Brazil Building Fire Trends: After Kiss, the Rules Still Lag

Firefighters and ladder trucks at the Museum of the Portuguese Language fire, São Paulo, December 2015
Firefighters tackle the fire at the Museum of the Portuguese Language in São Paulo on 21 December 2015. The museum reopened in 2021. Photo: Daniel Mello/Agência Brasil via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 BR.
Fire reports risingUpdated 20 October 2026

Trend summary

  • The Kiss nightclub fire in Santa Maria (January 2013) killed 242 people and led to Brazil’s first national fire-safety law for public venues, Lei 13.425/2017.
  • Instituto Sprinkler Brasil counted a record 2,453 news reports of structural fires in 2024, up 10.4% on 2023 and almost double the 2020 figure. It is a media count, not an official fire register.
  • Big losses keep coming from old or badly maintained buildings: the Museu Nacional (2018), the Wilton Paes de Almeida tower in São Paulo (2018), Hospital Badim and Flamengo’s Ninho do Urubu (both 2019), and a Porto Alegre hostel that killed 11 in 2024.
  • Courts move slowly. The Kiss convictions were annulled in 2022 and restored by the Supreme Court in 2024–25. In 2025 a Rio court acquitted all seven defendants in the Ninho do Urubu case, and prosecutors appealed.
242deaths, Kiss nightclub fire (2013)
2,453structural-fire news reports (2024)
+10.4%rise in fire reports, 2024 vs 2023
11deaths, Porto Alegre hostel fire (2024)

What the numbers show

Brazil has no single national register of building fires, so the most-quoted series comes from the Instituto Sprinkler Brasil (ISB), which monitors press reports of structural fires. Its count went from 1,244 in 2020 to 2,301 in 2021, 2,044 in 2022 and 2,222 in 2023, an 8.9% rise that year (ISB via Legismap). In 2024 it reached 2,453, the highest in the series and 10.4% above 2023 (ISB via Legismap). In an Ipsos survey of 300 companies cited by the ISB, only 36% said they had sprinklers, and just 14% had them in every unit.

The death tolls come from a handful of disasters. The Kiss nightclub fire killed 242 people and injured more than 600 (Agência Brasil). The 2019 fire at Flamengo’s training centre killed 10 boys aged 14 to 16 who were sleeping in container dormitories (Agência Brasil). The death toll from the Hospital Badim fire in Rio rose to 19 (Agência Brasil). The Pousada Garoa fire in Porto Alegre in April 2024 killed 11 and injured 15 (Agência Brasil).

What is driving it

The same causes keep coming up: electrical faults in old buildings, missing permits and slow inspection. Federal Police found that the Museu Nacional fire started in an overloaded air-conditioning unit, with three units wired to one breaker that did not trip (Agência Brasil). Forensic experts traced the Badim fire to a generator (Agência Brasil), and police said witnesses pointed to a short circuit on the fifth floor of the Wilton Paes de Almeida tower before it collapsed on 1 May 2018 (Agência Brasil). The Porto Alegre hostel had no operating licence and no fire-prevention plan (PPCI), and it had one spiral staircase and a single exit.

The rules are mostly made by the states, through each Corpo de Bombeiros, and the national law is thin. When Lei 13.425/2017 (the “Lei Kiss”) was signed, 12 provisions were vetoed. These included mandatory annual inspections, a criminal penalty for venue owners, and liability for mayors and fire officers who miss permit deadlines (Senate News Agency). Some of the rise in the ISB count may simply reflect more media coverage, so read the trend with care.

Recent cases

  • 27 February 2026: A fire broke out late at night on the third floor of the University of São Paulo law school on Largo São Francisco, a listed heritage complex. Nobody was hurt, and investigators are working to find the cause (Agência Brasil).
  • 22 October 2025: A Rio de Janeiro criminal court acquitted all seven defendants in the 2019 Ninho do Urubu fire, citing insufficient evidence. Families called it a serious failure of justice, and state prosecutors said they would appeal (Agência Brasil).
  • 27 June 2025: A Porto Alegre city council inquiry approved, by 7 votes to 4, a report blaming the owner’s “serious negligence” for the 2024 hostel fire that killed 11. It found no grounds to hold any city official responsible (Agência Brasil).

Press releases and official reports, 2023–2026

Up to five key releases a year for the last four years, newest first. Most come from federal ministries and agencies such as the Ministry of Health, INPE, the Federal Highway Police, CENIPA and the Central Bank, from Agência Brasil, the public news agency, and from the Senate and Chamber news services and state governments; a few news reports are included where they are the clearest public record of an event. Headlines are our English translations of the Portuguese originals. Releases from 2007–2022 are in the expandable list after 2023.

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View 20 years of major Brazilian building fire press releases (2007–2026)60 more from 2007–2022, up to five a year, newest first

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Many years list fewer than five items, and some have none yet. Older federal releases and the 2007–2013 Agência Brasil archive are hard to reach at their original addresses, and we only list items we could open and check. We are still adding to these lists. Where a page shows no date, the date comes from the release address or the publisher’s own index.

Photo list

Aerial view of fire engines at Flamengo's Ninho do Urubu training centre after the February 2019 fire
Fire engines at Flamengo’s Ninho do Urubu youth training centre in Rio de Janeiro after the fire of 8 February 2019, which killed ten teenage players. Photo: TV Em Tempo Online via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.
Flames at a power substation near the Federal Senate in Brasília at night
A fire at a power substation next to the Federal Senate in Brasília, June 2016, which cut electricity to part of the Senate. Photo: Senado Federal via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

Related on ROR Labs

How this page is built. Figures come from the official statistical releases linked above; where agencies publish provisional numbers we say so, because they are revised. Brazil’s national death data come from the Ministry of Health mortality system (SIM/DATASUS) and are usually final about two years later, and some topics, such as fires, have no single national count, so we say which year and source each figure covers. Money is given in reais (R$). Headlines and quotes are our translations from Portuguese. Photos are public-domain or Creative Commons images credited in each caption; file photos are illustrative and are not from the events described unless the caption says so. This page tracks trends and is not personal safety, medical, legal or financial advice.