Santa Maria, Brazil (CNN) -- Guitarist Rodrigo Martins was preparing to launch into the sixth song of his band's set when he saw embers fall.
The acoustic foam
insulation on the ceiling of the Kiss nightclub in the southern
Brazilian city of Santa Maria was on fire, and it was beginning to
spread.
The hot ash fell onto the stage and dance floor.
In front of him, a sea of
people who moments earlier were dancing and singing along to the
country-pop sounds of his band Gurizada Fandangueira began to realize
something was wrong.
Suddenly, concertgoers were stampeding toward the club's only exit, pushing and shoving each other trying to get out.
Then, according to investigators and witnesses, somebody fell in the narrow, dark hallway that led to the windowless exit.
And then another person fell.
And then another.
Searching for answers
It was the last weekend
of Brazil's summer break for many of the students, and the Kiss
nightclub was packed early Sunday with young people, many of whom
attended one of a number of universities and colleges in Santa Maria.
At least 231 people died and hundreds more were injured in
the fire, which authorities believe began about 2:30 a.m. Sunday when
the band's pyrotechnic show ignited insulation material.
Many apparently died from smoke inhalation. Others were trampled in the rush for the exits.
Of the dead, 101 were students at the Federal University of Santa Maria.
Another 120 remained hospitalized Monday morning, 79 in critical condition, authorities said.
About 2,000 people were
inside the club when the fire broke out -- double the maximum capacity
of 1,000, said Guido de Melo, a state fire official.
The roof collapsed in
several parts of the building, trapping many inside. Firefighters found
piles of bodies in the club's bathroom.
It looked, said state lawmaker Valderci Oliveira, "like a war zone."
For others, escaping was complicated by the fact that guards initially stopped people from leaving, said a reporter from CNN affiliate Band News, echoing comments from the state fire official.
"Some guards thought at
first that it was a fight, a huge fight that happened inside the club
and closed the doors so that the people could not leave without paying
their bills from the club," the reporter, Glauber Fernandes, said.
But Rodrigo Moura, a nightclub security guard, said the fire moved fast.
"All of a sudden the fire just took off and was all around us. We tried to tell people to get out," he said.
Authorities have arrested three people in connection with the fire, state-run Agencia Brasil reported on Monday.
The owners of the
nightclub, meanwhile, pledged to cooperate with the investigation into
the fire, according to a statement released by the law firm of Kummel
& Kummel.
"We are open to all authorities and inspections," said the statement, obtained by Globo TV.
The club's license had expired in August and had not been renewed, a local fire official told Globo TV.
The owners, however, said the nightclub was properly permitted and had been inspected by the fire marshal.
'Blocked by security'
The band, Gurizada Fandangueira, was a popular attraction at Kiss in part because of its pyrotechnic show, according to Billboard.com. It played at the nightclub about once a month, and was there Sunday to promote a new album.
Martins, the guitarist, told Radio Gaucha
the band had been on stage for about 20 minutes, finishing the fifth
song of its set, when it set off its "sputnik" pyrotechnics -- sparkler
columns that shoot up in the air.
"We used it all the time. ... We never had this problem before," he told the radio station late Sunday.
Martins said he first noticed a small ember, and then he looked up at the ceiling and saw the flames.
A backstage hand attempted to put out the blaze with a fire extinguisher. "But it didn't work," he said.
Martins said as he and
the other band members got off the stage, there were 20 to 30 people in
front of him who were "being blocked by security."
People started pushing and shoving, and then they tripped over one another trying to get to the door.
Martins said the band's
accordion player, 28-year-old Danilo Jacques, died in the fire. "I saw
him, and then I lost him in the crowd."
Struggling to help
Esequiel Corte Real and
his friends arrived late for the show and ended up with what they
thought was one of the worst locations to watch -- by the exit.
The same happened with Norton Basson and his friends, who were at the club to celebrate his 29th birthday.
They are alive, they believe, because of where they were -- making them among the first to make it out alive.
After the fire started,
the dark, narrow hallway that led to the nightclub's exit was choked
with smoke and people trying to find their way out.
Outside, Corte Real and his friends could hear the screams of people trying to escape.
He told Globo TV that he and his friends ran back into the club to try to help.
They pulled out one body. Then two more.
"Somebody must be alive," he said.
Basson and his friends,
meanwhile, grabbed rocks, sticks and an axe they found at a nearby
building and began trying to knock a hole in the side of the club to
help those trapped inside. Others soon joined them with shovels and more
axes.
Firefighters used the hole Basson and his friends created to get inside the club.
There, they were greeted
by the eerie sounds of cell phones ringing in the pockets and purses of
the dead. Many of the calls were from parents desperate to reach their
children.
The missing
Later Sunday, family
members wept as they searched for information outside a local gymnasium
where bodies were taken for identification.
Inside, Brazilian
President Dilma Rousseff met with relatives as they waited on bleachers
for word of their loved ones. She had been attending a regional summit
in Chile, but cut short the trip and returned to Brazil early to deal
with the aftermath of the tragedy.
"The Brazilian people
are the ones who need me today," she said. "I want to tell the people of
Santa Maria in this time of sadness that we are all together."
Ericmar Avila Dos Santos went from hospital to hospital Sunday, searching for his 23-year-old brother.
Hours earlier, he learned in a telephone call from a friend that his older brother was among those missing following the fire.
His family scanned lists, talked with police officials. They checked with friends, searched everywhere.
They finally found him -- among hundreds of bodies laid out on body bags at a makeshift morgue at a local gym.
"I was supposed to go
with him. I didn't feel like going out. He ended up there without me,"
Avila Dos Santos said, openly sobbing over his brother's coffin outside
the gym.
On Monday, the first of
Brazil's three days of mourning, the three cemeteries in the city of
260,000 were packed with families readying to bury their dead.
Among them was Avila Dos Santos' family.
"We did everything
together. We were even studying the same major," he said, remembering
his brother. "Now that he's gone, I'm lost. I don't know what I'm going
to do with my life."
Relatives and friends of one of the victims of the Kiss nightclub fire gather during the funeral at Santa Rita Cemetery in Santa Maria, Brazil, on Monday, January 28. More than 230 people died and more than 120 were injured early Sunday.
