NEWS: Buenos Aires Club Fire Kills 169, Injures 375

A packed night club in Buenos Aires was the scene of carnage when a fire and resulting stampede killed 169 and injured 375. Officials believe that the blaze was started by a flare fired into the ceiling. According to local press as many as 3-4000 people may have been at the club during the time. Some of the victims were as young as 10.



The club was in a poor area of the city. No doubt that there were not sprinklers or other safety equipment that could have kept the fire down. However, once a large crowd stampedes, it is impossible to control the situation. According to reports these flares are fairly common and can be purchased on the street right by the club.

why the hell would someone have a flare? pyro maniact of course !

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - A fire swept through a crowded Buenos Aires nightclub during a rock concert, killing at least 174 people and injuring more than 410 as young concert-goers scrambled for the exits, officials said Friday.

Fire

Some victims as young as 10? What are 10 year olds doing at nightclubs, childprostitution????

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) - A fire tore through a Buenos Aires nightclub packed with young revelers celebrating the New Year holidays, killing at least 175 people as a stampeding crowd was trapped by locked exit doors, officials said Friday.

At least 619 people were injured in the blaze, thought to have been caused by a flare fired into the club's ceiling during a rock concert, sending burning debris onto the crowd of up to 4,000 people who desperately fought to flee the flames and suffocating smoke.

"The fire spread in a minute and we were a mountain of people trying to escape," said survivor Ariel Monges, 25, who lost a friend and a cousin in the fire and was searching for another friend at a city hospital.
Fire

175 killed 714 wounded when I read it... sigh... slow news

Exits were locked and there are unconfirmed reports that a bathroom was being used as a makeshift day care center. If true what were they thinking

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Emergency exits at a nightclub packed with teenagers were padlocked or wired shut when a flare ignited the foam ceiling, sparking a blaze that killed 175 people and injured more than 700 in one of Argentina's worst disasters, survivors and officials said Friday.

Exits Locked

Originally posted by Countermeasures
Some victims as young as 10? What are 10 year olds doing at nightclubs, childprostitution????

No, nothing like that. It was a rock concert, and parents took their children there, as it was supposed to be a makeshift day care center there (yes, in a bathroom).
About the flares, it is common that people light flares in rock concerts, here in Buenos Aires... although stupid, people do it all the time here.
And emergency exits were locked to prevent people to enter without paying. If you add that the place was overcrowded, you have a very dangerous cocktail there...