A fire broke out early Sunday morning at a night club in Santa Maria, in southern Brazil, killing revelers ? many of them students. NBC's Mike Taibbi reports.
By Alastair Jamieson, Staff Writer, NBC News
Dozens of victims of a fast-moving nightclub inferno that claimed the lives of more than 230 people in southern Brazil were due to buried on Monday as reports emerged that fleeing patrons were blocked by a locked door.
About 50 funerals were expected to take place at the municipal cemetery in Santa Maria, according to Brazilian television news broadcast Zero Hora, while other bodies removed from the Kiss nightclub remained at the city?s gymnasium awaiting identification
The cemetery opened early, at 7.30 a.m. local time (4:30 a.m. ET), and was planning to conduct burials at half-hour intervals, O Globo reported, saying the army had helped dig graves.
The newspaper Diario de Santa Maria reported that a refrigerated truck was used to preserve some of the bodies overnight because local mortuary facilities were full.
The blaze began early Sunday when a band's small pyrotechnics show ignited foam sound-insulating material on the ceiling.
Yuri Weber / Agencia O Dia via Reuters
A view inside the blackened Boate Kiss nightclub in which at least 233 died.
The first images from inside the blackened building show the extent of the panic, with drinks and clothing scattered across the floor.
Many of the victims were under 20 years old, The Associated Press reported, and were attending a party organized by students from several academic departments from the Federal University of Santa Maria.
'Barrier of bodies'
The main door of the nightclub was locked at the time, fire chief Guido Pedroso de Melo told O Globo.
He added that firefighters responding to the blaze initially had trouble getting inside the nightclub because "there was a barrier of bodies blocking the entrance.?
Local authorities told Reuters that 120 men and 113 women died in the fire, and 92 people are still being treated in hospitals.
Survivors and the police inspector Marcelo Arigony said security guards briefly tried to block people from exiting the club, according to the AP, perhaps fearing that patrons would leave without paying their tab.
Marcelo Sayao / EPA
Relatives gather at the city gymnasium in Santa Maria, Brazil, to mourn victims from the 'Kiss' nightclub fire.
But Arigony said the guards didn't appear to block fleeing patrons for long. "It was chaotic and it doesn't seem to have been done in bad faith because several security guards also died," he told the AP.
In a radio interview, the band?s guitarist Rodrigo Martins said the fire began shortly after the band took to the stage at 2.15 a.m. local time Sunday.
"When the fire started, a guard passed us a fire extinguisher, the singer tried to use it but it wasn't working," he said, adding that the accordion player Danilo Jacques, 28, died, while the five other members made it out safely.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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