."
The building reportedly only had one emergency exit, and firefighters had to make a hole in the wall to help people escape.

Re: PHOTOS-Huge Fire Kills 245+ in Nightclub Fire in Brazil
 

Three Arrested in The Brazil Nightclub Fire.

Updated 9:11 AM EST, Mon January 28, 2013

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Firefighters stand at the burnt-out entrance of the Kiss night club on Sunday, January 27 in Santa Maria, Brazil.


Authorities have arrested three people in connection with the fire, state-run Agencia Brasil reported on Monday.

The owners of the nightclub, meanwhile, pledged to cooperate with the investigation into the fire, according to a statement released by the law firm of Kummel & Kummel. "We are open to all authorities and inspections," said the statement, obtained by Globo TV.

The club's license had expired in August and had not been renewed, a local fire official told Globo TV.

The owners, however, said the nightclub was properly permitted and had been inspected by the fire marshal.

The band, Gurizada Fandangueira, was a popular attraction at Kiss in part because of its pyrotechnic show, according to Billboard.com. It played at the nightclub about once a month, and was there Sunday to promote a new album.

Martins, the guitarist, told Radio Gaucha the band had been on stage for about 20 minutes, finishing the fifth song of its set, when it set off its "sputnik" pyrotechnics -- sparkler columns that shoot up in the air.
"We used it all the time. ... We never had this problem before," he told the radio station late Sunday.

Martins said he first noticed a small ember, and then he looked up at the ceiling and saw the flames.

A backstage hand attempted to put out the blaze with a fire extinguisher. "But it didn't work," he said.

Martins said as he and the other band members got off the stage, there were 20 to 30 people in front of him who were "being blocked by security." People started pushing and shoving, and then they tripped over one another trying to get to the door.

Martins said the band's accordion player, 28-year-old Danilo Jacques, died in the fire. "I saw him, and then I lost him in the crowd."

Later Sunday, family members wept as they searched for information outside a local gymnasium where bodies were taken for identification.

Inside, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff met with relatives as they waited on bleachers for word of their loved ones. She had been attending a regional summit in Chile, but cut short the trip and returned to Brazil early to deal with the aftermath of the tragedy.

"The Brazilian people are the ones who need me today," she said. "I want to tell the people of Santa Maria in this time of sadness that we are all together."

Ericmar Avila Dos Santos went from hospital to hospital Sunday, searching for his 23-year-old brother. Hours earlier, he learned in a telephone call from a friend that his older brother was among those missing following the fire.

His family scanned lists, talked with police officials. They checked with friends, searched everywhere. They finally found him -- among hundreds of bodies laid out on body bags at a makeshift morgue at a local gym.

On Monday, the first of Brazil's three days of mourning, the three cemeteries in the city of 260,000 were packed with families readying to bury their dead.