Pamella Vedovotto flips through a newspaper looking for the name of a man she calls her guardian angel.

Rafael De Oliveira carried her to safety when a fire ripped through a nightclub in this southern Brazilian city early Sunday morning.

"I don't have words to thank him," Vedovotto told CNN during an interview at her small home on the outskirts of town. "If it weren't for him, I would be in with all of those people who died. He gave me a new life."

De Oliveira, a university student, is in the newspaper's list of dead.

Early Sunday, the Kiss nightclub was packed with about 2,000 revelers, well above official capacity.

Vedovotto, a 19-year-old high school student, was at the club for a friend's birthday party.

A fire broke out during a pyrotechnic display just after 2 a.m. Panicked clubgoers ran for the exit as the air filled with smoke.

Vedovotto tried to run, but she was pushed against a metal barrier, unable to breathe.

"A girl fell under the barrier and everyone was pushing," she said. "Her neck was snapped backwards and she fell dead on the floor," the student said, breaking into sobs.

"Everyone was shouting help, God get me out of here. It was hell, get me out of here."