Church of the Company Fire

[1] The fire originated at the start of a Mass (liturgy) which was being held to celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

The day of the fire was the celebration of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, one of the most popular festivities of the religious calendar, and the temple was adorned with a profusion of candles, oil lamps and wall coverings.

That night, the fire started a few minutes before 7 PM,[2] when an oil lamp at the top of the main altar ignited some of the veils that adorned the walls (some early accounts blamed a gas lamp, as people tried to make sense of the shocking tragedy amid old and new technology, but the church was not equipped with gas.

Somebody tried to put it out by smothering it with another cloth, but managed only to make the fire jump over to the rest of the veils and from there on to the wood roof.

The big hoop skirts worn at the time made escape very difficult if not impossible, causing the people at the front to fall down and be trampled by the ones behind.

Very soon the main entrance was blocked by a human wall of bodies, impeding both the exit of the ones trapped inside, and entry of rescuers.

Already under fire for designing a celebration mass with thousands of candles and oil lamps surrounded by flammable cloths and decorations, Ugarte and his colleagues drew more criticism when they later explained the deaths of so many women and girls as the Virgin Mary needing to take them without delay to her bosom.

[6][7] Two of the returned bells now hang next to the statue in the Ex Congreso Nacional gardens, one in the courtyard of the Cuartel General de Bomberos, and one at the 14th Fire Company firehouse in Providencia.

[8] Workers excavating for a new line of the Santiago Metro uncovered an unexpected length of the eastern foundation of the church in November 2013.