Santa Maria
Rio Grande do Sul
Santa Maria is a municipality in the central region of Rio Grande do Sul, the southern most state of Brazil.
unfortunately 230 died in nightclub: The
fire in Brazil is the fourth such nightclub fire in the past decade.
Survivors of the 2003 Rhode Island fire, who saw 100 die, lament the
failure to learn the lessons.
Flowers have been left in front of the Boote Kiss nightclub in the
southern city of Santa Maria, January 28, 2013. The nightclub fire
killed at least 230 people in Santa Maria early on Sunday..
see more after the cut.....
The bodies of the young college students
were found piled up just inside the entrance of the Kiss nightclub,
among more than 230 people who died in a cloud of toxic smoke after a
blaze enveloped the crowded locale within seconds and set off a panic. Many of the victims were under 20 years old, including some minors. Hours later, the horrific chaos had transformed into a scene of tragic
order, with row upon row of polished caskets of the dead lined up in the
community gymnasium in the university city of Santa Maria.
An early investigation into the tragedy revealed that security guards
briefly prevented party goers from leaving through the sole exit. And the
bodies later heaped inside that doorway slowed firefighters trying to
get in. It took six hours to carry a truck load of bodies out of 'kiss nightclub' with bodies piled on-top of each other like the Holocaust :(
Police inspectors said they think the source of the blaze was a band's
small pyrotechnics show. The fire broke out sometime before 3 a.m.
Sunday and the fast-moving fire and toxic smoke created by burning foam
sound insulation material on the ceiling engulfed the club within
seconds.
Authorities said band members who were on the stage when the fire broke
out later talked with police and confirmed they used pyrotechnics during
their show.
(Pyrotechnics is the science of using materials capable of undergoing self-contained and self-sustained exothermic
chemical reactions for the production of heat, light, gas, smoke and/or
sound. Pyrotechnics include not only the manufacture of fireworks but items such as safety matches, oxygen candles, explosive bolts and fasteners, components of the automotive airbag and gas pressure blasting in mining, quarrying and demolition.)..
One band member died after escaping because he returned inside the
burning building to save his accordion (like dude are you seriously kidding me??) The other band members escaped
alive because they were the first to notice the fire. the fire spread so fast that nothing was able to stop it.
Most victims died from smoke inhalation rather than burns. Many of
the dead, about equally split between young men and women, were also
found in the club's two bathrooms, where they fled apparently because
the blinding smoke caused them to believe the doors were exits.
There
were questions about the club's operating license. Police said it was
in the process of being renewed, but it was not clear if it was illegal
for the business to be open. A single entrance area about the size of
five door spaces was used both as an entrance and an exit.
shirtless young men who attended a university party there joined
firefighters using axes and sledgehammers to pound at the hot-pink
exterior walls, trying to reach those trapped inside.
Bodies
of the dead and injured were strewn in the street and panicked screams
filled the air as medics tried to help. There was little to be done;
officials said most of those who died were suffocated by smoke within
minutes.
Within hours the community gym was a horror
scene, with body after body lined up on the floor, partially covered
with black plastic and coffin as family members identified kin.
survivor told newspaper that she was near the stage when members of the band lit some sort of flare. "The
band that was onstage began to use flares and, suddenly, they stopped
the show and pointed them upward," she said. "At that point, the ceiling
caught fire. It was really weak, but in a matter of seconds it spread.".... "When the fire started, a guard passed us a fire extinguisher, the singer tried to use it but it wasn't working."...
I
believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge, that myth is
more potent than history. I believe that dreams are more powerful
than facts - that hope always triumphs over experience - that laughter
is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than
death
My heart goes out to Santa Maria...
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