Joelma Building Fire - February 1, 1974

The Joelma Building is a 25 floor skyscraper in Sao Paulo, Brazil, located at 225 Avenida 9 de Julho. It was the site of a famous disaster, as at 8:50am on February 1st, 1974, an air conditioning unit on the twelfth floor overheated, starting a fire. Due to the fact that flammable materials had been used to make interior furniture, the entire building was engulfed in flames within 20 minutes. By the time the fire was extinguished at 1:30pm, of the 756 people in the building, 179 had been killed and 300 more were left injured.