Rio’s Shopping Tijuca Partially Closed After Deadly Basement Fire

Overview

• Municipal Civil Defense fully interdicted the basement and 17 ground-floor stores after identifying damage such as a deformed slab, mezzanine risk and the potential for falling finishes, while ruling out any risk of overall collapse.
• Fire crews continue overhaul operations with exhausters and newly opened wall vents to disperse smoke and cool the structure after intense heat warped parts of the building.
• Police have opened an inquiry, begun taking witness statements and requested security footage, with a site forensic exam pending full release; reports point to an air-conditioning unit in the Bellart store as the likely origin and the shop lacked a fire approval, though the mall held a certificate.
• Traffic on Avenida Maracanã was partially restored Tuesday morning, but the shopping center remains shut with no reopening date and about 40 customer cars still awaiting scheduled retrieval from the garage.
• The blaze left two brigade members dead and three people injured, and accounts of the initial evacuation and alarm timing conflict with the administration’s assertion that protocols were followed and roughly 7,000 people exited safely.