10 killed in Rio football training facility blaze
rio de janeiro — Fire swept through a training facility for Brazil’s most popular football club Flamengo on Friday, killing at least 10 people, authorities said.
The pre-dawn blaze in Rio de Janeiro hit a building that housed youthcategory players aged 14 to 17, firefighters said.
In addition to the deaths, three people were injured in the fire. The cause was not immediately known.
Globo TV broadcast aerial footage of the fire, which it said had been brought under control after it burned for two hours.
The fire broke out at 5am in the Vargem Grande district of Rio in a modern facility where the top-flight professional Flamengo squad also trains, the news website G1 said.
Among the dead were six players and four team staff, the channel Sportv said. The main team had been due to practice at the same facility later in the morning. —
rio de janeiro — A fire tore through the sprawling training complex of one of Brazil’s biggest soccer clubs, killing 10 people and leaving three injured teenagers in Rio de Janeiro, firefighters said.
Brazilian firefighters were called in just after 5am on Friday to battle a blaze at the Ninho de Urubu training ground of the Flamengo soccer club in the city’s western region, a fire official said. There was no word yet on the cause of the fire.
The ages and identities of those killed were not released but the three injured were 14, 15 and 16 years old, the fire official said. The injured were taken to local hospitals and their conditions were not immediately known, said the official, who asked his name not be used due to his agency’s rules.
The dead were six players and four team staff, the channel Sportv said. The main team had been due to practice at the same facility later in the morning.
Local media reported that the fire started in a dorm where youth soccer players sleep. The fire official said that could not be confirmed. Aerial images from Globo TV showed smoke emerging from a charred area.
Like many professional clubs in soccer-crazed Brazil, Flamengo has a youth development programme for promising young players in their early teens. Many players stay at the facilities while training. Messages to Flamengo officials were not immediately answered.
Several people who appeared to be relatives entered the complex without speaking to reporters.
Some were crying.
“These boys suffer so much in pursuing their dreams” of becoming professional players, said Caros Eduardo Araujo, a fan who left a bouquet of flowers at the gate of the complex. “I’ve been shaking since I heard the news.” Samuel Barbosa, 16-year-old who survived the fire, told Globo TV news that a lot of smoke filled the dorm. —