Locals in Santa Maria honor night club fire victims

A year after being the setting of one of the biggest fire disasters in Brazil's history, the city of Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, has stayed awake. Since early dawn, friends and family members have stayed up in remembrance of the 242 fatal casualties of a fire at the Kiss night club, in a demonstration expected to go on into the night.

At dawn, a group of about 600 people staged a vigil in front of the night club. They painted the ground with 242 body outlines. At 3 p.m., the time when fire broke out on January 27 last year, sirens rang and cries for justice were heard. The victims' parents also painted a heart on the ground where they lit white candles and laid roses.

Later on in the morning, some 200 people left the nightclub and walked to the Public Prosecutor's Office. They were carrying banners with pictures of the young victims, white balloons, whistles, and drums, as well as posters demanding legal redress. Police escorted the event, which was organized by an activist movement called “Santa Maria do Luto à Luta” (“From Grief to Action”).

Tradesman Eliton Lopes lamented the death of his daughter Evelin Lopes, 19, but doubts whether those accountable for the fire will be punished: “It's a sore wound that will never heal. We will continue seeking redress, but I think in the end it's all up to God's justice.”

The movement leader, Flávio da Silva, disagrees. He believes that the guilty ones will be held accountable as long as people continue to put pressure on the government. “We must keep on staging demonstrations like this to make sure such a massive killing won't fall into oblivion. We must honor the memory of our children.”

Translated by Mayra Borges