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At least 10 people have been killed and 11 were injured in a fire that broke out in a defunct hotel being used as a makeshift homeless shelter in the city of Porto Alegre in southern Brazil, officials have said.
Emergency workers confirmed 10 victims at the site, which was operating without proper authorisation, said the fire department for Rio Grande do Sul state, whose capital is Porto Alegre.
The firefighters said they were called at around 5am Irish time this morning and extinguished the fire within two hours, according to the fire service.
“Forensics are already on the scene and have already removed the bodies. The building has been cordoned off and forensics are in charge,” Lieutenant Colonel Lucio Junes da Silva said in an interview with CNN Brasil.
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Junes da Silva said there is still no information on the possible causes of the fire.
The facility did not have a license to operate as a guesthouse, nor did they have a fire-fighting plan, according to the fire department.
In the building where the guesthouse operated, the rooms were very close together, making it easy for the flames to spread and difficult for the guests to escape, the fire department said.
An AFP photographer at the scene saw firefighters still at work around the badly charred, partly destroyed three-story building.
Images in Brazilian media from overnight showed the building engulfed in flames as firefighters battled to extinguish them.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva sent his condolences to the victims’ families, saying the tragedy left him “saddened,” in a message on X, formerly Twitter.
State Governor Eduardo Leite said he was “deeply shocked.”
“We will continue working on the aftermath of this tragedy and the investigation of the causes. My condolences to the victims’ families,” Mr Leite wrote on X, saying the fire department had dispatched five trucks and dozens of firefighters to battle the flames.
State MP Matheus Gomes accused the city government of giving funds to the homeless shelter even though it had faced reports of non-compliance with regulations “for years”.
“There needs to be an investigation not only into the fire, but the entire chronicle of this tragedy foretold,” he wrote on X.
The building belongs to a network of budget youth hostel-style hotels in Porto Alegre.
The deadly fire comes 11 years after another in Rio Grande do Sul state.
In 2013, 242 people were killed at the Kiss nightclub in the town of Santa Maria when sparks from a flare lit by a band during a concert ignited the ceiling, trapping hundreds inside as the building burned.
Investigators found the club lacked working fire extinguishers and had insufficient exits. Four people were found responsible and sentenced to prison terms of 18 to 22 years.
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