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Death toll at 245 in Brazil nightclub blaze

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 14:52:00 +0000

BRASILIA, Brazil — A fire swept through a crowded nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, killing at least 245 people and leaving at least 200 injured, police and firefighters said.

Police Maj. Cleberson Braida told local news media that the 245 bodies were brought for identification to a gymnasium in the city of Santa Maria.

That toll would make it one of the deadliest nightclub fires more than a decade.

The cause of the fire is not yet known, officials said. Officials earlier put the death toll at 180.

Civil Police and regional government spokesman Marcelo Arigoni told Radio Gaucha earlier that the total number of victims is still unclear and there may be hundreds injured,

The newspaper Diario de Santa Maria reported that the fire started at around 2 a.m. at the Kiss nightclub in the city at the southern tip of Brazil, near the borders with Argentina and Uruguay.

Rodrigo Moura, whom the paper identified as a security guard at the club, said it was at its maximum capacity of between 1,000 and 2,000, and partygoers were pushing and shoving to escape.

Ezekiel Corte Real, 23, was quoted by the paper as saying that he helped people to escape. “I just got out because I’m very strong,” he said.

Weird news: Pet chicken fire alarm

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 21:18:00 +0000

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- A Wisconsin couple says clucks, not fire trucks, helped them escape a blaze at their home.

Dennis Murawska, 59, said a pet chicken named Cluck Cluck woke his wife Susan Cotey, 52, with loud clucking from its cage in the basement two floors below about 6:15 a.m. Thursday. The couple's two cats also were running around the main floor.

Murawska said he had been half awake but didn't know about the fire because the smoke alarms hadn't gone off. He realized something was wrong when his wife got up.

"The chicken gets quite vocal when she gets excited," he said.

Cluck Cluck came from a nearby farm in Alma Center, about 135 miles east of Minneapolis, Murawska said. When the chicken began wandering over to his house, his neighbor said he could kill it because it wasn't producing any eggs. But Murawska felt sorry for Cluck Cluck because she had a mutated foot and decided to keep her. He fed the bird and built a coop, and then his wife let Cluck Cluck into the basement on cold nights.

"I spent way more money than I ever should've," Murawska said by telephone. "I guess it paid off."

Police: Firefighters in West New York were victims of a “trap”

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 19:17:00 +0000

According to local officials, the two firefighters who were shot and killed while responding to a fire in West New York were the victims of a "trap," the AP reports.

Local officials say the shooter was found dead at the scene, but did not say how he was killed.

From the AP:

The gunman fired at the firefighters when they arrived shortly after 5:30 a.m. at the blaze near the Lake Ontario shore in Webster, town Police Chief Gerald Pickering said. The first Webster police officer who arrived chased the suspect and exchanged gunfire with him, authorities said.

"It does appear it was a trap" for the first responders to the fire, Pickering said at a news conference.

"These people get up in the middle of the night to go put out fires; they don't expect to be shot and killed," Pickering said.

Here's raw video footage of the fire, via the AP:

AP: Two firefighters killed in shooting in Western New York

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 15:40:00 +0000

The AP is reporting that four firefighters have been shot and two killed in a shooting that occurred while they were fighting a fire in Western New York, near Rochester.

According to local authorities, the area of Webster is being evacuated after a shooter opened fire on firefighters who were responding to a fire, around 6 a.m. this morning. The fire is reportedly still going.

From the AP:

Disney and Sears as well as Wal-mart used firetrap factory

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 15:59:00 +0000

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) -- Amid the ash, broken glass and melted sewing machines at what is left of the Tazreen Fashions Ltd. factory, there are piles of blue, red and off-white children's shorts bearing Wal-Mart's Faded Glory brand. Shorts from hip-hop star Sean Combs' ENYCE label lay on the floor, along with a hooded Mickey Mouse sweatshirt from Disney.

An Associated Press reporter searching the Bangladesh factory Wednesday found these and other clothes, including sweaters from the French company Teddy Smith and the Scottish company Edinburgh Woollen Mill, among the equipment charred in the fire that killed 112 workers on Saturday. He also found entries in account books indicating that the factory took orders to produce clothes for Disney, Sears and other Western brands.

Garments and documents left behind in the factory show it was used by a host of major American and European retailers, though at least one of them - Wal-Mart - had been aware of safety problems. Wal-Mart blames a supplier for using Tazreen Fashions without its knowledge.

The fire has elevated awareness of something labor groups, retailers and governments have known for years: Bangladesh's fast-growing garment industry - second only to China's in exports - is rife with dangerous workplaces. More than 300 workers there have died in fires since 2006.

Wal-Mart’s connection to firetrap Bangladesh factory

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 17:45:00 +0000

UPDATED BELOW: Photos appear to reveal Wal-Mart brand garments in the factory where a fire killed 112 on the weekend.

Wal-Mart conducted a review last year of the Bangladeshi factory in which a fire on Saturday led to the death of 112 people. Despite the retailer determining the factory to be a high fire risk last year, Wal-Mart said this week that it did not know whether it was still buying products made in the Tazreen Fashions Ltd. plant, where there were no emergency exits and workers were forced to jump out of windows to escape from the blaze.

As the AP reported:

112 killed in fire at Bangladesh garment factory

Sun, 25 Nov 2012 06:15:00 +0000

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — At least 112 people were killed in a fire that raced through a multi-story garment factory just outside of Bangladesh's capital, an official said Sunday.

The blaze broke out at the seven-story factory operated by Tazreen Fashions late Saturday. By Sunday morning, firefighters had recovered 100 bodies, fire department Operations Director Maj. Mohammad Mahbub told The Associated Press.

He said another 12 people who had suffered injuries after jumping from the building to escape the fire later died at hospitals.

The death toll could rise as the search for victims was continuing, he said.

Bangladesh has some 4,000 garment factories, many without proper safety measures. The country annually earns about $20 billion from exports of garment products, mainly to the United States and Europe.

Mahbub said firefighters recovered 69 bodies from the second floor of the factory alone. He said most of the victims had been trapped inside the factory, located just outside of Dhaka, with no emergency exits leading outside the building.

Many workers who had taken shelter on the roof of the factory were rescued, but firefighters were unable to save those who were trapped inside, Mahbub said.

Six alarm fire destroys 50 Queens homes

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 12:19:00 +0000

A six alarm fire, reported Monday night at 11pm in Breezy Point on New York's Rockaway Peninsula, destroyed 50 homes. Hampered by flood water from Sandy, around 200 firefighters battled the blaze, the cause of which is unknown. There were no reported injuries as residents had been evacuated from the flood zone A area. Watch raw footage of the storm-tossed fire below, via YouTube: