The City of Santa Maria is holding an event this Wednesday (10) to mark the beginning of the construction of a memorial on the site of Boate Kiss, a nightclub that caught fire in January 2013 and left 242 people dead.
During the event, the sign and the main door will be removed. On the first day, the works should continue until 5 pm, with the work scheduled to resume the following day.
“Undo the ruins and build memory! And that is what we will begin to do with the opening ceremony of the memorial to the victims of Boate Kiss, this Wednesday, July 10, at 9 am, where the nightclub used to be. The memorial is a symbol so that we do not forget the early hours of January 27, 2013. We need to remember so that it never happens again,” wrote the mayor of Santa Maria, Jorge Pozzobom, on a social network.
How was the tragedy
In the early hours of January 27, 2013, 242 people died and another 636 were injured after a fire broke out at the Kiss nightclub. The use of pyrotechnic devices inside the nightclub is believed to have caused the fire.
At the time, sparks released by the flares, after being activated, hit the soundproofing foam located on the ceiling of the place, which resulted in a rapid spread of the fire, thus generating a type of toxic smoke. Most of the victims died of suffocation due to the smoke. Since then, the fatality has been considered the biggest tragedy in Rio Grande do Sul and the second biggest in the country in terms of the number of victims in a fire.
What will the work be like?
In the first stages of the construction, some items will be collected from the site and will become part of the memorial collection. The removal of the roof and the opening of space on the facade for access by machinery and equipment will also be part of the initial stages.
In 2018, through an open national architecture competition organized by the Brazilian Institute of Architects (IAB) of Rio Grande do Sul, the architectural project for the Memorial was chosen. Among 121 proposals, the chosen one was that of architect Felipe Zene Motta, from the firm Motta e Zene Engenharia e Arquitetura, in São Paulo.
The company INFA Incorporadora Farroupilha, from Triunfo, was the big winner responsible for executing the work. The construction, budgeted at around R$5 million, will be paid for with funds from the Fundo para Reconstituição de Bens Injurados (FRBL), from the MPRS – which in May 2023 officially transferred R$4 million. The remaining amount must be covered by the City of Santa Maria.
The structure will feature a circular naturalistic flower garden and an auditorium. Around it, there will be 242 wooden pillars, each representing a victim of the tragedy.
With approximately 383.65 m², in addition to the garden and the auditorium, the area will have a single floor with an office room, multipurpose space, men’s and women’s bathrooms, access to the auditorium, storage, technical area and a balcony.
* Under supervision
Source: CNN Brasil
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