1990 — March 25, Arson Fire, Happy Land Social Club, Bronx, NY — 87

lornajarrettblanchard March 25, 1990

— 87 Blumenthal, Ralph. “Fire in the Bronx; 87 Die in Blaze at Illegal Club…” NYT, 3-26-1990.

— 87 Duwe, Grant. Mass Murder in the United States: A History. McFarland, 2007, p. 28.

— 87 Hashagen. “The Deadliest Fires to Strike New York City and…FDNY,” WNYF, 60/1, p29.

— 87 History.com. This Day in History, Disaster, March 25, 1911. Fire Kills 145 at Triangle…

— 87 Moore/Tracy. “Happy Land mass murderer Julio Gonzalez…” NY Daily News, 3-18-2015.

— 87 National Fire Protection Association. Key Dates in Fire History. 1996.

— 87 National Fire Sprinkler Association. F.Y.I. 1999, 6.

— 87 NY Daily News. “Fire kills 87 people at the Happy Land Social Club…” 3-17-2015.

— 87 New York Times. “The Century’s Worst Fires.” March 26, 1990.

— 87 Robinson, Kathleen. “The Happy Land Social Club Fire.” NFPA Journal, Jan-Feb 2013.

Narrative Information

Blumenthal: “Eighty-seven people, crammed into an illegal Bronx social club, were asphyxiated or burned to death within minutes in a flash fire early yesterday morning. The police later arrested a man who they said had set the blaze with gasoline after a quarrel there. It was the worst loss of life in a fire in New York City since the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire of 1911, exactly 79 years ago to the day. It was the worst fire in the nation since 97 people were killed in a hotel fire in Puerto Rico on Dec. 31, 1986.

“The club – the Happy Land Social Club, at 1959 Southern Boulevard, off East Tremont Avenue – had no state liquor license. It was ordered closed for fire hazards and building-code infractions 16 months ago, city officials said, but continued to operate. Ejected After Argument Police Commissioner Lee P. Brown identified the arrested suspect as Julio Gonzalez, 36 years old, of 31 Buchanan Place in the Bronx. Lieut. Raymond O’Donnell, a police spokesman, said Mr. Gonzalez had argued with a former girlfriend who worked at the club and had been ejected by a bouncer, but then returned with gasoline and set the fire.

“His girlfriend and at least three others survived. But the flames cut off the only open door and filled the club with smoke. Some victims suffocated so rapidly that they were found with drinks in their hands. ”Some looked like they were sleeping,” said Firefighter Richard Harden of Ladder Company 58, one of those who put out the blaze. ”Some looked horrified. Some looked like they were in shock. There were some people holding hands. There were some people who looked like they were trying to commiserate and hug each other. Some people had torn their clothes off in their panic to get out.”

Watched the Firefighters

“Detective Lieut. James Malvey of the 48th Precinct said last night that Mr. Gonzalez, in a videotaped statement for the District Attorney’s office, told of picking up a plastic jug at the club after threatening, ”I’ll be back.” Mr. Gonzalez, the detective said, filled the jug with $1 worth of gasoline at a nearby service station and returned. ”He threw the gasoline on the floor,” Detective Malvey said. ”He threw in a couple of matches. The fire just crawled in and he left.” He said Mr. Gonzalez ”didn’t know how bad it was when he left, but he came back and watched the firemen fight the fire.”

“The detective said Mr. Gonzalez, who the police said had been drinking before the fire, offered no resistance when he was arrested at home. ”It was like he was being picked up for a traffic warrant,” he said. ”It was nothing. He was sleeping.” But later, the police said, Mr. Gonzalez was crying and ”remorseful.” ”Basically, he’s saying he did it,” Lieutenant O’Donnell said at the 48th Precinct station house. Mr. Gonzalez was charged last night with arson and murder, the police said. The number of counts of murder he will be charged with will be determined by the District Attorney’s office, officials said.

“When the fire hit the two-story club favored by Hondurans and other Central American immigrants in the East Tremont section, many patrons just dropped to the floor where they stood or sat, some with their legs still entwined around bar stools, firefighters said. The black smoke choked the darkened dance floor and suffocated people quickly. The dance floor itself, which in other times had been a place of flashing lights and undulating bodies, was transformed into a macabre pile of victims, wearing their Saturday night outfits, entangled in the grotesque stillness of their final moments.” (Blumenthal, Ralph. “Fire in the Bronx; 87 Die in Blaze at Illegal Club; Police Arrest Ejected Patron; Worst New York Fire Since 1911.” New York Times, 3-26-1990.)

Robinson: “….The [NY] Times reported that the club had been shut down by inspectors because it was a “firetrap,” in the blunt assessment of Charles Smith, Jr., the city’s buildings commissioner. Officials said the club had no sprinklers, fire exits, emergency lights, or exit signs, and that it had reopened illegally. After entering the front door, patrons went down a narrow hallway past a ticket window and coat check, then into a small room with a dance floor and a bar. Stairs at the back of the first floor led to another dance floor and a bar on the floor above, where most of the patrons had congregated….

“The club filled with smoke, asphyxiating victims “so rapidly that they were found with drinks in their hands,” according to the Times….

“Many fell where they were, piling up on the dance floor, while others tried to reach the exit. Firefighters found 68 bodies upstairs and 19 on the stairs or the ground floor. Only five people managed to escape. One of them was Lydia Feliciano [ex-girlfriend of the arsonist].

“On November 15, 1990, Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson ruled that the building’s three landlords were not criminally responsible for the fire, noting that criminal liability probably rested with Elias Colon, the owner and operator of the club, who died in the fire. Two months later, however, New York City Mayor David Dinkins filed misdemeanor charges against the other two landlords. Both eventually pleaded guilty “to failing to install a proper sprinkler system and to illegally converting the premises into a two-story social club,” even though they “contended that they were not guilty because they were unaware the building had been converted,” according to The New York Times.

“Gonzalez was arrested, charged, and convicted on 87 counts of murder, 87 counts of arson, and assault in August 1991. He was sentenced to 25 years to life on each count, and is eligible for parole in 2015.” (Robinson, Kathleen. “The Happy Land Social Club Fire.” NFPA Journal, Jan-Feb 2013.)

NY Daily News, 3-26-1990: “….It was the deadliest fire in the city in 79 years…. ‘There was no way out; they never had a chance,’ said Thomas Doyle, executive director of the Emergency Medical Service…. Nearly all the victims – 61 men and 26 women – died of smoke inhalation, but authorities said several were trampled in the stampede for the door…. The building, at 1959 Southern Blvd. in East Tremont near the Bronx Zoo, had been hit with a “peremptory vacate order” in November 1988 for lack of exits and for improper lighting and was being condemned, officials said…. The fire came on the 79th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. first in Greenwich Village, in which 146 people were killed….

“Smith said [Building Commissioner Charles Smith] there were supposed to have been three exits. The club had sprinklers upstairs, but no fire alarms. Records show police were told to see if the weekends-only club was operating last November. They drove by on Wednesday, Nov. 1, and found it closed….” (New York Daily News. “Fire kills 87 people at the Happy Land Social Club in the Bronx in 1990.” 3-17-2015 (republication of article first published 3-26-1990).

Moore and Tracy: “The man responsible for sparking the infamous Happy Land fire in the Bronx 25 years ago next week has lost his first bid for freedom, officials said Tuesday [March 17]. Julio Gonzalez, who was convicted of…murder following the fire that killed 87 people on March 25, 1990, was denied parole last month, state corrections officials said.

“His hopes for an early release from prison were dashed after a parole board found that Gonzalez would “not live at liberty without again violating the law” and his release was “incompatible with the welfare of society,” according to state documents. Gonzalez, now 60, torched the building after an argument with his former girlfriend Lydia Feliciano, who was one of six people to escape the flames and survive the inferno inside the illegal club…. “I got angry, the devil got to me and I set the fire,” Gonzalez said during a videotaped interview with detectives at the time….‘The anger was towards the man that had me leave,’ Gonzalez said at his parole hearing, which was done over a video conference call from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y. ‘He told me he was going to hit me. And I told him I was going to leave but I was coming back.’ ‘At that moment I wasn’t thinking about what I was doing,’ he said about setting the fire. ‘But, regarding the club, I didn’t realize how many people were inside. When I got there, there were some people there, but, you know, there was two floors there. I didn’t know that there were two floors in that place.’….

“The disaster spurred the city to form a social club task force with 200 inspectors. Today, the city deploys MARCH (Multi Agency Response to Community Hotspots) to inspect and close hazardous locations, officials said….

“The parole board denied the request, citing that throughout his 25 years in prison, Gonzalez hadn’t bothered to get a GED or learn English.

“Gonzalez can apply for parole again in November 2016, officials said.” (Moore, Tina and Thomas Tracy. “Happy Land mass murderer Julio Gonzalez denied parole on eve of horrific Bronx inferno’s tragic 25^th anniversary.” NY Daily News, 3-18-2015.)

Sources

Blumenthal, Ralph. “Fire in the Bronx; 87 Die in Blaze at Illegal Club; Police Arrest Ejected Patron; Worst New York Fire Since 1911.” New York Times, 3-26-1990. Accessed at: http://www.nytimes.com/1990/03/26/nyregion/fire-bronx-87-die-blaze-illegal-club-police-arrest-ejected-patron-worst-new-york.html

Duwe, Grant. Mass Murder in the United States: A History. McFarland, 2007.

Hashagen, Paul. “The Deadliest Fires to Strike New York City and the FDNY,” WNYF, Vol. 60, No. 1, 2000, pp. 28-30.

History.com. This Day in History, Disaster, March 25, 1911. “Fire Kills 145 at Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.” Accessed 12/06/2008 at: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&displayDate=03/25&categoryId=disaster

Moore, Tina and Thomas Tracy. “Happy Land mass murderer Julio Gonzalez denied parole on eve of horrific Bronx inferno’s tragic 25^th anniversary.” New York Daily News, 3-18-2015. Accessed 5-31-2015 at: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/happy-land-mass-murderer-julio-gonzalez-denied-parole-article-1.2152515

National Fire Protection Association. Key Dates in Fire History. 1996, 2010. Accessed at: http://www.nfpa.org/itemDetail.asp?categoryID=1352&itemID=30955&URL=Research%20&%20Reports/Fire%20statistics/Key%20dates%20in%20fire%20history&cookie%5Ftest=1

National Fire Sprinkler Association, Inc. F.Y.I. – Fire Sprinkler Facts. Patterson, NY: NFSA, November 1999, 8 pages. Accessed at: http://www.firemarshals.org/data/File/docs/College%20Dorm/Administrators/F1%20-%20FIRE%20SPRINKLER%20FACTS.pdf

New York Daily News. “Fire kills 87 people at the Happy Land Social Club in the Bronx in 1990.” 3-17-2015 (republication of article first published 3-26-1990). Accessed 5-31-2015 at: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/dozens-die-fire-illegal-bonx-social-club-1990-article-1.2152091

New York Times. “The Century’s Worst Fires.” 3-26-1990. Accessed at: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE2D9113CF935A15750C0A966958260&n=Top%2FReference%2FTimes%20Topics%2FSubjects%2FF%2FFires%20and%20Firefighters

Robinson, Kathleen. “The Happy Land Social Club Fire.” NFPA Journal, Jan-Feb 2013. Accessed 5-31-2015 at: http://www.nfpa.org/newsandpublications/nfpa-journal/2013/january-february-2013/news-and-analysis/looking-back