Brazil night club fire kills 230 in Santa Maria
BBC News online - 27 January 2013
Gary Duffy reports: ''It seems that they had great difficulty getting out''
At
least 230 people have died in a fire that swept through a nightclub in a
university city in southern Brazil, police and officials say.
Many victims reportedly inhaled toxic fumes or were crushed as panicking clubbers tried to escape.
Bereaved families have gathered at the scene where the fire is out and bodies are being removed.
President Dilma Rousseff, who cut short a visit to Chile, has been visiting survivors at the city's Caridade hospital along with government ministers.
She said earlier that everything possible would be done to help the injured and the families of the victims.
Analysis
First and foremost this is a national tragedy for Brazil which has not witnessed death on this scale at a public venue for decades.
The priority of course is to identify the victims and to support their families. But urgent questions are already being asked about how a tragedy of this scale was allowed to happen.
Is it true that a flare was lit during a performance on stage and this started the fire - and was this authorised? Who was responsible for ensuring this club had adequate exits, and again is it true that only one was available at the time of the tragedy, as some have claimed.
There will be pressure for these public safety issues to be urgently addressed, both for the sake of the victims, and as Brazil prepares to stage a series of major international sporting events over the next four years.
"I would also like to say to the
Brazilian people and to the people of Santa Maria that we stand together
at this time, and that even though there's a lot of sadness, we will
pull through," she said, speaking from Chile.
A firefighter told BBC News he had never seen such a tragedy in his life, with the victims "so young".
The priority for the authorities is now to identify the dead with many distressed relatives arriving at the scene, but in the hours ahead the focus will turn to the cause of this accident and safety procedures at the club, the BBC's Gary Duffy reports from Sao Paulo.
The death toll, which had earlier been put at 245, was revised down by fire officials. Emergency services said a further 117 people were being treated in hospital.
The fire broke out some time after 02:00 (04:00 GMT) when between 300 and 500 people are believed to have been in the club, where a band was playing.
Thick smoke engulfed the venue after acoustic insulation caught fire, officials say.
"We looked up at the ceiling in front of the stage and it was catching fire," eyewitness Luana Santos Silva, 23, told Brazil's Globo TV.
"My sister grabbed me and dragged me out on the ground."
Other nightclub fires
- 2009: Santika Club, Bangkok, Thailand - sparked by fireworks; 66 killed
- 2009: Lame Horse Club, Perm, Russia - sparked by fireworks; 150 killed
- 2004: Cromagnon Republic Club, Buenos Aires, Argentina - flare starts fire which kills 194
- 2003: The Station, Rhode Island, US - sparked by fireworks; 100 killed
- 2000: Luoyang dance hall fire, China - fire blamed on welders kills 309
- 1996: Ozone Disco Club, Quezon City, Philippines - 160 killed
- 1990: Happy Land, New York, US - arson kills 89 at unlicensed club
- 1977: Beverly Hills Supper Club, Southgate, Kentucky - 165 killed
- 1970: Club 5-7, Saint-Laurent-du-Pont, France - 146 killed;
- 1942: Cocoanut Grove, Boston, US - 492 killed.
The exit, she said, was a "small door for lots of people to come out by".
"The smoke spread really quickly, it didn't give enough time for people to get out. I think people started to feel unwell, and then they began to come out covered in black smoke stains."
The witness commended the emergency services: "Help arrived really quickly, ambulances, police."
Fire crews tried knocking through an exterior wall to help those trapped inside to escape.
Some 15 bodies were found in the club's toilets where people had apparently sought refuge, local reports said.
Speaking to BBC Brasil, Sergeant Arthur Rigue, from the local fire department, said: "I never witnessed a tragedy like this in my whole career.
"These people are so young… There were many bodies piled up in various parts of the place. Some were in the toilet. They died of asphyxiation."
Fire chief Guido de Melo told local media. "People started panicking and ended up treading on each other."
A temporary morgue has been set up in a local gym as the city's main morgue is unable to cope.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff: ''At this time of sadness, we are together''
They were led in one by one to see the bodies, according to the paper.
President Rousseff said the air force had made "resources" available at an air base near Santa Maria to help.
Santa Maria has a population of about 250,000 people, while UFSM has some 27,000 students.
Labels: Brazil, Controversy, Entertainment, Tragedy
posted by Pieface @ Sunday, January 27, 2013
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