Nightclub boss arrested over horror blaze

Locked doors at a Buenos Aires nightclub – some padlocked, others tied shut with wire – blocked or slowed the escape of many concert fans who fought to escape a fire that killed 175 people and injured hundreds, survivors and officials said.

Investigators said they believed one of Argentina’s worst disasters began when a flare was fired during a rock concert, igniting the foam ceiling of a club crowded with mostly teenagers.

Club owner Omar Chaban was arrested last night by order of investigating Judge Maria Crotto to be interrogated about his possible responsibility in the fire.

Another 714 people were injured in the blaze, which set off a stampede for the exits as the concert hall filled with thick, black smoke. At least 102 people were reported to be in critical condition, said Julio Salinas, an official with the Buenos Aires emergency services department.

Thursday night’s fire tore through the Cromagnon Republic nightclub, where the Argentine rock band Los Callejeros was playing to a crowd of some 4,000 people. Argentine media reported the nightclub had a capacity for 1,500 people.

Witnesses described chaotic scenes of people rushing for the doors amid burning debris, their vision blured by thick smoke that also blocked out emergency lighting. Other witnesses told of people struggling to force open the doors.

A 22-year-old survivor who gave his name only as Andres said surging crowds pushed their way toward several of the club’s six doors but found some of them would not open.

“Once the fire erupted, everyone ran for the doors, but there was only one very narrow one open at the exit closest to us. Another wider door next to it was locked,” he said.

Buenos Aires mayor Anibal Ibarra said four of the building’s doors – including two emergency exits – were either tied shut with wire or locked with padlocks in an apparent attempt to prevent people from entering without paying.

“Had they been open, we surely would have avoided a lot of deaths,” he said, calling the locked doors an ”irresponsible act”.

“It seems there were condemned to a terrible trap,” said interior minister Anibal Fernandez.

Hospital officials said many of the victims were in their teens or 20s, and tearful parents and relatives filed into the city’s mortuary to identify bodies.

Survivors said some people had gone to the concert with young children, and rescue workers said they had recovered around a dozen bodies of children inside the club.

Hundreds of parents and relatives gathered outside the city’s hospitals, awaiting news on the fate of their loved ones.

The Buenos Aires city government declared three days of mourning and ordered all nightclubs closed during the New Year holiday weekend. Pope John Paul 11 expressed his condolences to the victims’ families in a message sent to Argentine church officials.

Survivors said the band members at one point appealed to fans to refrain from setting off fireworks – a common practice at rock concerts in Argentina. But one song into the concert, someone apparently fired a flare that sparked the blaze, concertgoers said.

Minutes after the fire started, shirtless concertgoers came spilling out of the building, many carrying people out on their shoulders. As firefighters quickly put out the flames, some youths – many covered in soot – joined parents in a frantic search for friends and relatives.

The nightclub fire in the working-class neighbourhood of Once recalled a blaze that swept a Paraguayan supermarket in August, killing 434 people in an Asuncion suburb. Authorities later said the doors were ordered shut by the store’s owner to prevent looting.

In a 2003 nightclub fire in West Warwick, Rhode Island, 100 people were killed in a blaze that authorities said began when sparks from a band’s pyrotechnics ignited foam used as soundproofing.