Brazil nightclub fire kills at least 245

A man carries a man injured in a fire at the Kiss club in Santa Maria city, Brazil, early Jan. 27.

Television footage showed people sobbing outside the club, while shirtless firefighters used sledge hammers and axes to knock down an exterior wall to open up an exit. 
"It was really fast. There was a lot of smoke, really dark smoke," survivor Aline Santos Silva, 29, told Globonews TV. "We were only able to get out quickly because we were in a VIP area close to the door." 
-- Reported by NBC News and wire reports

Firefighters try to extinguish a fire at Kiss nightclub in the southern city of Santa Maria, Brazil.

People help a man injured in a nightclub fire in Santa Maria city, Brazil, on Sunday.

Relatives of those trapped in a nightclub fire in southern Brazil mourn on Sunday.