Brazil Nightclub Owner Blames Inspectors for Fire

A lawyer representing the owner of the nightclub in southern Brazil where 235 people died in a fire last weekend says his client “regrets it very much” but insisted he was only partly to blame.

Attorney Jader Marques says club co-owner Elissandro Spohr called the tragedy “a succession of errors made by the whole country.”

Speaking to the Associated Press by phone on Wednesday, Marques said “my client’s responsibility is having trusted too much in the inspectors and in those responsible for the construction.”

Police say the early Sunday blaze at the Kiss nightclub appears to have started when a band lit flares, which ignited inflammable foam on the ceiling. Police also say the fire extinguisher was faulty and the club had no sprinklers nor a working emergency exit.