Comment (actually two here shown as one) published by me at the site of the magazine's article about the fire in Santa Maria.
Completed and corrected on 5 Feb
Further checking, mainly for minor typing erros, on 6 Feb
Dear Editors [OF THE ECONOMIST],
Your 'A night from hell' shows several crucial flaws, besides ignoring the following:
SCIENCE WITHOUT RETURN Perhaps Ms Rousseff had seen one secret reason to rush back to Brazil and head for Santa Maria. She was the first of the non-witnesses to know that there were at least 800 dead, and the figure could easily reach a thousand. "That can't come to light, no way!", she may have retorted. Soon she was on TV. It would be not her first 'cry' in public, nor her first trick with numbers. A much higher figure than that released of future scientists could not breathe their way home from the Kiss nightclub.
CLEAR MIND AND EASY MATH Police report around 1,000 at the time the fire broke out; 231 (later 235 or so) dead, 127 in hospital. This makes up 400, rounding it up. So 600 must have managed their way out in three minutes time, on their feet and went home. Well, then all the rest of the offical accounts is nonsense. Moreover, even those 600 or so ought to have gone through health tests. There is no account of that. We could not have been able to handle all that well anyway.
A GYM FOR TWO HUNDRED There would be no need for a gymnasium to hold 230 corpses.
THE FIREBRIGADE THAT LEFT THE SCENE It is toally unheard of, but Veja magazine reports that the first fire brigade left the venue at four am, less than 50 minutes from the time the fire started. And without isolating the area. Futhermore, if there were at least 600 alive and in good condition, they would not simply go home peacefully as if they have attended a Mass. And not so soon anyway. So how could those firefighters have abandoned the site, leaving it to the crowd of survivors to handle it all as they wished? It is well worth considering that the first brigade was ordered to be back to its quarters with no delay to have 'specific instructions"; secret ones.
THE VOICE OF THE OWNER This morning [04.02] on TV, the owner still in hospital only due to a presumed nervous uneasiness said, in a speech, of course, carefully rehearsed, that many people by the gate made things harder. One word was intentionally missed - or the statement was edited later before going to air: such people were not alive as listeners should have implied. They were all dead ten minutes at most after the spark that caused the blaze. They were inside, not far from the gate.
EVERY IDENTIFICATION ON THE CLOUD Hundreds of cell phones started to ring. A girl is said to have sent a help message on facebook at 3h20. Our source (Veja) omits her name and adds that she died. Those cells were ringing and ringing in vain. That was too much to stand with arms crossed, for the few - no more than 6 - survivors outside. They managed to make a hole on the external wall and saw the piles of corpses. That was what would prompt a second brigade to come. And the cell phones - Steve Jobs' one more miracle fulfilled - were what made the identification of the two hundred officially dead so 'efficient'.
PROFITS FROM FAKE HEROES STORIES Another lie is related to reports saying or suggesting heroes entered the place to rescue others. All they could possibly do - besides running pointlessly with corpses in their arms - was to drag some close to the gate lying on the massive pile but still precariously alive. There was no way to overcome either the mass of still living people in severe crushing ("twice as severe as that in a fully busy subway"(Veja)), nor several hundreds of bodies soon piled up over the place.
WHERE ARE THE SURVIVORS? No photo, video, account was made available showing the 600 or so leaving the club or outside it.
WHY THE SECURITY GUARDS WERE UNINFORMED? The guards did have the main blame once the fire turned from a risk into a reality. Since the owner (that in hospital) soon knew about the fire and escaped, why did he not tell the guards to let patrons go unconditionally for there was an emergence? Since the owner had to leave through the only gate available, reports lead to the conclusion that he passed by the guards as if nothing very serious was going on. It is fair to expect that, once aware of the fire, they themselves would flee - good for all eventually. Was the owner naive and greedy to the point of thinking someone would put out the fire while the guards made sure the bills would be settled and profits go to the club's cashier?
IMPUNITY FOR SURE Security guards, in Brazil, are closely linked to the police. Since Wednesday, they have ceased to be mentioned in the media.
AN INDEPENDENT VIEW Guilherme Fiuza, in an article for Epoca magazine (on stand) claims Dilma herself sets an example of the 'weaker always take the blame in the place of the powerful'. She, says Fiuza, keeps a minister, Mr. Pimentel, whose licence is expired. He has been condemned by the Presidential Ethics Commission. Dilma then stopped the later, stresses the journalist, and still keeps the former. Fiuza offers his contact: gfiuza@edglobo.com.br.
THE WAY TO THE EXIT WAS NOT A PROBLEM No testimony from survivors mentions confusion about the location of the doors. The sheer fact there were many hundreds trying to leave through narrow passages in panic explains the spread of the mass also to the area of the bathrooms. The version of people confused about the exit is purposefully biased and had the intention to give an 'explanation' of the concentration in that area, which seemed too severe once the number of deaths reported was not faithful to reality (atleast 800) and reduced to 235. In other words, the huge piles of corpses leaked to 'volunteers' and curious onlookers after their breaking the external wall in that part. Then came the dirty job of making citizens believe the concentration was only in that area.
WHY BREAKING AROUND THE AREA OF THE BATHROOMS? It comes to no news a firebrigade not finding water to have its job done. So, someone suggested reaching the bathroom and get water from there. Of course, this detail was not a point for the 'serious' press. The unexpected amount of corpses there frustrated their goal. And an 'acceptable' version was conceived.
SIDE INVESTIGATION One can try and find the several hundreds of dead not in the statistics this article shows. Or, leading to the same conclusion, look for the 'at least 600 save and sound' that did not appear on TV, nowhere. Then I bet you will be able to place Brazil on the top of the list of amount of deaths in public events, perhaps from here to eternity.
IS THERE ACTUALLY ANYTHING TO BE PROUD OF? Failing to mention 'the Jewish people' or 'Jews', a Brazilian top news media related the toxic fumes with the gas used in 'nazi operations during the Second World War." The situation in Santa Maria showed more in common with the Holocaust than that. Squeezed to the unimagineable, more than 800 were killed together and what you could allege as a morbid consolation is that at least that suffering was brief. Religious will declare they are in heaven by now. The lucid are by now aware their demise would make 'unacceptable' bad publicity on the eve of World Cup and Dilma-centered ellections. So History's door was also shut on them. What would make me - and perhaps a few more - proud would be to see a list of these 600, 700, 800 youngsters whose names have been bizarrily hidden so far.
Anyhow, when life is so severely cut down, History must make up for that and keep register of those lives.
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