Photo credit: Germano Roratto/AFP/Getty Images

A fire at a nightclub in Brazil has killed at least 230 people in an incident that harkens to the Station fire in Rhode Island back in 2003, which also similarly killed 100 people after fire broke out at a popular club. There appears to have only been one exit to the club, causing panic among those trapped amidst the ensuing smoke and fire. Colonel Guido Pedroso de Melo of the Rio Grande do Sul Fire Department stated that the club’s front door was locked. De Melo told CNN: “This overcrowding made it difficult for people to leave, and according to the information we have, the security guards trapped the victims inside.”

The majority of the deaths are believed to be related to smoke inhalation. Santa Maria is a college town in southern Brazil.

The nightclub did not have its fire permit up to date, authorities said. The band that was playing, Gurizada Fandangueira, performed an indoor pyrotechnics show that included flares — a flourish that has been blamed for a number of fatal nightclub fires internationally in recent years. Firefighters said there was only one exit, and that it was closed and locked when the chaos began.

There’s a really neat interactive piece and free iBook from the San Diego Union-Tribune on the healthcare situation in California, with a lot of photographs and videos. You’re no doubt aware that patient privacy issues make a lot of photojournalists squeamish about taking photos in the ER, but James Gregg has pulled it off marvelously. With the health care reform now in place, it’s a neat piece on how one metropolitan area deals with emergency health care.

Interactive piece and free iBook

Photo courtesy Jamie Germano/Democrat & Chronicle, via Associated Press

Two firefighters are dead and two more injured after being shot while battling a blaze in upstate New York on Monday morning.

As first responders moved in to battle the blaze at 5.45 am at 191 Lake Road in Webster, New York, near Rochester, a gunman who spent 17 years in prison for murder ambushed and shot at the firefighters, prompting officials to evacuate the entire scene while the flames enveloped the house and spread to neighboring residences. A SWAT team was called to the scene to investigate. At least three houses are reported to have burned down.

This incident arrives at the heels of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings on December 14, which killed 26 people including 20 children.

The gunman, William Spangler, 62, shot and killed himself after a gunfight with a police officer in Webster, a Rochester suburb, Webster Police Chief Gerald Pickering said.

An arm of a crane collapsed on top of a construction site at the University of Technology, Sydney, after earlier catching fire. The collapse of Lend Lease’s crane’s jib brought down scaffolding. No one was injured. The crane operator was able to escape by climbing down a ladder, while hundreds of workers left the site. Assistant Superintendent Josh Turner said firefighters had not been able to access the crane cabin yet, but they believed it was diesel fuel on fire.

When fire crews arrived there were flames 10 metres high “leaping” out of the cabin 45 metres above the ground, he said.

The construction site had been closed two weeks prior by authorities who were concerned that diesel was leaking from the cabin.

20 years ago today, at 11:33am on November 20, 1992, a massive fire swept through Queen Elizabeth’s weekend home, Windsor Castle. The cause was determined to be a spotlight burning through a curtain on the first floor chapel of the northeast wing. After the alarm was called, castle workers formed a human chain to save the vast collection of precious art and furniture housed within.

While the castle had 20 of its own firefighters, six of whom were full time, additional units were quickly requested. The closest responding unit, Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service, arrived within 8 minutes of the alarm, and within an hour there were 35 engines with over 200 firemen from London, Buckinghamshire, Surrey, and Oxfordshire, as well as from Berkshire. A defensive tactic of using fire breaks helped limit the extent of the fire, though it would take 250 firefighters 15 hours and 1.5 million gallons of water to put the blaze out.

The fire was placed under control at around 8 in the evening. No one was seriously injured as a result of the fire, which spread rapidly due to lack of fire stopping in cavities and roof voids. The massive cost of repairs to the castle were offset when Queen Elizabeth decided to open Buckingham Palace to the public for the first time.

1992 was also the year Princess Diana and Prince Charles’s wedding began dissolving, making Queen Elizabeth’s description of the year as an “annus horribilis” particularly apt.

Firefighter-EMT.com differentiates itself from other firefighter websites by 1) highlighting fire and emergency medical news from around the world and 2) examining common concepts and ideas that are useful for any emergency medical and firefighting community. Today’s photo of the day, taken by the Department of Photography highlights the role that firefighters play in being part of the community, in helping those in need, and in listening to and responding to emergencies. What a powerful photograph.

The damage bill from the Melbourne area Christmas Day storms, which brought huge hailstones, torrential rain, flash flooding and even a tornado, topped $550 million, according to insurers.

Rescue workers carry a body from the rubbles of a building in the town center. The death toll from a devastating earthquake in central Italy rose to at least 260 on Wednesday and aftershocks hampered the race to dig possible survivors out of the debris.