Post: #1

BRASILIA, Brazil — A fire swept through a crowded nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, killing at least 245 people and leaving at least 200 injured, police and firefighters said.

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.

That toll would make it one of the deadliest nightclub fires more than a decade.

The cause of the fire is not yet known, officials said. Officials earlier put the death toll at 180.

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,

The newspaper Diario de Santa Maria reported that the fire started at around 2 a.m. at the Kiss club in the city at the southern tip of Brazil, near the borders with Argentina and Uruguay.

Rodrigo Moura, whom the paper identified 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.

"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.

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.

Post: #2

Everybody hitting me up on Facebook asking if I am okay. I was thinking about heading there Tuesday too.

Post: #3

Awful,just awful. I remember seeing the videos on you tube from the Rhode Island and Perm fires,it's hard to forget such images of terror. I always make a note of exits when I am in a club or pub now and if I saw someone lighting pyrotechnics in a small club I'd probably just leave and go somewhere else especially in corrupter countries then my own where licenses are bought easily under the table.

RIP to all the people who died in Brazil.

Post: #4

Damn, that's sad.

These massive fires seem quite rare, but like Vorkuta, I always make notes of escape routes and exits - especially when I go to concerts (I go to more concerts than clubs).

The third deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history happened just across the river from Cincinnati. Beverly Hills Supper Club fire, May 1977. 165 persons killed.

I wasn't alive at the time, so I obviously don't remember it, but it's one of those things among Cincinnatians, anybody alive at the time remembers where they were when they heard about it. A good friend of mine was alive at the time and his family was supposed to be there that night for some teachers' association dinner (both his parents were teachers).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverly_Hil..._Club_fire

...

EDIT: Video about the Supper Club fire.

Post: #5

Very sad, too preventable. Reminds me of a Rage Against The Machine lyric: "when ignorance reigns, life is lost".

My thoughts go out to the families.

I hope no one from here was in there...

Post: #6

These foreign clubs are fire traps half the time because they pack them to the rafters. You're feelings dudes' cocks on your back and hips as they squeeze through the crowd. I have felt every contour of a set of titties grind past my elbow without me ever seeing who the chick was. It takes half an hour just to work your way through to the bathroom.

It's surprising stuff like this doesn't happen more often.

Post: #7

In many places, there's really no such thing as fire codes. Just like the Rhode Island fire, the ceiling of the room they were in was made of something highly flammable. Also, if the act on stage is using any kind of pyrotechnics, they have to have a particular license, and of course venue has to be able to accomodate it. Add to that only one exit, and the place being packed, you've got yourself a disaster. I believe most of the fatalities came as a result of either asphyxiation or trampling/smothering. We always look at the aftermath and say it didn't have to happen, but many venues don't do anything to prevent these kinds of tragedies. They won't spend the money to remodel and/or add exits. We've had these kinds of things happen here at unlicensed social clubs also...

Post: #8

The bouncers didn't let people out because they wanted them to pay the tab.

Post: #9

(01-27-2013 08:04 PM)Pepini Wrote:  The bouncers didn't let people out because they wanted them to pay the tab.

Apparently they weren't aware how dire the situation was, and thought it was just a fight. Well, that's what I read at least.

Post: #10

Cellphones are ringing from the dead people and no one wants to answer it.
There is one with 192 missed calls from MOM.

Post: #11

It's sad and purely down to lighting fireworks indoors, it's stupid and should not be allowed anywhere.

Post: #12

233? Absolutely horrifying.
Hope we didn't lose anyone.

Post: #13

unbelievable tragedy. kids going out like any other night, everything to live for. devastating.