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Ines Fernandes da Silveira, aunt of victim Taise Carolina Vinhas da Silveira, 27, cries in front the Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria city, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Monday, Jan. 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Nabor Goulart)

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Inspector: Investigation will take 20 days

Updated: Tuesday, 29 Jan 2013, 2:28 PM CST
Published : Tuesday, 29 Jan 2013, 6:08 AM CST

JULIANA BARBOSSSA,Associated Press

SANTA MARIA, Brazil (AP) — The lead police investigator into a nightclub fire that killed 234 people in southern Brazil says the music group playing at the time lit a flare designed for outdoor use that set the club's ceiling on fire.

Police inspector Marcelo Arigony said in a news conference Tuesday that "the flare was for outdoor use only and the people who lit them know that."

He said the investigation will take 20 days and then state prosecutors will determine whether to file charges in the early Sunday fire. Preliminary information had shown that the Kiss nightclub had no sprinklers and no emergency exits.

Arigony said "any child could have seen that this establishment should not have been open."