Joelma Building

Edifício Praça da Bandeira, better known by its former name, Joelma Building, is a 25-story building in downtown São Paulo, Brazil, located at Avenida 9 de Julho, 225. At 8:50am on 1 February 1974, an air conditioning unit on the twelfth floor overheated, starting a fire. There were 756 people in the building at the time. Because flammable materials had been used to furnish the interior, the entire building was engulfed in flames within 20 minutes. The fire was extinguished at 1:30pm, with 179 deaths and 300 people injured.