July 22, 2002

LIMA, Peru - The death toll from a fire over the weekend that destroyed an exclusive night club packed with young partygoers rose to 30 people on Monday, radio reports said.

The blaze erupted early Saturday in an overcrowded disco that lacked sprinklers, functioning fire extinguishers and marked emergency exits, firefighters said. Smoke quickly filled the club, which was also operating without a permit, and created a stampede among an estimated 1,000 people inside.

The dead included nieces of Peru's first and second vice presidents and the daughter of a former congressman. Dozens were injured, including at least three people in intensive care. A caged lion and tiger, part of a show to mark the club's two-month anniversary, also suffocated to death.

Health Minister Fernando Carbone said Sunday that 28 people had died, most from asphyxiation.

But Radioprogramas, Peru's leading radio station, said the number climbed to 30 Monday after a Venezuelan woman died in the hospital. The police, the Health Ministry and the Civil Defense Institute did not immediately confirm the new death toll.

Several survivors said Saturday that bartenders sparked the inferno by performing stunts with fire, including igniting spray from aerosol cans and lighting alcohol poured on the bars.

The club's manager, however, said a contracted party promoter who was in charge of the caged animals caused the blaze by doing fire tricks near the disk jockey's booth.

Firefighters who inspected the charred disco in an upscale shopping mall said the booth's ceiling and the club's support columns were lined with a plastic material that caught fire quickly and produced toxic smoke.

Carlos Dargent, mayor of the Surco district in southeast Lima where the club was located, said the disco did not have a building or operating permit.

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