Fire devastates Sao Paulo shantytown

A fire destroyed great parts of a shantytown in Sao Paulo, Brazil today, authorities said, leaving one person dead and 1,115 people homeless.

The fire probably started after an explosion in one of the wooden shacks of the Favela Paraguai, a slum in the eastern Sao Paulo district of Vila Prudente, Lt. Eduardo Fernandes from Sao Paulo’s state civil defence told The Associated Press.