Brazil buries first fire victims amid arrests

A policeman places flowers in front of Boate Kiss nightclub in the southern city of Santa Maria yesterday.

AFP/Santa Maria

Brazilian police yesterday arrested the owner of the nightclub where 231 revellers perished in a blaze, as well as two musicians who starred in an ill-fated pyrotechnic show at the packed party.

Authorities announced the arrests as Brazil began three days of mourning following Sunday’s tragedy, which forced the cancellation of an event to mark the run up to the country’s hosting of the football World Cup.

In addition to the arrests, a warrant was issued for another owner of the Kiss club, police official Michele Vimmermann said, as distraught relatives laid wreaths outside the venue in the southern city of Santa Maria.

Vimmermann said those in custody for up to five days were nightclub co-owner Elissandro Sphor and two members of the Gurizada Fandangueira band.

The fire broke out at around 2am (0400GMT) when the club was hosting a university bash.

Described as the country’s second deadliest, the inferno allegedly erupted during the group’s performance, with some survivors saying its lead singer lit a firework that may have triggered the inferno.

“We think the most plausible cause of the fire were the puyrotechnics used by the band, which released sparks and set the roof alight,” concurred police commissioner Sandro Meinerz.

He confirmed that since August the club had no valid permits allowing it to operate.

Allegations also surfaced that the establishment lacked the necessary emergency exits and that a fire extinguisher did not work properly.

Meinerz said the club’s emergency exits led to the main entrance, which became a deadly bottleneck. The immense majority of the victims died of smoke inhalation in the midst of the tumult to escape. But the club insisted in a statement that everything had been in order.

In comments to the media, a band member also denied responsibility.

As friends and family members bid farewell to their loved ones, officials revised the death toll from 233 to 231 and said at least 100 others remained hospitalised, 80 of them in serious condition.

As dawn broke, collective wakes for 24 of the dead were held at the town’s sports centre, followed by the first funerals in Santa Maria - a college town - and the surrounding district, home to many of the city’s students.

As a sombre silence hung over the gym, the family of Luis Dias Oliveira draped a flag over his coffin, their eyes swollen and red from crying.

In one of dozens of urns lined up next to each other, were the ashes of Joao Carlos Barellos da Silva who ran a website that wrote about the parties in the club. His lifeless body was found in a bathroom.

“He was a wonderful son. I have never felt such pain,” said his mother, Gelsa Ina Barcelos.

Like Da Silva, about 180 people perished in the bathrooms, suffocating amid the chaos as they tried to find the exits, said military police captain Edi Paulo Garcia.

At a cemetery in Santa Maria, Juliana was in a state of desperate disbelief as she attended the burial of her brother, Heitor Oliveira.

“Why? Why?” she asked during his funeral procession. “Quiet Juliana, he has to go,” said her visibly exhausted mother. “Courage, courage.”

Meanwhile, some of those who made it through recalled a night of mayhem. Amid a black cloud of toxic smoke, panicking survivors trampled each other in scenes reminiscent of a “horror movie,” 21-year-old Kelly Rebello de Silva said.

The entrance to the club was blocked off Monday and guarded by two policemen. “It’s very sad, I lost 13, 14 classmates,” 22-year-old Felipe said as he and others stood nearby.

The deaths sent shock waves through Brazil - which is due to host the 2014 World Cup - and President Dilma Rousseff cut short a trip to Chile to rush to the scene.

In the wake of the disaster, the authorities called off an event dubbed 500 Days until the World Cup, planned for yesterday in the federal capital Brasilia.

The town of Santa Maria lies west of Porto Alegre, one of the World Cup host cities.  Argentina suffered a similar tragedy in 2004 when a fire at a Buenos Aires nightclub killed 194 people and Argentine health officials have sent Brazil available reserves of human skin for future transplants to burn victims. The inferno is Brazil’s second worst. A fire at a circus in Niteroi in 1961 left 503 people dead.