Brazil club fire: Investigations, arrests as nation mourns

While friends and family members bid farewell to their loved ones who were among the 231 killed in the January 27 nightclub fire in south Brazil, the police on January 28 arrested 4 suspects. Detained were two owners of the Kiss club and a pair of musicians who starred in the ill-fated pyrotechnic show blamed for sparking the inferno in the university town of Santa Maria. The club did not have valid operating permits and that its emergency exits led only to the main entrance, which became a deadly bottleneck. Most of the victims died of smoke inhalation in their desperate bid to escape. The tragedy forced officials to defend readiness to host the Olympics in 2016 and World Cup in 2014.


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