We cannot even begin to express our heartache over this.
The Brazilian city of Santa Maria was home to an unspeakable tragedy last night, when a fire broke out in the Boate Kiss nightclub around 2:00 in the morning and took the lives of at least 245 people, many of whom were college students.
According to reports, the blaze is thought to be related to a pyrotechnics show going on at the time, as the acoustic insulation inside of the building caught first. The majority of people who lost their lives either died from smoke inhalation or were trampled to death trying to escape, as the club is known to hold up to 3,000 people on the weekends and there were no visible exit signs.
The President of Brazil, Dilma Roussef, has left a summit she was attending in Chile to be with the people of Santa Maria, and says in a statement:
“The Brazilian people are the ones who need me today. I want to tell the people of Santa Maria in this time of sadness that we are all together.”
And we, here in the United States, uphold that sentiment.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the family, friends, and loved ones of those who were lost, as well as those who endured the terror of the blaze and now must struggle to understand what happened and come to grips with surviving such an unspeakable trauma.
We are all together with you.
[Image via AP Images.]
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