Three arrested after 231 killed in blaze at Brazilian nightclub

Three people have been arrested over the blaze that killed more than 200 people in a Brazilian nightclub over the weekend.

They are thought to be Elissandro Spohr, a co-owner of the club, and two band members who were on stage when the fire broke out and used pyrotechnics in their act.

The death toll now stands at 231 people in the fire at the Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria, a university town of about 260,000 people in southern Brazil. Many of the victims were under 20 years old.

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Police think the pyrotechnics ignited insulation on the ceiling with up to 2,000 people packed inside.

Witnesses have reported a fire extinguisher did not work and that there was only one exit. Many of the dead were also found in the club’s two toilets, where they fled apparently because the blinding smoke caused them to believe the doors were exits.

“It was terrible inside – it was like one of those films of the Holocaust, bodies piled atop one another,” said police inspector Sandro Meinerz. “We had to use trucks to remove them. It took about six hours to take the bodies away.”

Survivors said security guards briefly tried to block people from exiting the club. Brazilian bars routinely make patrons pay their entire tab at the end of the night.

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Firefighters responding to the blaze initially had trouble getting inside the nightclub because “there was a barrier of bodies blocking the entrance”, Guido Pedroso Melo, commander of the city’s fire department, said.

Authorities said band members who were on the stage when the fire broke out later confirmed they used pyrotechnics during their show.

Guitarist Rodrigo Martins said that the band, Gurizada Fandangueira, started playing at 2.15am “and we had played around five songs when I looked up and noticed the roof was burning.

“It might have happened because of the Sputnik, the machine we use to create a luminous effect with sparks. It’s harmless, we never had any trouble with it,” he said. “When the fire started, a guard passed us a fire extinguisher, the singer tried to use it but it wasn’t working.”

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He confirmed that accordion player Danilo Jacques, 28, died, while the five other members made it out safely.

Bodies of the dead and injured were strewn in the street and panicked screams filled the air as medics tried to help. There was little to be done; officials said most of those who died suffocated within minutes.

“There was so much smoke and fire, it was complete panic, and it took a long time for people to get out, there were so many dead,” survivor Luana Santos Silva said.

A community gym soon became a horror scene, with body after body lined up on the floor, partially covered with black plastic as family members identified kin.

The party was organised by students from several academic departments at the Federal University of Santa Maria. Organised university parties are common throughout Brazil.

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