“It happened very fast. People yelled ‘fire!’ When I saw it, it was already two doors from mine.” That is how one resident of a Porto Alegre guesthouse described the blaze that killed at least 10 people on Friday, April 26, 2024. He spoke to the news site G1 and was not named.
The fire broke out around 2:00 am in a three-story building that housed homeless and other vulnerable people in the capital of Rio Grande do Sul state. Roughly 30 people were believed to be living there, the BBC reported. Nine injured people were rescued and taken to local hospitals, according to emergency officials, while the BBC put the number taken to hospital at 13, some in critical condition.
The state fire department said it dispatched five trucks and dozens of firefighters. An AFP photographer at the scene early Friday saw crews still working around the charred, partly destroyed building. The cause has not been established. “Forensic experts are at the scene to identify the victims and investigate the cause,” the fire department said in a statement.
Questions over the permit
Firefighters said the shelter had no operating permit and no fire prevention plan. A city official denied the permit claim, the BBC reported, and it remained unclear whether the building was operating legally. The building belongs to a network of budget, hostel-style hotels in Porto Alegre.
State lawmaker Matheus Gomes accused the city government of giving funds to the shelter even though it had faced reports of non-compliance with regulations “for years.” He wrote on X that the investigation should cover “not only the fire, but the entire chronicle of this tragedy foretold.”
Official response
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on X that the tragedy left him “saddened.” Governor Eduardo Leite said he was “deeply shocked” and promised continued work on the aftermath and the investigation. Mayor Sebastiao Melo declared three days of official mourning.
The fire came 11 years after a far deadlier one in the same state. In 2013, 242 people died at the Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria after sparks from a flare lit by a band ignited the ceiling. Investigators found that club had no working fire extinguishers and too few exits. Four people were held responsible and sentenced to prison terms of 18 to 22 years.
Sources
- At least 10 people killed in Brazil guesthouse fire, 9 injured
- Brazil fire: 10 killed in homeless guesthouse fire
