14 DAY TRIAL // Brazil has declared 3 days of mourning for the victims of the Santa Maria fire, which I covered earlier today.
230 people lost their lives as flames broke out in the local Kiss club, which was only equipped with one exit. At first, bodyguards prevented partygoers from leaving, until they proved that they paid their tabs.
ABC reveals in the report posted above how a local news crew was inside the building as it caught fire.
Please be advised that this clip contains graphic, shocking content.
Most of the victims were students at the local college, while others were as young as 16. Parents lined up in front of the club to identify and recover the bodies of their teenage children.
Blottr adds that the fire was started during a concert, by one of the band members that lit a flare. The venue's flammable low-quality sound insulation foam immediately lit up.
“The band that was onstage began to use flares and, suddenly, they stopped the show and pointed them upward. At that point the ceiling caught fire. It was really weak but in a matter of seconds it spread,” witness Michele Pereira describes, according to The Belfast Telegraph.