A possible cause of the fire would have been an electrical system overload. The fire occurred at 4:15 PM on Thursday, 24 February 1972, on the second floor and engulfed the entire building, which contained several corporate offices, among them
German multinational companies
Henkel and
Siemens. Since restoration, the building has housed public offices and is known as the
Pirani Building, after a former
department store that used to occupy the lower floors before the fire. Although the building is associated with the fatal fire, it nevertheless has significant architectural value, being a renown skyscrapers of São Paulo, of considerable prominence in the skyline with its notable geometric shape.
Victims Among the fatalities were two executives at Henkel: Paul Jürgen Pondorf, President of the company, and Ottmar Flick. The corporate offices were a total loss. Most survivors of the tragedy, unable to use the emergency stairs, chose to climb to the top floor of the building, where they remained until firefighters were able to get the fire under control. Many were later rescued via helicopter by the pilot Olendino de Souza. The fire had burned out at 11:00PM.
Consequences The fire was covered live on television broadcasts and the scenes of people throwing themselves from the windows shocked the world. This sparked discussions about fire safety regulations for high-rise buildings, an aspect largely neglected until then. These discussions gained added impetus from an even greater tragedy, the fire at the
Joelma Building, which occurred two years later in São Paulo. In 2013, the newspaper
Folha de S.Paulo reported that the fire safety measures in Andraus still were substandard. ==See also==