Nightclub Fire Kills 230!

Kiss, a nightclub in Santa Maria, a city in South Brazil, was the scene of a fire that killed more than 230 people in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The fire reportedly started from a pyrotechnics show of a band which was playing at the time. The club is a popular hangout for lots of young folks in the university city which is home to about 250,000 people.

The fire is being touted as the world's deadliest nightclub fire in more than a decade. The world has seen a lot of such fires and Brazil could've done without this one.

In 2003, pyrotechnics used by the heavy metal band, Great White, ignited a fire in a nightclub in Rhode Island which killed 100 people.

In 2004, a nightclub fire in Argentina snuffed the life out of 194 people. Pyrotechnics were also involved.

A 2009 explosion at a nightclub in Russia left more than 100 dead. Again, pyrotechnics.

You'd think people would learn.

But let's not be quick to judge, especially the clubers. When they took off for the club that evening, the last thing they expected was to be caught in a fire.

The Civil Defense Col. Adilomar Silva said that the fire started around 2 a.m. after the acoustic insulation in the Kiss nightclub caught fire.

Guards complicated the situation and caused major panic when they initially locked the exits and prevented people from escaping, thinking that it was a fight. They stopped people from leaving because they didn't want anyone leaving without paying their bills.

With the World Cup next year and the Olympics in 2016, this fire disaster has shone a light on safety in Brazil, and might form a blip in their attempt to prove that they can indeed take on the rest of the world.

The authorities need to sit up.