"With some exits locked, Brazil club fire kills 233" by Simon Romero | New York Times, January 28, 2013
RIO DE JANEIRO — A fire ignited by a flare from a rock band’s pyrotechnic spectacle swept through a nightclub filled with more than 1,000 university students early Sunday morning in Santa Maria, Brazil, leaving at least 233 people dead, police said.
Colonel Guido Pedroso de Melo, Fire Department commander in Santa Maria, said security guards had locked secondary exits, which intensified the panic as people in the club stampeded for the doors. Most of the victims died of smoke inhalation, investigators said.
Survivors described a scene of horror....
The disaster ranks among the deadliest nightclub fires in history, comparable to the 2003 blaze at The Station nightclub in Rhode Island that killed 100 people, one in 2004 in Buenos Aires in which 194 were killed, and a fire at a club in China in 2000 in which 309 people died. In 1942, a fire at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston killed 492 people.
The loss of life in Santa Maria, which is in the relatively prosperous southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, shocked the country. President Dilma Rousseff canceled appointments at a summit in Chile to travel to Santa Maria, a city of about 260,000 residents that is known for its cluster of universities....
The circumstances surrounding the blaze, including the use of pyrotechnics and the reports of locked exits, are expected to raise questions about whether the club’s owners had been negligent.
While it is not clear why exits were locked, it is common across Brazil for nightclubs and bars to have customers to pay their entire tab upon leaving, rather than on a per-drink basis....
More broadly, the blaze may focus attention on issues of accountability in Brazil and point to relaxed enforcement of safety measures in an economy that is on solid footing.
Witnesses said the fire started about 2 a.m. after a rock band, Gurizada Fangangueira, began performing. Most of the patrons were students in the agronomy and veterinary medicine programs in a local university who were attending a party.
The band, based in Santa Maria, advertises the use of pyrotechnics in its publicity materials. At least one member of the five-person band was said to have been killed....
The scene recalled the 2003 fire at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, R.I., at which the rock band Great White was performing. During the show, pyrotechnics set fire to flammable soundproofing foam that lined the walls and ceiling, killing 100 and injuring 200.
I remember that.
In the Santa Maria fire, photographs taken shortly after the blaze and posted on the websites of local news organizations showed frantic scenes in which people on the street outside the nightclub pulled bodies from the charred building.
With smoke pouring from the club, young men joined firefighters using axes and sledgehammers in pounding at windows and walls to free those trapped inside. Some of those who escaped carried injured and burned friends in their arms.
Most of the dead were asphyxiated, said 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 because of the party. 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 flee, Associated Press said.
‘‘The toxic smoke made people lose their sense of direction so they were unable to find their way to the exit,’’ Beltrame said.
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.’’
Government officials focused Sunday on the grief in Santa Maria....
The tragedy occurred in part of Brazil where Rousseff made her political career before rising to national prominence.
Before departing from the summit in Chile on Sunday, she appeared distraught, crying as she absorbed details of the blaze. ‘‘This is a tragedy,’’ she said, ‘‘for all of us.’’
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"Neglect, errors led to Brazil club inferno; Extinguisher did not work; no sprinklers found" by Juliana Barbassa | Associated Press, January 29, 2013
SANTA MARIA, Brazil — There was no fire alarm. There were no sprinklers or fire escapes. And when a band member tried to put out a fire that had been started by pyrotechnics, the extinguisher didn’t work.
All the elements were in place for the tragedy at the Kiss nightclub early Sunday. The result was the world’s worst fire of its kind in more than a decade, with more than 230 people dead and this southern Brazilian college town in mourning....
The tragedy appears to mirror the fire at The Station club in West Warwick, R.I., when pyrotechnics from a band set acoustic insulation on fire in 2003, leading to an inferno that killed 100.
In Brazil, funerals for the victims began on Monday, as reports continued to emerge about the accumulation of neglect and errors at the packed night spot....
The event raises questions of whether Brazilian authorities are up to the task of ensuring safety when it hosts next year’s World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.
What are they going to do, take it away from them?
Some critics have said conditions in many Brazilian bars and clubs are ripe for another deadly blaze.
I pray not.
In addition to modernizing sometimes outdated safety codes and ensuring sufficient inspectors, people have to change their way of thinking and respect safety regulations, they say.
Most of the victims were college students 18 to 21 years old....
Tragic.
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"Outdoor flare may have sparked Brazil club fire; Inspector says band was trying to reduce costs" by Bradley Brooks | Associated Press, January 30, 2013
SANTA MARIA, Brazil — Penny-pinching by a band known for its onstage pyrotechnic displays may have cost more than 230 people their lives at a nightclub in southern Brazil, according to a police inspector leading the investigation into the deadly blaze.
Marcelo Arigony said Tuesday that members of the band knowingly purchased flares meant for outdoor use because they cost a mere $1.25 a piece, compared with the $35 price tag for an indoor flare.
“The flare lit was for outdoor use only, and the people who lit them know that,” said Arigony, adding that group members acknowledged regularly opting for the less expensive flares. “They chose to buy those because they were cheaper than those that can be used indoors.”
The repercussions of that choice continued to send shock waves through Santa Maria, a college town of 260,000 people that has been stunned by the early Sunday morning tragedy in the Kiss nightclub.
The Rio Grande do Sul state forensics department raised the death toll Tuesday from 231 to 234 to account for three victims who did not appear on the original list of the dead. Authorities say more than 120 people remain hospitalized for smoke inhalation and burns, with dozens in critical condition.
The blaze began around 2:30 a.m., during a performance by Gurizada Fandangueira, a country music band that made the use of pyrotechnics a trademark of its shows.
Police said the club’s ceiling was covered with an insulating foam made from a combustible material that appeared to have ignited after it came in contact with a spark from a flare lit during the performance.
After the fire extinguisher malfunctioned, the blaze spread through the packed club at lightning speed, emitting a thick, toxic smoke. Because Kiss apparently had neither an alarm nor a sprinkler system and only one working exit, the crowd was left to search desperately for a way out.
About 50 of the victims were found in the club’s two bathrooms, where the blinding smoke caused them to believe the doors were exits.
Arigony said people headed to the bathrooms because the only lights in the dark club were coming from there, and the patrons mistook them for exits.
The thought is terrifying, never mind being caught in such a thing.
The foam, which emitted a toxic gas, was not proper soundproofing equipment and was probably only used to cut down on the echo inside the club, Arigony said.
He added that a full analysis of the foam was ongoing. The malfunctioning fire extinguisher was not legal, he said, and the club’s operating license had expired in August....
That's not good.
Outraged residents marched through Santa Maria on Tuesday to demand justice for the dead, an unusual move in a country where public protests are rare.
Brazil does have its share of inequality and poverty.
The demonstration interrupted the police press conference, even as Arigony pledged to investigate everyone involved in the tragedy — including the authorities charged with making sure such establishments are up to code, such as firefighters and city officials.
The fire inspired nationwide action, and several mayors said they would crack down on nightclubs and other venues in their cities....
I guess if there is to be any good to come from this.... (sigh)
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Also see: Brazil club owner blames ‘whole country’
The Brazilian version of passing the buck and pointing the finger of blame.
