The death toll was
expected to climb as firefighters continued to pull bodies from the Kiss
nightclub, Col. Adilomar Silva, the regional coordinator of civil
defense said.
Most of those killed
appeared to have died of smoke inhalation, he said. Hundreds are
believed to have been injured, though an exact count was not immediately
available.
The fire started at about 2 a.m. after the acoustic insulation in the Kiss nightclub caught fire, he said.
There was a pyrotechnics
show going on inside the club when the fire started. Authorities stopped
short of blaming it for the blaze, saying the cause was still under
investigation.
The incident brought to
mind a 2003 nightclub fire in Rhode Island where pyrotechnics used by
the heavy metal band Great White ignited a blaze that killed more than
90 people.
The Kiss nightclub is popular with young people in Santa Maria, drawing between 2,000 and 3,000 people a night on the weekends.
The city is home to the Federal University of Santa Maria as well as a number of other private universities and colleges.
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