The Kiss nightclub fire started between 2:00 and 2:30 a.m. (
BRST) on 27 January 2013 in
Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul
Santa Maria is a municipality (''município'') in the central region of Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil. In 2020, its population was 283,677 inhabitants in a total area of . Santa Maria is the 5th biggest municipality in the ...
, Brazil, killing 245 people
[ and injuring at least 630 others.] It is the second most-devastating fire disaster in the history of Brazil—surpassed only by the Niterói circus fire of December 1961, which killed 503 people in Niterói, and the deadliest nightclub fire since the December 2000 fire that killed 309 people in Luoyang
Luoyang is a city located in the confluence area of Luo River and Yellow River in the west of Henan province. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang ...
, China. It is also the third-deadliest nightclub fire in history, behind that fire and the Cocoanut Grove fire
The Cocoanut Grove fire was a nightclub fire which took place in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, on November 28, 1942, and resulted in the deaths of 492 people. It is the deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history, and the second-deadliest ...
in 1942.
Incident
The party, called "Aglomerados", organized by students from six universities and technical courses at the Federal University of Santa Maria
The Federal University of Santa Maria ( pt, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, UFSM) is a Brazilian public university located in Santa Maria, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, funded by the federal government of Brazil. It was founded in 1 ...
, began on Saturday, 26 January 2013 at 23:00 UTC. Two bands were scheduled to perform that night ("Pimenta e seus comparsas" and "Gurizada Fandangueira").
In the early morning hours of 27 January 2013, a fire broke out while students from the Federal University of Santa Maria
The Federal University of Santa Maria ( pt, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, UFSM) is a Brazilian public university located in Santa Maria, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, funded by the federal government of Brazil. It was founded in 1 ...
(UFSM) were holding a ''freshers' ball''. A crowd crush
Crowd collapses and crushes are catastrophic incidents that can occur when a body of people becomes dangerously overcrowded. When a body of people reaches or exceeds the density of , the pressure on each individual can cause the crowd to collapse ...
occurred following the fire, and a lack of exit signs and emergency exits allegedly contributed to the deaths. Most of the victims were between 18 and 30 years old.
Witnesses have said either a flare or fireworks lit by band members may have started the fire. Brazilian police stated that the fire began when the band Gurizada Fandangueira ignited a pyrotechnic device (similar to a signaling flare) while performing on stage. The flare then ignited flammable acoustic foam
Acoustic foam is an open celled foam used for acoustic treatment. It attenuates airbone sound waves, reducing their amplitude, for the purposes of noise reduction or noise control. The energy is dissipated as heat. Acoustic foam can be made in s ...
in the ceiling. According to the authorities, other reasons for the high death toll include the lack of emergency exits (the only access in and out of the building was the front door) and the fact that the number of people inside exceeded the maximum capacity by hundreds.
About 90 percent of the victims succumbed to smoke inhalation
Smoke inhalation is the breathing in of harmful fumes (produced as by-products of combusting substances) through the respiratory tract. This can cause smoke inhalation injury (subtype of acute inhalation injury) which is damage to the respirator ...
. Many people died as they either tried to hide in bathrooms or, in panic mistook them for exits. At least 180 bodies were removed from the bathrooms. More than 150 were injured by the crush at the front door and the rapidly accumulating smoke within the nightclub. 14 injuries were attributed to severe burns caused by flames,[ with eight victims succumbing to their injuries in the days and weeks following the incident. More than 90 people were hospitalized.]
Colonel Guido Pedroso de Melo of the Rio Grande do Sul Fire Department stated that the club's front door was locked. De Melo told CNN: "This overcrowding made it difficult for people to leave, and according to the information we have, the security guards trapped the victims inside."
The fire has the second-highest death toll for an entertainment event in Brazil; it is second only to the 1961 Niterói circus fire, which killed more than 500 people.
Investigation
Based on an investigation and the accounts of survivors, the cause of the fire was found to be an illegal firework device that ignited the acoustic foam on the ceiling.
Two co-owners of the nightclub and two members of the band were arrested and questioned by police. One of the owners of the nightclub tried to commit suicide while still being treated at the hospital; however, one of the police officers guarding his room noticed the attempt and intervened.
The state fire department found that the premises did not have enough emergency exits and was not authorized to use fireworks. The fire department, however, did issue a permit for the club to operate. The permit stated that the club had two emergency exits. The fact that false information was used by the club and approved by the fire department resulted in a state investigation of the authorities responsible for supervising the nightclub, including the city hall and the fire department itself. It was also reported that the fire extinguishers in the club may have been artificial or were disabled at the time.
On 30 January, the nightclub's owner deflected blame to "the whole country", as well as to architects and inspectors who were commissioned with ensuring the building's safety, according to his lawyer. By that time, the death toll was at least 235. The next day, officials inspected and closed more than 58 nightlife spots around the country as part of a crackdown on unsafe public spaces.
On 2 April, two nightclub owners and two band members were charged with manslaughter.
On 1 December 2021, eight years after the fire, trial by jury procedures against the two nightclub owners and two band members commenced.
On 10 December, 2021, the two nightclub owners were sentenced to 22 and 19 years in prison respectively and the band members were given a jail term of 18 years each.
Reactions
Domestic
Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff
Dilma Vana Rousseff (; born 14 December 1947) is a Brazilian economist and politician who served as the 36th president of Brazil, holding the position from 2011 until her impeachment and removal from office on 31 August 2016. She is the first w ...
stated, "I want to tell the Brazilians and the population of Santa Maria that we stand together in this sad moment," before departing early from a summit of the EU and the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean in Santiago, Chile
Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital (political), capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated Regions of Chile, region, t ...
to visit grieving relatives of the victims. Rousseff declared three days of official mourning. Santa Maria's city government established thirty days of official mourning.
Organisers postponed a ceremony on 28 January in Brasília
Brasília (; ) is the federal capital of Brazil and seat of government of the Federal District. The city is located at the top of the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West region. It was founded by President Juscelino Kubitsche ...
that marked 500 days to the 2014 FIFA World Cup
The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...
.
The incident resulted in the inspection of safety features of thousands of nightclubs all over the country. In São Paulo alone, 60% of the nightclubs inspected were found to be operating against safety regulations.
International
* — Argentine Health Minister, Juan Luis Manzur, arranged the delivery of skin transplants for the injured, commenting: "We will make available to our Brazilian counterparts the amount of skin we can provide, according to the existence of it in our skin bank which operates in the Garrahan Hospital."
* — on 6 February 2013 during a football friendly match between England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
and Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
(2–1) at Wembley
Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...
, London, players of both teams wore black armbands to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the Munich air disaster and to remember those who died in the Kiss nightclub fire.
* — President of Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
sent his profound condolences to President of Brazil Dilma Rousseff.
See also
*List of nightclub fires
This is a list of notable nightclub fires at indoor and outdoor venues. Many involve pyrotechnic failures.
See also
* List of fires
This article is a list of notable fires.
Town and city fires
Building or structure fires
Transportation ...
*List of fatal crowd crushes
This is a list of notable crowd collapses and crushes. Many such accidents are also in the list of accidents and disasters by death toll. (The term "stampede" is often misused in popular media since it refers specifically to panicked flight from ...
References
External links
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{{Coord, 29, 41, 3.5, S, 53, 48, 25, W, type:landmark_scale:10000, display=title
2013 fires in South America
2013 disasters in Brazil
Accidental deaths in Brazil
Fire disasters involving barricaded escape routes
Fires in Brazil
Human stampedes in 2013
Nightclub fires started by pyrotechnics
Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul
January 2013 events in South America
Man-made disasters in Brazil