Published
Tue, Jan 29, 2013, 10:58
- Club co-owners among those in custody following the blaze that killed 231 people in the country's south.
Brazilian police have arrested four people in relation to a nightclub fire that claimed 231 lives in Santa Maria last weekend.
As the BBC report, the fire is believed to have started after a member of the Gurizada Fandangueira band lit a flare on stage during a gig at the Kiss nightclub. The fire swept through the venue, with eye witnesses describing the panicked scenes that followed, with many unable to escape. One witness, Fernanda Bona, is quoted as saying: "I was in the VIP area and I could see the whole club. The area was close to the exit. I saw the fire going through the club. People were screaming 'fire, fire' and 'run'. People were scared and were running everywhere.It took a few minutes for me to get out of the club. I know people who are in hospital or who are missing. A lot of people died from not so much the fire but the toxic smoke."
The two co-owners of the club, a member of Gurizada Fandangueira and the band's security chief are now in police custody for questioning. The Brazilian government declared three days national mourning after Sunday's tragedy, while Santa Maria has declared 30 days mourning. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has been visiting survivors in a Santa Maria hospital, while the BBC report says that a temporary mortuary has been set up in a local gym, with the regular mortuary unable to cope.