One of the worst fires of the last century in the Americas occurred on November 28, 1942, in the United States when 487 people were killed in an inferno at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston.
Here is a look at some of the worst fires in the Americas since 2000:
October 20, 2000 - At least 20 people die in a fire at a Mexico City dance club that had been shut by authorities 11 times previously.
December 29, 2001 - At least 280 people are killed when a fire roars through the crowded Mesa Redonda shopping area in the Peruvian capital Lima. The blaze started with an explosion at a shop selling fireworks for New Year parties. Six people were imprisoned in 2007 for their roles in the fire.
July 20, 2002 - At least 30 people die at an illegal disco in Lima packed with young party-goers for a "zoo party" with caged wild animals. The disco is destroyed when a pyrotechnic stunt by a barman goes wrong. A lion and Bengal tiger also die.
December 1, 2002 - Almost fifty people are killed when fire sweeps through a packed basement bar and club in the Venezuelan capital Caracas.
February 20, 2003 - A pyrotechnics display at the start of a heavy metal concert ignites sound-proofing material at a club in Rhode Island in the United States. Fire engulfs the wooden building, killing 100 people and injuring nearly 200.
August 1, 2004 - A fire sweeps through a supermarket packed with shoppers on the Paraguayan capital's outskirts and kills at least 364 people. Officials say it was caused by a gas explosion near the food court, which caused part of the roof to collapse.
December 30, 2004 - A blaze in a crowded nightclub in Buenos Aires kills 192 people and injures nearly 1,000. Cause of the fire is thought to have been a type of flare sold for New Year's celebrations fired into the club's ceiling, which was covered with foam.
April 19, 2008 - At least 15 people die and 35 are injured when a fire ignited by fireworks swept through a crowded Quito nightclub in Ecuador.
June 5, 2009 - A fire at the ABC day-care center in the northern Mexican city of Hermosillo kills 47 small children. Several employees were later arrested.
December 8, 2010 - Fire engulfs the San Miguel prison in the Chilean capital, Santiago, killing 81 inmates and critically injuring 14 others. It is the worst-ever accident in the country's jail system.
January 28, 2012 - Twenty-seven people are killed after a fire broke out at the unlicensed Christ is Love center for addicts in the Peruvian capital, Lima.
February 14, 2012 - A fire at a prison in the Honduran town of Comayagua, 45 miles north of the capital Tegucigalpa, kills 357 people, according to the local attorney-general's office, many of them inmates trapped in their cells.
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