Nightclub fire: Horror find in bathroom
2013-01-27 22:00
Video
2013-01-27 16:52
Watch as volunteers battle fire and smoke to rescue people in the aftermath of a deadly fire at a nightclub in southern Brazil that left as many as 200 dead. WATCH
Brasilia - Brazilian rescue workers have told how they found 50 bodies piled into a bathroom at the nightclub in Santa Maria, where a fire killed at least 230 people.
The blaze raced through the crowded nightclub early on Sunday, killing at least 232 people as the air filled with deadly
smoke and panicked party-goers stampeded toward the exits, police and
witnesses said.
Witnesses said that a flare or firework lit by band members may have started the fire.
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 members of the band 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.
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 raced the city's Caridade Hospital
to help victims.
He said survivors, police and firefighters told him a
flare set by a band member set the ceiling's soundproofing ablaze.
"
Large amounts of toxic smoke quickly filled the room and I would say
that at least 90% 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 I saw desperate friends and relatives
walking and running down the corridors looking for information. It was
one of the saddest scenes I have ever witnessed," he added.
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.
Beltrame also said he was told the club was filled far
past its capacity during a party for students at the university's
department of agronomy.
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.
The fire led President Dilma Roussef to cancel a series
of meetings 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.
