11 in Bridal Party Killed in Hotel Fire
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PORLAMAR, Venezuela — A Venezuelan bride, her American husband and nine others in their wedding party died of asphyxiation early Sunday when they became trapped in a hallway as they tried to flee a fire in a luxury hotel.
The party was celebrating the marriage of Rosana Fermin, 22, and Christopher Scipione, 24, of Stamford, Conn., at the 550-room Hotel Concorde on the resort island of Margarita.
Victims included the bride’s parents, her brother and his wife of two months, her 11-year-old sister and the best man, identified by police as Mike Buzzeo, a 25-year-old American whose hometown was not given.
Three other wedding party guests also were killed.
Firemen said a short circuit in a third-floor room next door to where the wedding party was celebrating caused the fire.
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