Kiss charged for tickets during the fire; owner, Spohr, testifies.
Overcrowded, without a permit, fire safety plan, or alarm, the nightclub had only one emergency exit; a girl who managed to escape told SBT that security prevented her from leaving when the fire was already raging, ordering her to go to the line to pay her bill; Elisandro Spohr (on the left), owner of Kiss, presented himself to the police on Sunday afternoon; he only claimed that the license renewal was underway.
247 – Businessman Elisandro Spohr, owner of the Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria, where a fire killed at least 233 people, testified to the Rio Grande do Sul civil police on Sunday afternoon, January 27th. His operating license had expired. He only claimed that the license was in the process of being renewed. No alarms sounded before, during, or after the fire, according to survivors. A girl who managed to escape told SBT reporters that, once the fire started, a security guard prevented her from leaving the premises and sent her to the line to pay her bill. The Kiss employee also stated, with the flames already close, according to the survivor, that the fire was under control. Of the members of the band Gurizada Fandangueira, who started the pyrotechnic show on stage with the launch of a flare that caused the first flames, one could not escape and is among the dead. This suggests that the musicians found better conditions for escape than most of the audience, which was largely composed of young people with an average age of 20. The nightclub, with only one emergency exit, inadequate for the number of people it held, around a thousand, also lacked a fire prevention plan.
According to the police, the owner of Kiss, known as Kiko Spohr, may be indicted for manslaughter (when there is no intent to kill), as well as his partner Mauro Hoffmann, who had not yet appeared to testify as of Sunday night.
The governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Tarso Genro, has ordered that the police investigation, determining responsibility for the tragedy, be concluded by Wednesday.
Will the charge of manslaughter against owners Spohr and Hoffmann be enough to bring justice to the magnitude of the case, with 248 young people dead? Or should both partners of Kiss, even before other responsible parties, be held accountable immediately for intentional homicide, given the consequences of their irresponsibility regarding the care and attention given to the people who paid for tickets and should have received, for the money that makes the duo's fortune, a return in the form of investments in safety?
A politician known for his strong-willed rhetoric, will Governor Genro act to ensure that his state's police force acts with the necessary severity that the tragedy demands, or will he allow routine procedures to be followed, limiting himself to urging a swift conclusion to the investigation?