E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSThe death toll in that nightclub fire in Brazil has risen to 234, with many survivors still hospitalized. Mourners want answers and justice. NBC's Keir Simmons reports.
SANTA MARIA, Brazil -— At 2 a.m. on Rua Dos Andradas, a crowd of young people stands in silence. There is nothing to say.
As survivors try to cope with the aftermath of the horrific nightclub fire that killed over 130 in Santa Maria, Brazil, four people have been arrested. NBC's Keir Simmons reports.
Two nights ago, on this same street, at this same time, a tragedy unfolded that is hard to comprehend.
Outside the Kiss nightclub, where a blaze and its panicked aftermath claimed the lives of at least 230 partygoers – most of them students at the local university – the smell of smoke lingers in the air.
Now it has become a place to mourn and remember.
Among the survivors is Adreen Righi, 20, who is still trying to make sense of how the disaster unfolded.
Felipe Dana / AP
A fast-moving nightclub inferno claimed the lives of more than 230 people in southern Brazil.
"I was dancing with my friends," she says, recovering at home. "People started pushing. I looked at the stage and there was smoke."
Pushed over in the panic, she was trampled to the ground but still found air. “Breathe, breathe, come on now breathe,” she told herself as others climbed over her.
Keir Simmons / NBC News
Mourners stand outside the Kiss nightclub in the early hours of Tuesday, two nights after a devastating fire killed at least 230 clubbers.
Then, she recalls, “an angel saved my life.” A woman she didn't know pushed her outside, to safety.
In the fresh air, she hugged her friends. But some were missing.
Her classmate, Juliano, had gone to the bathroom 15 minutes before the fire. She will never see him again.
“He was a good person,” she says, “always smiling. Making jokes. He was a good guy.”
She is “very happy” to be alive, but adds: “I can't explain how I feel about my friends, about the city.”
Santa Maria is in mourning, but there is also growing anger.
Investigators must now seek answers to the questions being asked here: Why did the nightclub apparently have only one exit? Why did fire extinguishers not work, as some witnesses have reported? Why did security staff briefly block exits to stop people leaving without paying their drinks tabs?
On the street outside the nightclub, a hand-made poster says: ‘Nada justifica, 231 assassinatos' – meaning ‘No justification – 231 murdered’.
The final death toll is still unclear, but the message is stark.
Keir Simmons / NBC News
'No justification – 231 murdered'. A sign posted outside the Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria.
Globo television said 53 seriously-injured victims remain in Porto Alegre, state capital of Rio Grande do Sul,where a support unit has also been set up with psychologists to help relatives of victims.
Police officials said four people are still under temporary arrest over the disaster. Local media reports on Monday said those detained were two owners of the Kiss club and two members of a band whose pyrotechnic display is thought to have set light to the club's sound-proofed ceiling. None of the arrests imply any criminal accusation, police said.
Protesters marched through the town late Monday, carrying flowers, balloons and placards with the names of the victims, according to Globo, which reported that as many as 30,000 took part.
Among them, Eglon Do Canto told The Associated Press: "We hope that the justice system, through its competent mechanisms, succeeds in clarifying to the public what happened, and gives the people an explanation."
Edgar Zuniga Jr, NBC News in Atlanta, contributed to this report.
Related:
Brazil nightclub fire survivor: 'I felt her heart stop beating'
Shoes, blood, lime slices scattered across nightclub floor
Painful memories for survivors of 2003 club fire in Rhode Island
Leave a Comment:
assassinatos
Murder in the by assassination is the actual translation.
The issue sounds more like a failure of Building Codes, or Building Code enforcement.
I've read that exits were poorly marked and I'm guessing the building was not originally built for a night club, just simply made into one, meaning, not enough exits were present for a clearly overcrowded club.
In total agreement.
Imagine what building codes, code enforcement, ethical officials, and ethical club owners would have done for the others that weren't so lucky.
Other countries have different 'ways'. I hope that this tragedy changes things there.
"Angels in the architecture", Paul Simon
Pyrotechnics in a small indoor venue? Really? No one remembers the "Great White" fiasco?
Nothing justifies 231 murders.
"Why did security staff briefly block exits to stop people leaving without paying their drinks tabs?"
What? You mean the night club was actually supposed to allow patrons to leave with an unpaid tab just because the place was on fire? (eye roll)
It's the capitalist way . . . Triangle, Karachi textile factory, Imperial Food Products . . . there's quite a list, actually.
I believe there was so much confusion ... security did not realize there was a fire and just thought people were bailing ... other accounts say the fire was going but no smoke yet, then it suddenly burst into flame ... but there were no fire extinguishers, no other exits, no sprinklers ... the owners will be prosecuted for code violations and the band members for bad judgement in pyrotechnics, but the dead are still dead. And I'll bet most of these kids never heard of the "Great White" accident because it was in the USA, not Brazil ... they live for the moment and are invincible - death is for the older crowd and tomorrow.
An angel saved your life but let 232 other people burn to death in horrible skin searing agony... Aren't you special...
You read the article? She wasn't talking Divine Intervention, if that's what offends you. She was talking about a woman she did not know who pushed her to safety.
Seriously, dude? So the woman who was saved calls her rescuer an "angel." She's not being literal.
And just because the caring soul was in the right place at the right time to help this one person (and maybe more than that one, we don't know), but couldn't save everyone, that doesn't make her good deed any less good. What a horrible excuse for a human being she would have been had she taken the attitude of, "Oh, well, I can't save everyone so I'll just let the people I could otherwise help die because no one is more special than anyone else."
Mike, you didn't read the story, only the headline. The angel she referred to was another person in club that night.
Then, she recalls, “an angel saved my life.” A woman she didn't know pushed her outside, to safety.
Maybe the "D34" in Mike.D34's screen name stands for his average grade in school or IQ...
Effin' id10ts like this thing always want to attack other people's faith while demanding their non-faith be respected. They don't want "people of faith" to "force their beliefs" on them while they denigrate and try to break those peoples' faith, thus forcing their disbelief on the believers.
Mike, why don't you follow your own advice to the "believers" and leave them alone to believe what they want. They're not hurting you... other than perhaps your misplaced sense of grandeur thinking you have figured out the universe and decided that there is no supreme being.
"For HE Shall Give HIS Angels Charge over Thee, to Keep Thee in All Thy Ways." Psalm 91:11 I'll Take Any and All The LORD Has For Me and Any Ones Others Don't Want. Thank You LORD For All Your Angels. Glory Be To YAHWEH and HIS Son The Lord YAHSHUA(JESUS)!
Yep, Mike, no doubt Ardreen is special.
You, on the other hand . . .
Mike, You are a cold hearted dumba$$!!1
How did the band members escape if there was only one exit?
Not unlike Snagglepuss. "Exit.........stage left...".
My question as well - If they're at the back of the club performing, how did they get out?
Just like our government. "Over the backs of the little people."
Troy from Omaha,
"How did the band members escape if there was only one exit?"
Did all the band members escape unharmed? I don't remember hearing anything about whether they did or not.
Yes Mickey, they did all escape. One died though but that was his own fault because once he was out, he went back in to get his accordian and died.
Troy from Omaha,
"he went back in to get his accordian and died."
Thanks for the info. I hadn't heard about whether or not the band had survived. That's a high price to pay for an accordion! If he had gone back in to try to save another person, he would have been a hero. Now he is just a dead dumb-ass.
There were over 2000 people in that nightclub. The club owner(s) should be held responsible for not having enough exits, extinguishers in nonworking condition, and allowing pyrotecnics in the club. But he/she (they) will probably pay off the courts and get away scot free.
What I want to know is, how did the band get out so quickly?
Hey...here's a novel thought. OUTLAW the use of Pyrotechnics...INSIDE BUILDINGS! Just how big a friggin' RETARD do you have to be to not get the simple fact that open flame and gunpowder do NOT work out well indoors. This is without a doubt the most stupid s#!t I've ever heard of.
Yeah...in a concert hall it works great, that's because the ceiling is a hundred feet high. In a club with a much lower ceiling (20-30') you're just begging for trouble (See also "The Station" in Rhode Island, or better yet, ask those douchebags in Great White) .
And what about the band? If you're that much of a poser then buy a bigger set of lights. Everybody wantsa be a BEEG Rawk star...JEEZ! Seems like the bigger the band gets, the bigger @ss#oles they become, and these foreign bands are particularly cheesy.
But the local authorities (anybody ever heard of a FIRE MARSHAL?) should be all over this s#!t. Maybe they're too stupid in Brazil, but here in the states it should be a no brainer, IXNAY on the Irefay...PERIOD.
Apparently the problem here (and Brazil in general) wasn't a need for more laws but a lack of willingness to follow and enforce them.
Yes that seems to be the problem EVERYWHERE there is an issue like this. We only pay attention or change the rules after people get killed. Even then, we will enforce regulations for a while until we "forget" then we will go back to being careless.
It seems to me that the root of the problem is placing profit over human life. If it's true that guards wouldn't let people exit until they paid their drink tabs, and people died as a result, then no law or building code or anything else would have made any difference. Greed was the cause of death in that case, and I can't think of anything more disgusting.
In this article there is a line that states there is only one exit. Yet, not much further along it states that security in the club was blocking exits (plural) to prevent people who haven't paid their bar bill from leaving. So was there only one exit (in which case the owners of the club should be prosecuted) or multiple exits in which case the owners and security should be prosecuted.
Final thought.....
If the owners knew that the band was going to set off fireworks inside the club, ad the band responsible for the cause of the fire to those that need to be prosecuted, not only for causing a catastrophe and death, but for terminal stupidity!
Hey Kier Simmons & Laura Saravia...that pic of that sign posted outside the club 'does not' mean ‘No justification – 231 murdered’...It means 'Nothing Justifies 231 Assassinations'..you guys are professionals for crying out loud..
Just another example of human stupidity and greed. Thank God the nightclub owner didn't let those deadbeats get out without paying for their bar tabs. Now they're dead. I guess they got what they deserved??? Let that be a lesson to anyone who orders a drink and doesn't pay. Karma is a b*tch, I guess. Hope the bar owner is happy now.
I've been to bars in Cancun.....one was so overcrowded you literally couldn't move. Had a fire broken out in that club hundreds would have been trampled and burned, just like in this case. The hard part is believing that this actually happened here, in the US. You would expect this from a third world country, but here???
Umm, this was in Brazil Doc.
You need to find a better translator before posting the bad one that you used.
The phrase is: Nothing justifies 231 assassinations!
Much more logical, you can not translate one word at a time, you have to know what it would mean to the one who wrote it.
To the nameless woman, whoever you are--what you did was courageous and compassionate--indeed you were Adreen's angel at that moment in time. My hopes, thoughts, and prayers are with you as well as Adreen and all the others there that night. Whenever any of you start to feel depressed about what happened--just imagine the many of us around the world holding you and comforting you.
Um, how did the band get out so fast if there was only one exit? You'd think the band would be the farthest back from the door......did they have a separate exit in the back?
Who needs regulation, get the government out of telling us what building codes should be, deregulate, deregulate, deregulate. Obama are you listening, deregulate everything, free-market will take care of things.
LOL. Like Rand Paul who wants buildings to not have to be wheelchair accessible. Hilarious. Libertarians are the real Libtards.
You are missing the point...this is why we need regulations!! Regulations exist because we have people like these nightclub owners who do not care about the general public and then wonder why lawsuits are so big in this country. When regulations are not enforced against people who do not follow them, this is what happens. Anyone who puts profits over life are the very root cause of such terrible incidents. The owners should be indicted and sentenced for the deaths that occur. Murder in the first degree!!
Well, we certainly wouldn't want to infringe on anyone's rights. Especially the club owners right to make money.
Julieann, realist was being sarcastic.
Republicans and Corporate America constantly battle the American public over workers' and the general public's safety all for the sake of the almighty dollar...PROFITS. Yes, we live in a culture here in the United States where Congress plays into the hands of Corporate America to relax the very rules and regulations meant to PROTECT us from harm. GWB relaxed OSHA rules during his term in office. Corporations seek to outsource their products and services to other countries that do not have safety concerns for workers and the general public...hence the reason for being CHEAP labor!! And this is also reflected in our health care system. It is all about the money. The government nor corporate america care about the health, safety and well-being of the rest of us...they would rather make money at the expense of someone else losing their life. Then we wonder why lawsuits are so prevailant. Strong regulations, enforcement of those regulations and stiffer penalties will help keep lawsuits at bay. It is a no-brainer, people! Get with the program!! Paying off government officials and others who are paid to inspect and enforce these regulations should be treated as a much harsher crime. You cannot put a corporation in prison but you can put the people in charge in prison, especially those directly related to the bribes. We the people need to speak up!!
Uh, this happened in Brazil. You didn't need to turn this into an American politics debate.
"An angel saved my life" - bull@!$%#... where's the "angel" that started the fire... faith is a one way street to ignorance
Dumb*ss. You didn't even read the article.
This reminds me, I need to renew my Great White Fan Club membership.
Very sad day for the victims and their families, my thoughts and prayers go out to them. As a rule of thumb, when visiting these countries outside the US, and visiting similar venues, I always familiarize myself as to where the exits are and generally hang in the nearby vicinity. Their safety standards are quite different, and instincts to hold people for "trying to skip a bill" exists in more of those countries than less.
Bless each and every one of them.
A woman she didn't know pushed her outside, to safety.
Probably while trying to escape herself, I would hardly call this person an angel.
People want to believe in miracle and there is nothing wrong with that... Ones I was crossing the intersection when I've heard a loud scream on my left shoulder I stopped and looked back, when the speeding truck in front of me crossed the intersection on the red light , I felt the heat of it right in front of my face... I don't know whose scream I've heard but its saved my life. Was it Angel? Probably not but I sure like to think this way.
Gunjunke,
"People want to believe in miracle and there is nothing wrong with that"
No. There isn't. It's just that atheists are grumps and always have to have something to complain about since they have nothing to live for to begin with. It's like ESP. Some people have it, and some don't. If anyone claims to have seen an angel, how can anyone dispute it? You can't argue with personal experience. Maybe believers can see things unbelievers cannot. Having said that, she wasn't talking about an angel of the supernatural sort anyway; she was talking about an angelic person, another kind woman who saved her. Angel or angelic in that sense simply means kind or nice.
It's just that atheists are grumps and always have to have something to complain about since they have nothing to live for to begin with.
That doesn't make me grumpy, it makes me feel disappointed. It's disappointing that people believe in magical creatures with wings that go around helping people and then apparently revert back to human form after doing miraculous things.
Just give the credit to people. Like when the police come and save someone and people thank God. No, thank the people who just saved you. God is doing what He normally does, jack. How do I know? Because over 200 people burned while this person got to live.
And all of this because of a book written by people who were so special that God spoke to them about Heaven and Hell, angels and demons, but apparently didn't take the five mins to tell them how to keep from dying from diarrhea. So yeah, I'm disappointed.
FactOfTheMatter,
"It's disappointing that people believe in magical creatures with wings that go around helping people and then apparently revert back to human form after doing miraculous things."
The point I was trying to make is that you cannot tell another person what he has or has not seen unless you are somehow capable of seeing through his eyes. Have you ever heard of floaters? Eye floaters are small moving spots that appear in your field of vision. They may be especially noticeable when you look at something bright, such as white paper or a blue sky. They are caused by any of a number of eye conditions. Now if I see floaters and tell my optometrist that I am seeing floaters, do you think he is going to tell me I am not seeing floaters? Of course not! The same is true if someone tells you he has seen an angel. You cannot tell him he has not seen one. You may disbelieve him, but you cannot tell him what he has seen. It's a matter of believing or disbelieving, but you can't tell anyone that he has not seen what he claims to have seen. That's why I said you can't argue with personal experience.
I think the "angel" simply was pushing to get the person out of the way. Just think in a few years this is the country which will be handling the Olympics. Sorry I think I will pass.
No Angel saved anyones life. If you were farthest from the exit your probability of survival dropped dramatically.
To FactOfTheMatter, and Harry McNicholas - Adreen was down on the floor and others were crawling over her--the woman who helped her would have had to help her up, then pushed her outside to safety--the woman would have had to help her up--the woman helped her up instead of just crawl or run over her!
Sin of the City...Duran Duran. This song was written over 20 years ago about a similar incident, but if you listen to the words, it might as well have been written about this one. History repeating itself....very sad.
Our American hearts cry for you Brazil. It's a terrible tragedy that we've also experienced in the U.S. in Rhode Island and City College in NY. We were all young and didn't think about the dangers because "we expect" everything to be legal and up to code. Those negligent, should be held accountable. Cry and mourn these young people who didn't begin to even enjoy their should have been long lives yet. Any loss of life is senseless but more so when they're young innocents just trying to have fun on their vacation time. Lessons learned are only for those that think about those lessons and when many people go out, they're not looking out for danger, they're looking for fun and enjoyment. Don't let life make you bitter. Try to enjoy each day remembering your loved ones and being careful not to allow harm into your own worlds. May the dead rest in peace and may their families and loved ones find comfort during this very difficult time. The U.S. is thinking about all of you with much pain.
How unfortunate and devastating. These developing nations should have some government regulations to protect people from these businesses that are unsafe for crowds of people. We have fire regulations here in the states.
Oh crap! Here we go, starting with the " Angel saved me, God was watching over me " horsesh-t! What the hell makes you so special that some mythical figment of your imagination saved you, but let 200+ other people die? Get a life! You got lucky, others didn't. Deal with it.
jimhawaii,
There are regulations in place, but the system down there is so corrupt and based on bribes, back room dealing etc., that as long as someone can come up with money to line pockets, it will not change. There is bribery and behind the back dealings wherever you go, especially in politics, but it seems to be endemic to the Latin American culture.
Hi Ranger--I don't think the Brazilian lady was necessarily making a religious statement--it was another human being she was referring to. Sometimes a human will do something to save another's life, and then that person gets referred to as an angel. In this case, it's more a term of gratitude to a fellow human being.
BTW, I agree with your reply to jimhawaii--I think you hit the nail on the head on that one. But I think that all cultures have to deal with it to one extent or the other. It seems to be a part of human nature everywhere.
Wow, there have been too many incidents like this one, where many people died in nightclub fires. Every time I read about something like this I think how possible it would be for it to happen at one of the relatively small concert venues I frequent. Definitely makes me go over in my head where the exits are, and how long it would take to evacuate everyone in a hurry. The crush of a crowd is strong enough when people are getting into a concert, but I can't imagine the force of a panicking crowd trying to squeeze through a set of doors all at once.