- A picture of the chain of events is emerging
- Mourners released white helium balloons to represent the souls of the dead
- The blaze killed in the Brazilian city of Santa Maria killed 231
- Two club owners and two band members are held in the investigation
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Santa Maria, Brazil (CNN) -- Souls rose to heaven symbolically Monday night, when marchers in this southern Brazilian town remembered those who perished in a nightclub inferno during a packed concert.
The mourners, wearing white, released 231 white helium balloons into the sky -- one for each life lost.
They hope there won't be more.
Eighty three more victims lie hospitalized -- 75 of whom could forfeit their lives to the severe burns and smoke inhalation they suffered when the Kiss nightclub went up in flames Sunday, authorities said.
Violinists accompanied the procession of grief. Some marchers wept openly; Others recited prayers for the dead.
Residents of Santa Maria, Brazil, hold a march on Monday, January 28, to honor the victims of the Kiss nightclub fire and demand justice for them. More than 230 people died and more than 120 were injured early Sunday when a fire tore through the nightclub packed with university students in southern Brazil, police said.
Residents march along Rio Branco Avenue on January 28 demanding justice and to honor the Kiss nightclub fire victims.
A violinist comforts another during the march on January 28.
Demonstrators carry candles through the streets in Santa Maria on January 28.
Soldiers carry the coffin of a victim of the nightclub blaze on January 28.
A Catholic priest celebrates Mass in a public square in the center of Santa Maria on January 28.
Mourners cry at the municipal cemetery on January 28.
The entrance to the Kiss nightclub is covered in soot on January 28.
Relatives and friends of one of the victims of the Kiss nightclub fire gather during the funeral at Santa Rita Cemetery in Santa Maria on January 28.
Firefighters stand at the burnt-out entrance of the Kiss night club on Sunday, January 27, in Santa Maria, Brazil.
Relatives wait to identify victims at the municipal gymnasium in Santa Maria on January 27.
Relatives of victims weep during a funeral in Santa Maria on January 27.
Relatives pray at the wake of a victim on January 27 in Santa Maria.
Relatives of a victim of a fire that broke out at the Kiss nightclub weep during the funeral in Santa Maria, Brazil, on Sunday, January 27.
A woman weeps on a coffin as relatives of the nightclub fire victims identify bodies.
People console each other during a collective wake for the victims of the nightclub fire.
A coffin decorated with a photograph and image of the Virgin Mary is surrounded by mourners.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, right, consoles relatives of victims of the fire.
Emergency personnel gather outside the burned-out Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria, Brazil. The nightclub is popular with young people, drawing between 2,000 and 3,000 people a night on the weekends.
A firefighter, center, carries a victim away from the blaze.
Residents look on as bodies of victims are transferred from the site of the fire to a municipal sports center.
People cry after a getting news about the deadly fire.
Firefighters work to extinguish the blaze that broke early Sunday.
Victims were dragged out of the nightclub and received preliminary medical treatment on the ground.
Firefighters, onlookers and police gather outside the burned-out club.
A grieving woman talks on her cell phone after the fire.
Hundreds dead in Brazil nightclub fire
Hundreds dead in Brazil nightclub fire
Hundreds dead in Brazil nightclub fire
Hundreds dead in Brazil nightclub fire
Hundreds dead in Brazil nightclub fire
Hundreds dead in Brazil nightclub fire
Hundreds dead in Brazil nightclub fire
Hundreds dead in Brazil nightclub fire
Hundreds dead in Brazil nightclub fire
Hundreds dead in Brazil nightclub fire
Hundreds dead in Brazil nightclub fire
Hundreds dead in Brazil nightclub fire
Hundreds dead in Brazil nightclub fire
Hundreds dead in Brazil nightclub fire
Hundreds dead in Brazil nightclub fire
Hundreds dead in Brazil nightclub fire
Hundreds dead in Brazil nightclub fire
Hundreds dead in Brazil nightclub fire
Hundreds dead in Brazil nightclub fire
Hundreds dead in Brazil nightclub fire
Hundreds dead in Brazil nightclub fire
Hundreds dead in Brazil nightclub fire
Hundreds dead in Brazil nightclub fire
Hundreds dead in Brazil nightclub fire
Hundreds dead in Brazil nightclub fire
Hundreds dead in Brazil nightclub fire
Hundreds dead in Brazil nightclub fire
Brazil club fire echoes 2003 R.I. fire
What caused the Brazil club fire?
Brazil nightclub fire: 'Like a war zone' with bodies piled
Piecing together what happened
Police have arrested four people -- the band's vocalist, the show producer and the club's two owners.
They've also questioned 20 others to gain deeper insight into how the fire began and why it killed so many. Lawyers for the club' say they are cooperating fully.
Photos: Hundreds dead in Brazil nightclub fire
Kiss was filled to twice its legal capacity, when a crowd of 2,000 people packed the club to hear the band Gurizada Fandangueira play.
About 20 minutes into the concert, the musicians ended a song with pyrotechnic effects. The ceiling caught fire, state officials said. It spread fast.
The crowd panicked, breaking into a stampede, and it hit a bottleneck -- the only exit was the front door, down a dark, narrow hallway.
It clogged quickly.
A stampede for safety
Mayara Peirera, a 21-year-old law student who was celebrating her birthday at the club, told CNN she escaped with a friend through the door.
"I saw people bleeding, fainting, running over other people," she said. "People desperate, screaming."
Two friends -- "almost sisters to me" -- didn't make it out, Peirera said.
Lessons ignored from Rhode Island fire
Brazilian reporter: People were running
Fire survivor: 'Everyone was desperate'
"I can no longer cry, because I have already cried so much."
How to protect yourself in a crowd
Bouncers watching the door halted the concertgoers at first, not knowing what they were running from.
"When I was trying to get out, the staff stopped me, and I yelled 'fire, fire,'" said survivor Matheus Vargas. "But the security guards did not realize what was going on."
The roof collapsed, trapping the crowd inside.
Bodies were found later packed into the bathrooms. They may have been seeking another way out, a back door that did not exist.
People on the street could hear victims screaming inside. They tried to tear down the club's thick outer wall with bats and sticks -- in vain.
Survivors turned back to tear others through the cramped doorway, yanking some out by their hair.
Remembering the dead
Opinion: We haven't learned from past mistakes
Inside the scorched, ransacked club, 231 bodies sprawled across the floor.
One of them was Leandra Toniolo, 23, her friend Michele Pereira told local paper Folha de Sao Paulo.
Toniolo was in the bathroom, when the flames ravaged the club.
Pereira knew she couldn't save her.
"I was on the opposite side, near the stage," Pereira said. "I would have had to go all the way across the arena -- against the mayhem -- to find her, and in the tumult, it was impossible."
By the time Toniolo's mother found her daughter's body, it had been placed with others on a truck, Pereira said.
Calls for justice
After the balloon release Monday, the sadness turned to outrage with repeated cries of "Justice!"
No expense will be spared in the investigation, said Tarso Genro, the governor of the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
It will include an assessment to see if the club was fit to operate, an expert analysis of the fire and eyewitness accounts, the state's police said.
The club's license had expired in August and had not been renewed, a local fire official told Globo TV.
The owners, however, said the nightclub was properly permitted and had been inspected by the fire marshal.
Hordes of mourners left flowers outside the club, as official grieving continues through Wednesday.
The flag outside the presidential palace is flying at half-staff.
By Monday's end, the dead were buried.
All 231 committed to the soil.
Deadly blazes: Nightclub tragedies in recent history
CNN's Helena Cavendish deMoura and Shasta Darlington reported from Santa Maria, Brazil and Ben Brumfield and Marilia Brocchetto reported from Atlanta
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