The teacher who lost four students. The mother whose son died, while another clings to life. The photographer who survived but is haunted by guilt.
As the southern Brazilian city of Santa Maria began to buzz again Tuesday with cars and people, a somber mood still ruled the streets, where a nightclub fire Sunday claimed 235 lives.
Just about at every corner you could hear angry voices raised in talk about who is to blame for the massive blaze at the Kiss nightclub. Protesters rallied, demanding justice for those killed and tighter enforcement of regulations.
In addition to the deaths, 74 people remain hospitalized in critical condition, Brazil's health ministry said.
In Santa Maria alone, 100 of the dead were buried Monday in three different cemeteries.
That night, the streets were filled with thousands of mourners who marched to the burned-out club.
The shouts of grief and prayers were overtaken only by the wailing of mothers who stood before the building. One woman shouted: "My son, why did you have to die here?"
Police have questioned about two dozen people, including four individuals they arrested -- the two owners of Kiss, a member of the band Gurizada Fandangueira and a promoter.
Police identified the club owners as Mauro Hoffman and Elissandro Spohr. Band vocalist Marcelo de Jesus dos Santos and show producer Luciano Bonilha were also in custody.
Kiss was filled well beyond its legal capacity, when a crowd of 2,000 people packed the club to hear the band play.
About 20 minutes into the concert, the musicians ended a song with pyrotechnic effects. The ceiling caught fire, state officials said. It spread fast.
The crowd panicked, breaking into a stampede, and it hit a bottleneck -- the only exit was the front door, down a dark, narrow hallway.
It clogged quickly.
A firework set off in the club was not made for inside use and the band, which purchased it, knew that, said Marcelo Arigony, with the Santa Maria police. He accused the band of intentionally purchasing the firework made for use outdoors because it was cheaper.
He also said investigators have found evidence of faulty and fake fire extinguishers at the club, which had expired fire and municipal licenses. The club's original license permitted just 691 people inside.
While the investigation centers on the pyrotechnics used, Gurizada Fandangueira's guitarist told the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo that it was not clear yet what may have caused the fire.
"There were many wires on the ceiling, and there could have been a short circuit," he said.
More stories emerge
For residents of Santa Maria like Vinicius Serafim, the tragedy that unfolded at the club was unthinkable, even as the first reports began to come in.
"Most of us were thinking, 'OK, there is a fire, people got out and that was it," he said. "In the morning, where they started saying 40 dead, 50 dead, then we started noticing and really knowing (what happened)."
Serafim, an English teacher, lost four students in the blaze, and others are in intensive care units.
"Everybody is completely destroyed because they were young people, people that we knew. We worked with them for at least one year," he said.
One survivor, 24-year-old Mariana Magalhaes, told Brazil's state-run Agencia Brasil news agency, that she witnessed the band's singer unsuccessfully trying to put out the fire with an extinguisher.
She was working as a photographer at Kiss, and had already been to 15 funerals when she spoke to Agencia Brasil.
Magalhaes was one of the first to exit the building, and admits that she felt she was overreacting at first by screaming and running out. Only later did she realize her panic saved her life.
