The human disaster is a permanent challenge for the Brazilian government because the difficulties faced are related to the lack of interface between public policies, resulting in fragile analyses of risk and non-prevention, being that annually several Brazilian lives are lost in disasters that continue to happen.

The article is the result of research and presents the analyses of health policy, actions, and programs developed to anticipate the fire victims of the Nightclub Kiss concert hall that took place in 2013 (Santa Maria, Brazil). The objective was to investigate and analyze the disasters and human disasters, especially the fire of Nightclub Kiss when 242 young people died. Causes and determinants were analyzed in order to subsidize public policies, in particular, the health policy.

A qualitative case study supported by the critical dialectic method with semi-structured interviews, focus group, documentary analysis, and bibliographic review.

The experiences accumulated throughout history show that disaster situations require public policies to be able to act readily, resolve, and pay attention to the needs of the population involved. Disasters are increasingly recurrent episodes and generate deep social consequences that mark human life. Managing a human disaster remains a challenge for the health policy in Brazil. The difficulties faced are related to the lack of interface with other public policies. The urgency to incorporate intervention/action strategies into health plans is important. Implementation of prevention and training programs, and adopting strategies and protocols for the whole network of attention is critical.

It is important to emphasize the importance of broadening the theoretical definitions by overcoming the divergences of the concepts adopted between the theoretical and operational field, by elaborating a review of the Brazilian legislation in order to broaden and contemplate the needs of different people.