Cromañón relatives express solidarity after Brazil fire

Relatives of the victims that perished in the Cromañón tragedy in 2004 expressed their “profound pain” yesterday over the death of 232 people in a fire at a nightclub in the Brazilian city of Santa Maria. (See Page 5)

Members of the “Let it not be Repeated” civil association communicated their solidarity with the victims’ relatives, asserting “we feel your pain as if it were our own.”

The Cromañón tragedy occurred on December 30, 2004, when during a Callejeros concert at Cromañón nightclub, a flare was lit up in the audience, which started a fire. The toxic smoke killed many of the people trying to escape, while others were trampled by the panicking crowd.

The accident in Brazil was almost identical, with lacking safety and evacuation measures leading to the death of 232 people after a band’s fireworks show started a fire.

The charity’s statement, titled: “Man is the only animal that stumbles over the same rock twice,” added: “(We are) moved, shocked by this new tragedy” where “we have once again seen that the life of youngsters is not taken into account, (and) profit is still preferred.”

“Another senseless band, flares, closed doors, overcrowding, an expired authorization certificate: the same conditions that occurred at República de Cromañón. Another deathly trap, panic (and) horror,” the grouping asserted.

The charity said its members “feel these deaths as if they were our own; the images take us back to the night of December 30 like a knife.”

Argentina to send skin

grafts

Health Minister Juan Luis Manzur announced yesterday that the government will be sending skin for burn victims in Santa María. The coordinator for transplants of Río Grande do Sul state, Rosana Reis Nothen, contacted the Health Ministry to request aid for those victims that will require skin transplants.

Health Ministry policy, regulation and institutes secretary Gabriel Yedlin affirmed: “We will send the largest amount of skin possible for our Brazilian counterparts according to the amount available at the Garrahan Hospital skin bank.”

Herald with DyN, Telam, AP, Reuters