Fire in Brazil slum consumes homes, displaces families

SAO PAULO – A fire in a slum in Brazil has consumed scores of homes and other wooden structures and displaced hundreds of people.

Fire officials say the blaze began Saturday evening in the Paraisopolis slum in west Sao Paulo, the country’s largest city. Firefighters got it under control after about three hours, after about an area of 1,000 square meters (yards) had been torched. In total, around a hundred structures were burned.

Gilson Rodrigues, president of a neighbourhood association, tells Folha de Sao Paulo daily that about 300 families were displaced. He says several people are searching for loved ones, raising the possibility that some residents were killed in the blaze.

There are no immediate reports of injuries or deaths. The cause of the fire is under investigation.