Photo: Death Toll From Brazilian Club Fire Climbs to 240
A 25-year-old man, who suffered burns and poisoning from inhaling gases when a discotheque caught fire in southern Brazil last month, died Saturday morning, bringing the number of fatalities to 240.
The young man, who had been in the intensive care unit of Cristo Redentor Hospital in the city of Porto Alegre, finally died Saturday morning more than a month after the accident, an official at the medical center told Efe.
The fire, the most tragic to occur in Brazil in the last 50 years, broke out last Jan. 27 at the Kiss discotheque in the town of Santa Maria in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
On that same day 235 people lost their lives, most of them students at the Federal University of Santa Maria who were having a disco party, while the other victims died in the following days.
The two owners of the discotheque and two members of the musical group Gurizada Fandangueira, which was playing at the time of the accident, remain in preventive custody.
According to police, fireworks used by the band in the disco set fire to the inflammable soundproofing foam in the ceiling, causing it to emit toxic substances that poisoned most of the victims.
Authorities are also investigating the absence of fire extinguishers and emergency exits as further contributing to the tragedy.