Beyond the Flames

The centuries-old Latin American nation of Brazil, the largest country in South America and one of the most thriving economic nations in the world, has been the center of global attention of late. The nation is in the midst of hosting the FIFA World Cup, one of the world’s most popular sporting events behind only the Olympics, which the country will host in the summer of 2016.
The events have seen a boom in Brazil’s economy, as thousands of citizens went to work to build the infrastructure to facilitate the games and show the world that Brazil is one of the top-tier nations. But in the buildup to the events, the nation suffered a major fire disaster that made international headlines and caused concern about the country’s ability to safely host the events.
On January 27, 2013, a massive nightclub fire in a popular Brazilian university town left over 230 people dead and nearly 100 clinging to life in various hospitals. Like many, I found myself wondering the circumstances that could have led to a disaster of this magnitude in a country seen as so progressive and modern by the rest of the world.
And after looking into the facts, I found myself far more frustrated and troubled with an all-too familiar trend in first-world countries across the globe – continued neglect in the fire code enforcement of public establishments that ultimately led to tragedy.
The series of events at “Kiss,” as the nightclub was known in Santa Maria, is riddled with a long line of negligence, and factors that should have never had the opportunity to contribute to the death toll.
Various reports have stated that well over 1,000 people, mostly students from the local Federal University of Santa Maria, were in the nightclub at the time the fire is believed to have begun, a nightclub with a maximum capacity 690.
The fire is thought to have started when a band member of the group performing on stage lit a flare or pyrotechnic device, which in turn lit the acoustic foam that lined the ceiling of the nightclub. Improper fireproofing and the lack of a working sprinkler system allowed the fire to spread quickly across the ceiling of the nightclub, short-circuiting the nightclub’s electric system and sending the entire building into a darkened panic.
Patrons struggled to escape the toxic smoke and intense flames, which were aided by the fact that the nightclub had no working fire escapes and that the only way in or out of the building was a single entrance towards the front of the club.
Confused patrons pushed their way to anything they believed could be the exit; dozens of bodies would be found in the club’s various bathrooms following the blaze as those inside tried in vain to find a way out. Those who were able to find their way to the real exit, with the exception of those patrons who were first out, met a wall of tangled bodies that were desperately stampeding their way towards fresh air. Dozens of patrons died at the door itself, unable to get past the massive crowds before succumbing to the smoke.
Emergency crews were quick to respond, and no doubt saved dozens, if not hundreds more lives than if they would not have arrived in the quick and timely manner that they did. But the damage was done; hundreds of families changed forever.
As an emergency service member, I ache over any loss of life that had a chance to be prevented. But this particular situation bothered me to the core. This fire had essentially already happened, almost 10 years prior in a small Rhode Island town that lost 100 lives when an against-code pyrotechnic show lit the drapes and ceiling of the club. Dozens were unable to escape the soon raging inferno because the emergency escapes were locked closed.
Almost the exact same situation, to the point: locked exits, illegal pyrotechnics, far exceeding the maximum capacity, faulty sprinkler systems – all in first world countries that have the resources to make sure these types of tragedies don’t strike. And it all comes down to improper code enforcement and regulation.
With governments across the country, and world, for that matter, always looking for areas to cut, the fire marshals and code enforcement officers have found that their jobs are towards the upper half of the list of workers to get hacked from their government positions. But when tragedy strikes, the government is quick to point a finger at those who remain and want to know why the codes aren’t enforced, why we aren’t doing enough to prevent this.
What an utterly horrible and completely preventable tragedy that the Brazilian people that lost their lives have suffered. It’s an absolute disgrace that we, as modern citizens, a modern society functioning within first-world countries, can allow such disasters to happen.
The idea that Brazil, a country that’s hosting two of the world’s biggest events; a country that can be considered extremely modern compared to its surrounding neighbors, has not learned from the countless tragedies over the past 40 years, none more relevant than the all-too-eerily-similar Station Nightclub fire Feb. 20, 2003 in West Warwick, RI.
We as a fire service have put pressure on our constituents to make sure these preventable tragedies are in fact prevented, before they too become part of what’s becoming an all-too-similar list of disasters that continue to repeat themselves.