Focus turns to Brazilian club safety after fire

Associated Press - The repercussions of a tragic nightclub fire that killed more than 230 people in southern Brazil widened Tuesday as mayors around the country cracked down on such venues in their own cities and investigators searched two other nightspots owned by a partner in the club that caught ablaze.
 
   The government of the country's biggest city, Sao Paulo, promised tougher security regulations for nightclubs and other places where many people gather. President Dilma Rousseff promised Monday that "we have the responsibility to make sure this never is repeated." Mayors in other cities pledged to follow suit, especially with the upcoming start of Carnival, which floods nightclubs with celebratory crowds.
 
   Since the fire, a Rio de Janeiro consumer complaint hotline has received more than 60 calls denouncing hazardous conditions at night spots, theaters, supermarkets, schools, hospitals and shopping malls around the state. Blocked emergency exits and non-existent fire alarms and extinguishers top the list of most common complaints.
 
   Meanwhile, G1, Globo television network's Internet portal, said police searched two other Santa Maria nightspots owned by Mauro Hoffmann, one of the partners of the Kiss nightclub, for evidence that could help shed light on the investigation.
 
   Monday night's searches yielded no evidence and the site reported that computers that stored images recorded by the Kiss club's security cameras have not yet been found. G1 cites a police investigator as saying the club owners have insisted the club's closed-circuit camera system hadn't worked in months.
 
   A judge has frozen the assets of both of the club's owners, pending the investigation.
 
   The actions added to a national sense that the early Sunday nightclub fire, which killed at least 231 people, marked a possible turning point for a country that has long turned a blind eye to safety and infrastructure concerns. One of Brazil's biggest newspapers, O Globo, published an editorial Tuesday saying it was time for action.
 
   "The tragedy in Santa Maria forces us to seriously reflect over our national culture of leniency, contempt and corruption," it said. "We must start from the principle that the mea culpa belongs to us all: public servants, owners of establishments that disregard safety regulations, and regular citizens who flaunt them."  
 
   Soccer legend Pele, too, urged the Brazilian government to "make safety and security a priority in this country."
 
   "So many young people are no longer with us, they had entire lives ahead of them. I ask God to protect them and take care of their families," he wrote on Twitter.
 
   Preliminary investigations into the tragedy have revealed that there was no alarm, working fire extinguisher or sprinkler system and only one working exit in the Kiss nightclub, turning it into a death trap.
 
   Police were leaning toward the idea that pyrotechnics set off by a band playing at the time were the cause of the blaze, which killed dozens of students from the Federal University of Santa Maria. Inspector Antonio Firmino, part of the team investigating the fire, said it appeared the club's ceiling was covered with an insulating foam made from a combustible material that ignited.
 
   Firmino said the number and state of the exits are under investigation but that it appeared that a second door was "inadequate," as it was small and protected by bars that wouldn't open.
 
   The disaster, the worst fire of its kind in more than a decade, raises questions of whether Brazilian authorities are up to the task of ensuring safety in such venues as the country prepares to host next year's World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.
 
   An estimated 30,000 people marched peacefully outside the nightclub Monday night to remember the victims, and demand justice.  Some carried signs with slogans such as, "May God's justice be carried out."
 
   "We hope that the justice system ... succeeds in clarifying to the public what happened, and gives the people an explanation," said Eglon Do Canto, who joined the march.
 
   Brazilian police said they detained three people Monday in connection with the blaze, while Brazilian media indicated two members of the band Gurizada Fandangueira and the club's two co-owners had been detained. Police Inspector Ranolfo Vieira Junior said the detentions were part of the ongoing police probe and those detained can be held for up to five days.
 
   According to state safety codes here, clubs should have one fire extinguisher every 1,500 square feet as well as multiple emergency exits. Limits on the number of people admitted are to be strictly respected. None of that appears to have happened at the Santa Maria nightclub.
 
   Rodrigo Martins, a guitarist for the group playing that night, told Globo TV network in an interview Monday that the flames broke out minutes after the employment of a pyrotechnic machine that fans out colored sparks, at around 2:30 a.m. local time.
 
   He