RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 13, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - A fire broke out Wednesday at a factory making costumes for Rio de Janeiro's Carnival, injuring 21 people in a blow to the famed extravaganza that attracts millions of tourists to the Brazilian city every year.

Workers at the Maximus factory were working around the clock to finish the outfits for samba schools before Carnival parades start in around two weeks -- an often tense time for competitors who spend almost a whole year preparing for the event.

The fire department told AFP that 21 people were hospitalized after the blaze. According to Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes, ten of them were in serious condition.

Earlier, state health secretary Claudia Mello said at least eight people had been intubated and were on artificial respiration.

Fire department chief Colonel Luciano Pacheco Sarmento said that those affected were working in a "precarious manner" and the building contained "a lot of highly combustible material."

Some workers had been sleeping in the factory, survivors said.

They "were not obliged to sleep" there but "many lived far away" and did so to "avoid wasting time and money going back and forth," Jose Ricardo Braz Santos, a 42-year-old cleaner at the factory, told AFP.

"I can still hear the voices of people screaming in my head," he added.

A survivor, identified as Roberta, told local media she had been working and sleeping in the building "since Monday."

The fire "came from the floor below and we had no way to get down," she said.

Rio de Janeiro's labour ministry announced a probe into working conditions at the factory.

"We don't know how many places like this exist in the city at the moment," said the mayor Paes.

- 'Get back up again' -

The cause of the fire has not been established.

Fire department spokesman Major Fabio Contreiras told journalists in the early evening that the blaze had been extinguished but there was still a risk the building may collapse.

"This building does not have a certificate of approval" from the fire department, said Contreiras.

"There are many costumes, a lot of material ... that we managed to preserve," he said.

Rio's Carnival, famous for parades with lavish costumes and towering floats to the tune of samba music, begins on February 28 and will run until March 8.

Three samba schools were having their outfits made at the affected factory, although none of them were taking part in the main competition for Carnival champion.

Like football, the parade competition has several divisions, and samba schools can be relegated or rise through the ranks each year.

"It destroyed the costumes. We have to get back up again," said Quiteria Chagas, queen of the drum line for the Imperio Serrano samba school, which was one of those affected, on Instagram.

The mayor Paes said the schools impacted by the fire would not be demoted from their Carnival league.

- 'An essential space'-

One of the associations for the samba schools that compete in the parades, Liga RJ, expressed its "deep concern" for the injured and said it would urgently call a meeting to evaluate the situation.

The organization said the Maximus Factory that was hit by the fire was "an essential space for the Rio Carnival."

"The impact of this incident directly affects the planning of the Carnival and the entire production chain of its realization," Liga RJ warned in an Instagram message.

The samba schools are rooted in Rio's favela urban settlements and each parade tells a story, often dealing with politics, social issues and history.

Their parades take place in the Sambadrome, a large, open-air venue where more than 70,000 spectators gather to watch the spectacle with thousands of dancers in shimmering costumes.

In 2011, a blaze in the Samba City complex of workshops and warehouses stocking Carnival material wiped out eight months of preparations worth millions of dollars.