169 Are Reported Killed in Argentina Nightclub Blaze

A fire roared through a crowded Buenos Aires nightclub during a rock concert, killing at least 169 people as young concert-goers scrambled for the exits, city officials said today.

The blaze is thought to have been caused by a flare that was fired into the club’s ceiling, sending burning debris onto the crowd and triggering a stampede.

“The fire spread in a minute and we were a mountain of people trying to escape,” said survivor Ariel Monges, 25, who lost a friend and a cousin in the fire.

The flares are sold on streets all over Latin America for the New Year holiday festivities.

Local media reported that as many as 4,000 people may have been inside the Republica Cromagnon club in the gritty, rundown neighborhood of Once listening to a band when the fire broke out Thursday, an hour before midnight.

“People were pushing and jumping over each other trying to get out,” one concert-goer, Jose Maria Godoy, told Associated Press. “It was like a human wave. As people fell down running for the door, others just simply ran over them or pushed them down.”

TV images showed the bodies of some youngsters curled up on the sidewalk as bystanders and concert-goers carried people out of the smoldering building.

“The only thing you were thinking about was that you were going to die,” said a young man named Federico.

Hundreds of bystanders and relatives gathered as rescue workers carried some of the wounded out of the disco.

At a makeshift morgue in a garage beside the club, witnesses said 30 bodies were lined up and family members were allowed to pass to identify them.

“There was a girl who must have been around 10 years old,” said Fernando Justiniano, a former firefighter who helped in the rescue. “She was asphyxiated, poor thing, and she was burned.”

Earlier, Buenos Aires Mayor Anibal Ibarra told reporters it wasn’t immediately clear what had caused the blaze.

“There are versions that flares caused the fire, but I cannot confirm this until we have more information from the fire department,” Ibarra told Todo Noticias television.

The blaze was the worst in the Americas since a supermarket fire in neighboring Paraguay killed more than 400 people in August. The mall owners are accused of closing the doors after the fire broke out to stop looting.