"Flames raced through a crowded nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, killing more than 230 people..."

"... as panicked partygoers gasped for breath in the smoke-filled air, stampeding toward a single exit partially blocked by those already dead."

“The band that was onstage began to use flares and, suddenly, they stopped the show and pointed them upward... At that point, the ceiling caught fire. It was really weak, but in a matter of seconds it spread.”...

Similar circumstances led to a 2003 nightclub fire that killed 100 people in the United States. Pyrotechnics used as a stage prop by the 1980s rock band Great White set ablaze cheap soundproofing foam on the walls and ceiling of a Rhode Island music venue.