Three arrested in connection with Brazil nightclub fire

Three people were arrested in connection to the deadly nightclub fire in Southern Brazil’s Santa Maria, killing at least 233 according to a report.

Zeenews Bureau Santa Maria, Brazil: Three people were arrested in connection to the deadly nightclub fire in Southern Brazil’s Santa Maria, killing at least 233 according to a BBC report. One of the arrested is the owner of the nightclub, ‘Kiss Night club”, where the incident took place. A band member of Gurizada Fandangueira, which was playing when the fire broke out, is also with the police for investigation.

Third arrested in the matter is the security chief of the band and it is reported that police is also trying to get hold of one of the co-owners of the club. A fire sparked by a music band’s fireworks swept through a nightclub thronged with University students, with most of them dying after inhaling toxic smoke. There was a university party going on in ‘Kiss nightclub’, when the blaze was caused by a pyrotechnics show by a band, filling the space with thick toxic fumes that were inhaled by the people rushing out to escape thus causing a stampede. Most of the deaths were caused by the inhalation of the toxic smoke and others were crushed in the stampede of people rushing to escape through a single exit. The single exit way was almost blocked with the bodies so much so that even the firefighters had trouble getting in the nightclub to douse the fire. With 233 deaths, the fire disaster in the university city of Santa Maria known for its university clusters is one of the deadliest fire tragedies since December 2000, when a welding accident reportedly set off a fire at a club in Luoyang, China, killing 309. In 2004, at least 194 people died in a fire at an overcrowded nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Seven members of a band were sentenced to prison for starting the flames. A blaze at the Lame Horse nightclub in Perm, Russia, killed 152 people in December 2009 after an indoor fireworks display ignited a plastic ceiling decorated with branches.