Dozens dead after Caracas nightclub
blaze
CARACAS - A fire inside a small nightclub with no emergency
exits killed at least 47 people, and injured a dozen others
in Venezuela on the weekend.
The fire broke out just before midnight Saturday at La
Guajira nightclub, in the basement of the Hotel Venezuela
in the country's capital city.
About 400 people were inside the club when the inferno
erupted. Firefighters evacuated surrounding buildings, moving
as many as 500 people away from the fire.
Fire Chief Rodolfo Briceno said there were too few exits
in the basement disco, and that most of the victims died
from inhaling smoke.
"There were more people in the club than its capacity
could hold. There were three or four hundred people there
when we arrived, and a lot of thick, dense toxic smoke,"
he said.
Firefighters said it looked as though the fire started
in the kitchen and might have been caused by faulty wiring.
A carelessly tossed cigarette was also a possibility, they
said.
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