나이트클럽 화재로 230여 명 사상

브라질에서 1월 27일 밤 산타마리아 시의 나이트클럽에서 화재로 230여 명이 숨졌다. 나이트클럽에 출구가 단 하나뿐이어서 피해가 커졌다.
소방관과 경찰, 군인들까지 동원돼 3시간여 만에 불길은 잡았지만, 참사를 막지는 못했다.
화재 당시 나이트클럽 안에서는 500명 가량의 대학생들이 파티를 벌이고 있었다고 한다.
당시 무대 위에서 연주하던 밴드의 멤버 한 명이 불을 붙이다 화재로 번졌을 가능성이 있다고 현지 언론은 보도하고 있다.
생존자들은 불길이 빠르게 번지자 손님들이 단 하나뿐인 출구로 한꺼번에 몰리면서 피해가 더 커졌다고 말했다.

안전은 무시한 채 영업을 하는 악덕업자는 브라질도 예외는 아닌 모양이다.
이 입장료를 내지 않았다는 이유로 손님들의 탈출을 막았다는 주장도 나오고 있어 대형 참사로 이어진 것 같다.
의에 참석 중이던 지우마 호세프 브라질 대통령은 사건 직후 급히 귀국했으며, 산타 마리아시는 30일간의 애도 기간을 선포했다.  

 

About 2,000 people were inside the club when the fire broke out -- double the maximum capacity of 1,000, said Guido de Melo, a state fire official.

Investigators have received preliminary information that security guards stopped people from exiting the club, he told Globo TV.

"People who were inside the facility informed us ... that security guards blocked the exit to prevent people there from leaving, and that's when the crowd starting panicking, and the tragedy grew worse," he said.

The fire started "from out of nowhere" on a stage at the club and quickly spread to the ceiling, witness Jairo Vieira told Band News.

"People started running," survivor Luana Santos Silva told Globo TV. "I fell on the floor."

There was a pyrotechnics show going on inside the club when the fire started. Authorities stopped short of blaming it for the blaze, saying the cause was still under investigation.

 

The Kiss nightclub is popular with young people in Santa Maria, which is home to a number of universities and colleges, including the Federal University of Santa Maria. At least 80 of those killed Sunday were students at that school, it said.

 

The blaze broke out during a weekend when students were celebrating the end of summer. Many universities are set to resume classes on Monday.

Video from the scene showed firefighters shooting streams of water at the club and shirtless men trying to break down a wall with axes.

Smoke billowed outside the front of the building as the stench of fire filled the air, said Max Muller, who was riding by on his motorbike when he saw the blaze.

Muller recorded video of a chaotic scene outside the club, which showed emergency crews tending to victims and dazed clubgoers standing in the street. Bodies lay on the ground beside ambulances.

Friends who were inside the club told him that many struggled to find the exits in the dark. Muller, who was not inside the club Sunday morning but has been there twice before, said there were no exit signs over the doors. It is rare to see such signs in Brazilian clubs.

Valderci Oliveira, a state lawmaker, told Band News that he saw piles of bodies in the club's bathroom when he arrived at the scene hours after the blaze. It looked "like a war zone," he said.

 

 

 

Police told Band News that 90% of the victims were found in that part of the club.

The roof collapsed in several parts of the building, trapping many inside, said Fernandes, the reporter from Band News.

For others, escaping was complicated by the fact that guards initially stopped people from leaving, he said, echoing comments from the state fire official.

"Some guards thought at first that it was a fight, a huge fight that happened inside the club and closed the doors so that the people could not leave without paying their bills from the club," Fernandes said.

The deadly fire is sure to shine a spotlight on safety in Brazil, which is set to host the World Cup next year and the Olympics in 2016.

Many wept as they searched for information outside a local gymnasium where bodies were taken for identification later Sunday. Inside, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff met with family members and friends as they waited on bleachers for word of their loved ones.

Rousseff became teary-eyed as she spoke of the fire to reporters in Chile earlier Sunday. She had been attending a regional summit there, but cut short the trip and returned to Brazil early to deal with the aftermath of the tragedy.

"The Brazilian people are the ones who need me today," she said. "I want to tell the people of Santa Maria in this time of sadness that we are all together."

The fire started around 2 a.m. after the acoustic insulation in the Kiss nightclub caught fire, said Civil Defense Col. Adilomar Silva.

An accordionist who had been performing onstage with a band when the blaze broke out was among the dead, drummer Eliel de Lima told Globo TV.

Police were questioning the club's owner and interviewing witnesses as part of an investigation into what caused the blaze, state-run Agencia Brasil reported.

The club's license had expired in August and had not been renewed, local fire official Moises da Silva Fuchs told Globo TV.

The incident called to mind a 2003 nightclub fire in Rhode Island where pyrotechnics used by the heavy metal band Great White ignited a blaze that killed 100 people.

Pyrotechnics were also involved in a 2004 nightclub fire in Argentina that killed 194 people and a 2009 explosion at a nightclub in Russia that left more than 100 dead.