• Brazil club blaze survivor: 'An angel saved my life'

    The 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. 

    By Keir Simmons and Laura Saravia, NBC News

    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.

    Slideshow: Nightclub fire in Brazil

    Felipe Dana / AP

    A fast-moving nightclub inferno claimed the lives of more than 230 people in southern Brazil.

    Launch slideshow

    "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

     

  • 'I felt her heart stop beating': Survivor recalls Brazil nightclub horror

    By Erin McClam and Isolde Raftery, NBC News

    Updated at 8 p.m. ET: The day after the Brazil nightclub fire, Mattheus Bortolotto described what he experienced to a local television station: "The emergency exits did not work, and then I lost my friend in the confusion. Then a girl died in my arms. I felt her heart stop beating."


    Revelers were celebrating the end of summer late Saturday at the club in Santa Maria when a band’s pyrotechnic display set fire to the soundproofed ceiling and started a fire that claimed 233 lives. Dozens choked to death, and dozens more were trampled in the panic that followed.

    The fire appears to have taken a devastating toll on a nearby university: Almost half the victims had ties to the school, many of them there for a party organized by students at Federal University of Santa Maria.

    The Federal University of Santa Maria said Monday that 114 people who died at the Kiss nightclub on Saturday night were students, graduates or dropouts. Most of the students killed had just started at the school.

    The school said that its Center for Rural Sciences had lost the most students, 64. Among them were 26 agronomy students and 15 studying to be veterinarians. A notice on the school’s website Monday said that classes would be suspended at least through Feb. 1. About 27,000 students are enrolled there.

    Also among those killed were five members of the Brazilian Air Force, according to a statement reproduced by Diario. Santa Maria is home to an air base.  They will be buried in the region.

    Read profiles of the nightclub fire victims at Diario de Santa Maria

    More than 100 people remain hospitalized for smoke inhalation, the AP reported. 

    The coffins were laid out in rows following the fire that killed hundreds at the Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria after the band's pyrotechnic display set fire to the sound-proofed ceiling. NBC's Keir Simmons reports.

    “It’s impossible to predict what will happen, because they are all in a very delicate state, but there’s hope for all of them,” Dr. Paulo Afonso Beltrame told the AP. He said hospitals in neighboring cities have taken in about 40 patients.

    “One of the problems we’re having here is that all these people need to be on respirators and we don’t have enough respirators in the city,” Dr. Beltrame said. 

    The city’s mortuary was also backed up, the BBC reported, so bodies were lined up at a local gym. Family members were guided through the gym to identify relatives.

    At the gym were Leandro Buss, a computer technician, and his 16-year-old son. 

    “I’m burying my wife today,” Buss, 35, told The New York Times. His wife, Marilene Castro, 33, died at the club. “We’ll see who was responsible for this.”

    The cemetery, too, has become overwhelmed by the plots that must be dug immediately. The cemetery has hired eight workers in addition to its usual eight and rented two backhoes, according to the Diario de Santa Maria, the newspaper based in Santa Maria, a city of 263,000 in Brazil’s southernmost state. One apparatus failed, forcing workers to dig out the plots with shovels.

    Thousands gathered Monday afternoon at a square in the city center for a short service. They hugged tearfully and when the nondenominational service came to an end, they applauded for a long time, according to the Diario de Santa Maria.  

    President Dilma Rousseff cut short a visit to Chile, the BBC reported, to visit survivors at a Santa Maria hospital.

    "It is a tragedy for all of us," Rousseff told the BBC.

    RELATED:

    Shoes, blood, lime slices scattered across nightclub floor

    Painful memories for survivors of 2003 club fire in Rhode Island

  • From joy to tragedy: Inside the Brazil nightclub where 233 died

    Slideshow: Nightclub fire in Brazil

    Yuri Weber/ Agencia O Dia via Reuters

    An interior view of the Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria, Brazil, after it was destroyed by a fire on Jan. 27.

    Launch slideshow

    By Alastair Jamieson, Staff Writer, NBC News

    Shoes, bottles and slices of lime lay scattered around the blackened remains of a dancefloor in Brazil on Monday – signs of how quickly a Saturday night student party turned into one of the world’s worst nightclub fires.

    End-of-summer celebrations were in full swing at the Kiss club in the university town of Santa Maria when a band’s pyrotechnic display set fire to the sound-proofed ceiling and started a fire that choked dozens to death and saw dozens more trampled in the ensuing panic.

    The image of the burned, empty building was in stark contrast to the town’s packed gymnasium where relatives of the victims gathered late on Sunday to mourn after the mortuary became overwhelmed with bodies.

    One woman fell to her knees in grief at the coffin of a relative, while others waited to identify their loved ones.

    In total, at least 233 died - 120 men and 113 women - while 92 people are still being treated in hospitals, Reuters reported.

    About 50 funerals were expected to take place at the municipal cemetery in Santa Maria on Monday, according to Brazilian television news broadcast Zero Hora.

    The cemetery opened early, at 7:30 a.m. local time (4:30 a.m. ET), and was planning to conduct burials at half-hour intervals, O Globo reported, saying the army had helped dig graves.

    A Brazilian nightclub owner and two members of a band have been arrested by civil police investigating the blaze, newspaper Diario de Santa Maria reported Monday. A fourth person is also being sought, the newspaper said.

    It said businessman Elissandro Spohr, also known as ‘Kiko’ – one of the owners of the Kiss nightclub in the city of Santa Maria – was detained “on a temporary basis.”

    Marcelo Arigony, a police inspector, said the arrests were "provisional" and that there was not yet a criminal accusation. He declined to confirm the identities of those arrested, saying the investigation "is still quite precarious."

    Sphor's lawyer, Jader Marques, told the Diario de Santa Maria that his client was present in the club with his pregnant wife at the moment that a spark from the pyrotechnic flare or fuse handled by the band lit the soundproofing on the ceiling.

    One of the worst nightclub fires in history has claimed a terrible toll in the southern Brazil city of Santa Maria, with at least 233 dead by the most recent count. Authorities and witnesses are saying the fire may have been sparked by a pyrotechnics show. NBC's Mike Taibbi reports.

    The main door of the nightclub was locked at the time, fire chief Guido Pedroso de Melo told O Globo.

    He added that firefighters responding to the blaze initially had trouble getting inside the nightclub because "there was a barrier of bodies blocking the entrance.”

    Survivors and the police inspector Marcelo Arigony said security guards briefly tried to block people from exiting the club, according to the AP, perhaps fearing that patrons would leave without paying their tab.

    But Arigony said the guards didn't appear to block fleeing patrons for long. "It was chaotic and it doesn't seem to have been done in bad faith because several security guards also died," he told the AP.

    In a radio interview, the band’s guitarist Rodrigo Martins said the fire began shortly after the band took to the stage at 2.15 a.m. local time Sunday.

    "When the fire started, a guard passed us a fire extinguisher, the singer tried to use it but it wasn't working," he said, adding that the accordion player Danilo Jacques, 28, died, while the five other members made it out safely.

    Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

     

  • Police: Brazil nightclub fire kills at least 233

    A fire broke out early Sunday morning at a night club in Santa Maria, in southern Brazil, killing revelers — many of them students. NBC's Mike Taibbi reports.

    By Jeff Black, Staff Writer, NBC News

    Updated at 1:23 a.m. ET: At least 233 people were killed after a band’s fireworks show sparked a rapidly moving fire in a packed nightclub in southern Brazil and fleeing patrons were unable to find their way out, local police said.


    The bodies removed from the Kiss nightclub in the southern city of Santa Maria were taken to the Municipal Sports Center gymnasium for identification, police said.

    Major Gerson da Rosa Ferreira, who led rescue efforts at the scene for the military police, told Reuters that the victims died of asphyxiation or from being trampled. 

    Police Maj. Cleberson Braida Bastianello told the Associated Press by telephone that the toll had risen to 233 with the death of a hospitalized victim.

    Officials earlier counted 232 bodies that had been brought to the gymnasium in Santa Maria.

    In addition to the number of deaths, more  than 100 people were injured, police said, and most remain hospitalized. Police officials had reported earlier in the day that 245 people were killed. The death toll could still rise, police said later, from the people who are injured.

    Fire brigade colonel Guido Pedroso de Melo told O Globo newspaper that rescuers had difficulty entering the premises because of "a barrier of bodies" at  the entrance to the club.

    Television footage monitored by Reuters overnight showed people crying outside the club as shirtless firefighters used sledge hammers and axes to knock down an exterior wall to open up an exit. 

    Agencia RBS via AP

    People help a man injured in a nightclub fire in Santa Maria city, Brazil, on Sunday.

    Rodrigo Moura, who the newspaper Diario de Santa Maria identified as a security guard at the club, said it was at its capacity of between 1,000 and 2,000 people and patrons were pushing and shoving to escape, the AP reported. Police estimated the crowd at some 900 revelers.

    Fire officials said at least one exit was locked and that club bouncers, who at first thought those fleeing were trying to skip out on bar tabs, initially blocked patrons from leaving, Reuters reported.

    The club's management said in a statement it would help authorities with their investigation, Reuters reported.

    One of the club's owners has surrendered to police for questioning, GloboNews TV reported. 

    "It was really fast. There was a lot of smoke, really dark smoke," survivor Aline Santos Silva, 29, told Globonews TV. "We were only able to get out quickly because we were in a VIP area close to the door." 

    President Dilma Rousseff cut short a visit to Chile and visited families of the victims at the Municipal Sports Center, where relatives were gathering to identify the bodies. She met with relatives of the injured at Hospital de Caridade de Santa Maria.

    Rousseff declared a national three-day mourning period for victims of the fire. 

    “Sad Sunday!” Tarso Genro, the governor of Rio Grande do Sul state where the club is located, tweeted. “We are taking all of the possible and appropriate actions,” the tweet read, according to a rough translation by NBC News. “I will be in Santa Maria later this morning.”

    The precise cause of the fire was still under investigation, authorities said. But Luiza Sousa, a civil police official in Santa Maria, told Reuters that the blaze started when someone with the band ignited what was described as a flare, which then set fire to the ceiling. The fire spread "in seconds," Sousa said. 

    The tragedy in Brazil recalled other nightclub disaster. A fire in West Warwick, Rhode Island, in 2003 killed 100 people after pyrotechnics used on stage by the rock band Great White set ablaze foam used for soundproofing on the walls. A Buenos Aires nightclub blaze in 2004 killed nearly 200 people. 

    Reuters noted that Brazil's safety standards and emergency response capabilities are under particular scrutiny as the country prepares to host the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament and the 2016 Summer Olympics. 

    The Brazilian state’s Health secretary, Ciro Simoni, told the news service that emergency medical supplies from all over the state were being sent to the scene. 

    Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

  • Australia faces 'catastrophic' days as wildfires rage in 5 of country's 6 states

    Rob Blakers / EPA

    Michelle Ardle was among the tourists evacuated Sunday after being trapped by forest fires in south-east Tasmania for two nights.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    CANBERRA, Australia — Australia was bracing on Monday for days of "catastrophic" fire and heat-wave conditions, with fires already burning in five states.

    Prime Minister Julia Gillard toured fire-ravaged Tasmanian townships and promised emergency aid for survivors, who told of a "fireball" that engulfed communities across the thinly populated state on Friday and Saturday.

    "The trees just exploded," local man Ashley Zanol told Australian radio, recounting a wall of flames that surrounded his truck as he carted water to assist fire crews in the hard-hit township of Murdunna, which was largely leveled by the inferno.

    Ferocious wildfires have forced hundreds of people to flee their homes in Australia's island state of Tasmania. Channel 4's Krishnan Guru-Murthy reports.

    Tasmanian police said around 100 people feared missing in bushfires had been accounted for and there had so far been no deaths as authorities combed through still-smouldering ruins of homes and vehicles, while evacuating local people and tourists.

    Bushfires were ablaze in five of Australia's six states, with 90 fires in the most populous state New South Wales, and in mountain forests around the national capital Canberra.

    On Tuesday morning, authorities were warning people living in Kybeyan valley to leave the area, where they said at least 20 homes were in the path of a blaze.

    Record heat wave
    Severe fire conditions were forecast for Tuesday, replicating those of 2009, when "Black Saturday" wildfires in Victoria state killed 173 people and caused $4.4 billion worth of damage.

    A record heat wave, which began in Western Australia on Dec. 27 and lasted eight days, was the fiercest in more than 80 years in that state.  It has spread east across the nation, making it the widest-ranging heat wave in more than a decade, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

    Chris Kidd / Pool via EPA

    Homes damaged by fire are seen from a helicopter between Dunalley and Boomer Bay, Tasmania, Australia, on Jan. 5. Hundreds of local residents and tourists took to the sea in boats to escape forest fires that burned to the waterline in Australia's island state of Tasmania.

    New South Wales Premier Barry O'Farrell said record-low rains have produced large fuel loads that increase the risk of fire, combined with record temperatures and high winds, Australia's 7 News reported.

    "Tomorrow [Tuesday] is not going to be just another ordinary day," he said. "Tomorrow will be perhaps the worst fire danger day this state has ever faced."

    More coverage from 7 News


    Tuesday would bring the highest "catastrophic" bushfire temperature conditions, fire officials said, warning that many blazes would likely be too fierce for fire crews to easily extinguish.

    "Any fire that burns under the predicted conditions — 40-degree (Celsius) temperatures (104 degrees F), below 10 percent humidity, winds gusting over 70 kilometers an hour (43 mph) — those conditions are by any measure horrendous," New South Wales Rural Fire Service Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers said.

    PhotoBlog: Wildfires in Tasmania destroy more than 100 homes

    In the Australian capital, Canberra, hit by a firestorm in 2003 that destroyed hundreds of homes, authorities said they were expecting the worst conditions in the decade since, with a fifth day of searing temperatures and strong winds.

    "With those winds it boosts up the fire danger significantly," the city's deputy fire chief Michael Joyce told local reporters.

    Blazes sparked by weekend lightning storms were already burning in forests surrounding the sprawling lake-and-bushland city, as they did 10 years earlier.

    Reuters contributed to this report. 7 News is NBC's Australian partner.

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  • Jet rolls off Moscow runway, splits apart

    A jet breaks into pieces after sliding off the runway at a Moscow airport. NBC's Kate Snow reports.

    By Alissa de Carbonnel, Reuters

    MOSCOW -- A Russian airliner split into pieces after it slid off the runway and crashed onto a highway outside Moscow on Saturday, killing at least four of the 12 crew on board and leaving smoking chunks of fuselage on the icy road.

    Television footage showed the Tupolev 204 jet, broken into pieces, with smoke billowing from the tail end and the cockpit broken clean off the front. 

    A man was thrown from the plane as it rammed into the barrier of the highway outside Vnukovo airport, one witness told the TV channel Rossiya-24.


    Another witness described pulling other people from the wreckage.

    "The plane split into three pieces," Yelena Krylova, chief spokeswoman for the airport, said in televised comments.

    An Emergency Services spokesman said four people died of injuries after the crash and four others were in hospital. Police said 12 crew members were on board, but no passengers.

    "The plane went off the runway, broke through the barrier and caught fire," police spokesman Gennady Bogachyov said.

    The mid-range Tu-204 was operated by the Russian airline Red Wings and was traveling from the Czech Republic, Krylova said.

    Rubble from the crash was scattered across the highway and the plane's wings were torn from the fuselage, witnesses said.

    Alexander Usoltsev / AP

    Rescuers work at the site of the plane crash at Moscow's Vnukovo airport on Saturday.

    "We saw how the plane skidded off the runway ... The nose, where business class is, broke off and a man fell out," said a witness, who gave his name as Alexei. "We helped him get into a mini-bus to take him to the hospital."

    Another witness described pulling four people from the wreckage when he arrived at the scene before emergency service workers. "We could not get the pilot out of the cockpit but we saw a lot of blood," he told Rossiya-24.

    Russian investigators said preliminary findings pointed to pilot error as the cause of the crash.

    Russia and other former Soviet republics had some of the world's worst air-traffic safety records last year, with a total accident rate almost three times the world average, the International Air Transport Association said.

    A passenger jet crashed and burst into flames after takeoff in Siberia in April, killing 31 people, and an airliner slammed into a riverbank in September 2011, wiping out the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ice hockey team in a crash that killed 44 people.

    The Russian-built Tu-204, which is comparable in size to a Boeing 757 or Airbus A321, is a Soviet-era design that was produced in the mid-1990s but is no longer being made. There have no major accidents previously reported with Tu-204s.

    The crash during peak holiday travel ahead of Russia's New Year's vacation, which runs from Sunday through Jan. 9, cast a spotlight on Russia's poor air-safety record despite President Vladimir Putin's calls to improve controls. 

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  • Bangladesh factory fire victims want old jobs back

    Ashraful Alam Tito / AP

    Ratna Begum survived the deadly factory fire by jumping from a fifth-story window.

    By The Associated Press

    DHAKA, Bangladesh — As 112 of her co-workers died in a garment-factory fire, Dipa Akter got out by jumping from the third floor through a hole made by breaking apart an exhaust fan. Her left leg is wrapped in bandages and she has trouble walking.

    Now she wants back in.

    "If the factory owner reopens the factory sometime soon, we will work again here," the 19-year-old said. "If it's closed for long, we have to think of alternatives."

     


    The Tazreen Fashions Ltd. factory had no emergency exits. Police are continuing to question three managers suspected of locking in the workers during the fire.

    Clothes from major global brands including Wal-Mart and Disney were being produced at the factory, though the companies said the plant was considered high-risk and they had ordered subcontractors not to use it in recent months.

    While major retailers whose products were found in the fire have disavowed the factory, the workers who survived have not. They can't afford to.

    Factories like the one gutted Nov. 24 are a rare lifeline in this desperately poor country, and now many of the more than 1,200 surviving employees have no work and few prospects.

    Fire sweeps clothing factory in Bangladesh

    Akter spent 25 minutes trying to get down the smoke-filled stairs before jumping, which she said was "the only option other than being burned."

    Despite her injuries and trauma, she needs the job. Without it, she said, she would either be a housemaid or jobless in her home village.

    Almost one-third of Bangladesh's 150 million people live in extreme poverty. There are few formal jobs in villages, where about 70 percent of the population lives.

    Garment work is one of the few paths to secure a stable income, collect some savings and send money to family — especially for young, uneducated rural women, who are already trained to make clothes at home.

    Thousands of textile workers gathered in Bangladesh in protest factory conditions following a massive fire that killed 112 people. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

    Sabotage to blame for factory fire, Bangladesh authorities say

    The industry has given women in this Muslim-majority, conservative nation an accepted opportunity to leave their homes and join the main workforce.

    "I have a life here." Akter said. "I have a timetable to wake up in the morning and I know when I should go to bed."

    Akter made about 4,550 takas ($57) a month sewing pants, shirts and nightgowns. Her husband makes about the same at another factory, but she said it is impossible for them to survive just on his salary.

    Thousands protest after Bangladesh fire traps workers, kills at least 112

    The landlord is demanding rent and she has bills at a grocery shop.

    "I am in big trouble because I don't have any savings," Akter said.

    The government announced Saturday that it would give 200,000 takas ($2,500) to the families of those who died in the fire and 50,000 takas ($625) to the injured. It also said uninjured workers would get their November wages, but many employees are demanding four months' salary as compensation. It is not yet clear when, or even if, Tazreen will rebuild the factory.

    "If I am not compensated, I have to start begging. I have to move to the street," said Ferdousy, a worker who uses only one name.

    With overtime, the 20-year-old earned up to 7,000 takas ($87) a month from Tazreen as a sewing machine operator. She fled the factory unharmed by bolting out as soon as the fire alarm went off, ignoring her supervisors' insistence that she stay at her station.

    But now she needs to work again, or to be compensated while the company rebuilds.

    "I worked hard to support my family. I always tried to cross my production targets so I could earn extra money to support my family. But now I have no place to go," she said.

    Ratna Begum, 30, who cannot walk without assistance, is too injured to go back to work for the foreseeable future and wonders how her family will afford rent, food, her medical bills and school for her two sons without her monthly pay of up to 5,000 takas ($62).

    She jumped out of a fifth-floor window to escape the flames, thinking, "If I die, my family will at least get my body." 

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  • Survivors of Bangladesh factory fire tell their story

    Andrew Biraj / Reuters

    Sabita Rani, 35, sits in her kitchen in Savar, Bangladesh, Nov. 30, 2012. Rani, an operator at the Tazreen Fashions garment factory, escaped the fire that killed more than 100 workers on Nov. 24. According to Rani, the factory manager did not let workers escape after hearing the fire bell, but Rani jumped from the third floor to save herself after her colleagues managed to break a window.

    Andrew Biraj / Reuters

    Tahera Begum, 25, lies inside her room in Savar, Bangladesh, Nov. 30. Begum is an operator at the Tazreen Fashions garment factory. Begum became mentally ill and lost her memory after escaping a factory fire on Nov. 24, according to Begum's husband.

    The Daily Star has written about Begum here

    Related PhotoBlog posts:

    Andrew Biraj / Reuters

    Harun-or-Rashid, 24, sits with his wife Reshma, left, 20, inside their room in Savar, Bangladesh, Nov. 30. Harun and Reshma escaped the Tazreen Fashions garment factory fire that killed more than 100 workers on Nov. 24. According to Reshma, the factory's workers rarely performed fire drills. Reshma broke her right leg after jumping from the third floor to escape the fire. Harun said they will leave their job and return to their hometown in Munshiganj.

    Andrew Biraj / Reuters

    Ale Noor, 35, sits inside her room in Savar, Bangladesh, Nov. 30. Noor is an operator at the Tazreen Fashions garment factory. According to Noor, she broke her left leg after jumping from the fourth floor to escape a factory fire on Nov. 24. Noor earns 3,000 Taka, about $37, per month, but says the factory's workers have had to protest to receive pay each month as the factory's management never paid salaries on time.

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  • Sabotage to blame for factory fire, Bangladesh authorities say

    Abir Abdullah / EPA

    Garment workers shout slogans as they attend a procession on Tuesday to mourn victims of the Tazreen Fashions factory fire.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    A deadly factory fire that killed at least 111 textile workers was sabotage, Bangladesh authorities said Tuesday, as protesters took to the streets for a second day and garment factories across the world's second biggest clothes exporter stopped work to mourn the dead.

    The country's worst-ever industrial blaze broke out on Saturday and consumed the multi-story Tazreen Fashions factory building. More than 150 workers were injured.


    The interior minister, Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, said according to a preliminary inquiry, the fire was the result of arson.

    He promised to bring the culprits to justice.

    "We have come to the conclusion that it was an act of sabotage. We are finding out as of now who exactly the saboteurs are and all culprits will be brought to book," Alamgir said.

    Thousands protest after Bangladesh fire traps workers

    Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also said she suspected the fire was an act of sabotage but she did not identify any suspect or say why she thought the cause might have been arson.

    Andrew Biraj / Reuters

    A worker visits a burnt garment factory Monday after a fire which killed more than a hundred people in Savar, Bangladesh.

    Victim's families to get $1,200 each
    The fire has put a spotlight on global retailers that source clothes from Bangladesh, where the cost of labor is low — as little as $37 a month for some workers — and rights groups have called on big-brand firms to sign up to a fire-safety program.

    Bangladesh has about 4,500 garment factories and is the world's biggest exporter of clothing after China, with garments making up 80 percent of its $24 billion annual exports.

    Li & Fung, a company that has worked with the factory and that supplies some U.S. clothing firms, said on Sunday that it would provide victim’s families with approximately $1,200 each, and plans to set up an education fund for victim’s children.

    On Monday, it said the company was "very distressed and saddened by the deaths" in a statement that also sought to reassure investors that the fire "will not have any material impact on the financial performance of Li & Fung."

    "The total value of orders placed for the year with Tazreen on behalf of Kids Headquarters, a division of LF USA … amounted to approximately $111,000," it said in a statement.

    "Li & Fung also confirms that the Company has not placed orders for other customers with Tazreen," it addded.

    Watch World News videos on NBCNews.com

    Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, said in a statement that one of its suppliers subcontracted work to the factory without authorization and would no longer be used.

    The company would not comment on what products were made at the factory and whether the products made it onto store shelves. A spokeswoman, Megan Murphy, said in an e-mail to NBC News that the company would have no further comment beyond the statement released on its website.

    A number of other retailers like Gap and Nike rushed to deny any relationship with the plant.

    Officials in Massachusetts say a blast, that injured 18 people and damaged dozens of buildings in Springfield's entertainment district, was the result of a utility worker accidentally puncturing a high-pressure, underground pipe while looking for a gas leak.

    Lax safety
    More than 1,000 workers, some carrying black flags, demonstrated in the Ashulia industrial belt on the outskirts of the capital where the factory is located.

    They blocked traffic moving on a highway and vowed to avenge the deaths of their colleagues, witnesses said.

    "Never shall we give up demands for punishment for those responsible for the tragedy," one worker said.

    Hundreds of protesters, mostly from labor and rights groups, also gathered in the capital demanding to know the cause of the fire and calling for punishment of those responsible.

    All of Bangladesh's garment factories closed as the nation observed a day of mourning. Flags flew at half-mast on all government buildings.

    Working conditions at Bangladeshi factories are notoriously poor, with little enforcement of safety laws. Overcrowding and locked fire doors are common. More than 300 factories near the capital shut for almost a week this year as workers demanded higher wages and better conditions.

    At least 500 people have died in garment factory accidents in Bangladesh since 2006, according to fire officials.

    Reuters contribtued to this report.

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  • Fire at German facility for disabled kills 14

    Patrick Seeger / EPA

    Firemen extinguish a fire at a workshop that employs disabled people in Titisee-Neustadt, Germany on Monday.

    By NBC News wire services

    A fire that broke out in a workshop for disabled people in Germany killed 14 and injured eight others on Monday, authorities said. Scores more had to be rescued from the three-story center, according to wire reports citing German officials.

    "The biggest problem this afternoon was the smoke situation," Alfred Oschwald, a Freiburg police spokesman told German broadcaster N-tv., adding that this was likely what caused the fatalities.

    The blaze in the small town of Titisee-Neustadt in the country’s southwest triggered an alarm which alerted the fire department. More than 100 firefighters were deployed to the scene, Markus Straub, a spokesman for local firefighters told The Associated Press. Dozens of ambulance workers were at the scene.


    The center, run by the Catholic Church's Caritas organization, employs people who are mentally or physically disabled to do jobs such as metalwork, woodwork and electrical installation.

    The workshop is believed to have employed around 120 people, the BBC reported.

    There was no immediate information on how the fire started. The buildings at the center were quite new, according to Armin Hinterseh, the mayor of Titisee-Neustadt, a popular lakeside tourist destination in Germany’s Black Forest region.

    "It is devastating. We now have to find out how it happened," Hinterseh told the local daily Badische Zeitung.
     
    "It will take days to investigate what caused the fire," police spokesman Karl-Heinz Schmid said, according to the AP.

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel is "shocked" about the loss of so many lives, her spokesman said on Twitter.

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Thousands protest after Bangladesh fire traps workers, kills at least 112

    Thousands of textile workers gathered in Bangladesh in protest factory conditions following a massive fire that killed 112 people. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

    By NBC News wire services

    DHAKA, Bangladesh -- Thousands of Bangladeshi workers blocked the streets of a Dhaka suburb Monday, throwing stones at factories and smashing vehicles, as they demanded justice for at least 112 people killed in a garment-factory fire that highlighted unsafe conditions in an industry rushing to produce for major retailers around the world.

    Another fire broke out in a multi-story garment factory in a Dhaka suburb on Monday, but a fire department official said the blaze was under control and there were no immediate reports that anyone had died in the latest blaze.

    Some 200 factories were closed for the day after the protest erupted in Savar, the industrial zone where Saturday's deadly fire occurred. Protesters blocked a major highway.

    Andrew Biraj / Reuters

    Workers shout slogans Monday as they protest against the death of their colleagues after a weekend fire in a garment factory in Savar, Bangladesh, killed more than 100 people.

    The government announced that Tuesday will be a day of national mourning, with the national flag flying at half-mast in honor of the dead.

    Fire official: No emergency exit
    Investigators suspect that a short circuit caused the fire, said Maj. Mohammad Mahbub, fire department operations director. But he said it was not the fire itself but the lack of safety measures in the eight-story building that made it so deadly.

    Fire sweeps clothing factory in Bangladesh -- more than 100 killed

    "Had there been at least one emergency exit through outside the factory, the casualties would have been much lower," Mahbub said.


    He said firefighters recovered at least 100 bodies from the factory, and 12 more people died at hospitals after jumping from the building to escape the fire.

    Local media reported that up to 124 people were killed.

    "I haven't been able to find my mother," one worker, who gave her name as Shahida, told Reuters. "I demand justice. I demand that the owner be arrested."

    Mohammad Ripu, a survivor, said Monday that he tried to run out of the building when the fire alarm rang but was stopped.

    "Managers told us, 'Nothing happened. The fire alarm had just gone out of order. Go back to work,'" Ripu said. "But we quickly understood that there was a fire. As we again ran for the exit point we found it locked from outside, and it was too late."

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    Ripu said he jumped from a second-floor window and suffered minor injuries.

    Mahbub said the fire broke out on the ground floor, which was used as a warehouse, and spread quickly to the upper floors. He said many workers who retreated to the roof were rescued, but dozens of others were trapped; firefighters recovered 69 bodies from the second floor alone.

    A fire blew through an eight-story clothing factory in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh on Saturday night. The factory made products for Walmart and other U.S. companies. NBC's Kate Snow has more.

    Many victims were burned beyond recognition. The bodies were laid out in rows at a school nearby. Many of them were handed over to families; unclaimed victims were taken to Dhaka Medical College for identification.

    More news from South & Central Asia on NBCNews.com

    Hazardous conditions are widespread
    The garment-factory fire was Bangladesh's deadliest in recent memory, but such dangers have long been a fact of life as the industry has mushroomed to meet demand from major retailers around the world.

    At least 500 people have died in clothing factory accidents in Bangladesh since 2006, according to fire department officials.

    The Savar factory is owned by Tazreen Fashions Ltd., a subsidiary of the Tuba Group. Neither Tazreen nor Tuba Group officials could be reached for comment.

    The Tuba Group is a major Bangladeshi garment exporter whose clients include Wal-Mart, Carrefour and IKEA, according to its website.

    Andrew Biraj / Reuters

    A firefighter inspects a garment factory in Savar, Bangladesh, on Sunday after a fire caused more than 100 deaths there a day earlier.

    Bangladesh has some 4,000 garment factories, many without proper safety measures. The country annually earns about $20 billion from exports of garment products, mainly to the United States and Europe.

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    The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association said it would stand by the victims' families and offered $1,250 to each of the families of the dead. The association's acting president, Siddiqur Rahman, said on a talk show late Sunday that Tazreen's owner was to meet with group representatives on Monday.

    "We will discuss what other things we can do for the families of the dead," Rahman said on Rtv, a private television station. "We are worried about what has happened. We hope to discuss everything in detail in that meeting."

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Train carrying gas bursts into flames, killing at least 25 in Myanmar

    By Reuters

    YANGON - A train in Myanmar carrying gasoline derailed and burst into flames, killing at least 25 people and injuring 62, most of them villagers trying to collect fuel spilled in the accident, state television said.


    MRTV said the fire started after three cars loaded with petrol turned over near a village in Kanbalu township, near the Indian border, just over 300 miles north of Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city.

    Residents of Chekgyi village were gathered at the accident site trying to collect spilled petrol when they were trapped in the fire. Some 70 percent of Myanmar's 60 million people live on farms, where fuel is scarce.

    A railway department official told Reuters the death toll might rise as some villagers were seriously injured.

    Later this month, President Obama will become the first U.S. president to visit Myanmar. The trip comes as recent violence in Burma is turning turns into a broader religious conflict. The Muslim community there is being systematically targeted by ethnic cleansing . Channel 4 Europe's Asia Correspondent John Sparks reports exclusively from the destroyed area of Kyauk Phyu

     

    Read more from NBC News about Myanmar

    Myanmar is among Asia's poorest countries.

    Its quasi-civilian government has opened up the country since taking over in March 2011 from the military, which had ruled for nearly 50 years, and pushed through political and economic reforms, leading Western countries to relax sanctions.

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