Diogo Pires Fire: Intense Blaze Roars Through Slum In Sao Paulo, Brazil

SAO PAULO — An intense fire broke out Sunday in a slum in South America's largest city, sending residents running across rooftops to escape the flames.

There were no immediate reports of deaths in Diogo Pires, a small shantytown in western Sao Paulo that is home to about 300 families.

Two people sought medical treatment for smoke inhalation, according to fire officials.

Television broadcasts showed flames leaping 20 meters (65 feet) into the air as some residents fled and others helped firefighters battle the blaze with hoses and buckets of water.

"The flames were huge. People screamed and quickly ran out of the community," resident Ana Paula Martiniano told Globo television.

Fire officials said they did not know what caused the blaze, which began around 6 p.m. (2100 GMT).

Two hours after it began, firefighters managed to contain the flames to an area about 1 square kilometer (a square half-mile).

They also kept it from spreading to neighboring industrial buildings containing drums of combustible chemicals.

Comments

[FreshwaterDrum]

SP is the second-largest city on the planet, according to citymayors.com:

http://www.citymayors.com/features/largest_cities1.html#Anchor-Cities-49575

Big cities occasionally have fires. Even the ones with future Olympics 300 miles away.

Geez, did anyone blame Las Vegas fires on the LA Games? Crimes in Cleveland were about the World Cup games in Chicago? Do you know how ridiculous you sound when you just pull stuff out of your @sses like that?

[dizmo4]

Gotta get rid of those unsightly slums before 2016!

[Trittydi]

Land grab for the Olympics. Someone needs to track this - see if this land ends up with a stadium or new housing on it.
*

[Trittydi]

Ooooooooops ... I feel stupid . . . .

This is about 300 miles from where the olympics will be held.
*

[curocat]

Are they clearing the way for the 2016 Olympic ???

[TheImpaler]

Olympics are going to be held in Rio de Janeiro, not Sao Paulo.

[Mexitli]

When I was a little boy there was a fire like this in Tijuana, MX.

Worst thing I have ever seen.

It was pouring rain and all I saw was soaking wet children standing on a muddy hillside.

[AfroLatina21]

Next thing you'll know is there will be a fire in the slums of Rio.

[Dnietz]

there are almost every day, just not on our front pages

[kannita]

I agree. There will be some serious upheaval of the poor in the next couple of years. And the Rethugs think the crime in Chicago is bad. You would not catch me in Rio.

[vascopyjama]

Just cleaning up for the Olympics folks.

[StormWarrior]

LOL, and to think how much hoopla the Re..thugs were making about having the Olympics in "crime infested" Chicago.

[Trittydi]

Obama isn't the only reason re=Thugs don't like Chicago - they also hate it because they're unelectable in Chicago.
*

[DivineDNA]

Just clearing the way, (land) for for some of what is to be built for the 2016 games. One must know that every event cannot be hosted in Rio.........

[Dnietz]

sao paulo not rio

[noweknow]

Lucky it's not Rio. Don't want the Olympics to know there's slum in Rio too.

[Dnietz]

only the most ignorant people in the world don't know about the poor slums in brasil and are proud to display their ignorance

for a sampling, look at some of the teabagger protest video

[calfacon]

Trying not to be cynical and think this is an easy way to start the urban clean up. Poor peoples homes (slums) burned, but not the commercial buildings. Trying not to be cynical.

[DivineDNA]

My first thought............ thank you for saying it pretty much the way I did.

[Dnietz]

wrong city buddy

and there is massive economic segregation in brasil. sao paulo is huge. it is a gigantic city much bigger than ny. businesses are near wealthy people and poor people are packed in together like sardines in their own little areas almost like segregated camps.

so many houses are just sticks and cardboard and junk with no safety at all. that material built so badly so close together is a tinder box. it is very possible for it to go up in flames like it always does but not on huffpo front page.

and to be expected, fire fighters aren't the fastest going into the shanty towns to put out fires that are impossible to stop in the tinder box anyway. there is no road to drive the firetruck into.

when the fire reaches the edges of the shanty towns, then they start fighting it to protect the wealthy property.

it doesn't mean it was a fire that they started intentionally or that they didn't want to put the fire out. in those conditions, the firefighters may be walking into their death to try and put those out.