Happy Land fire

The fire was the deadliest in New York City since the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which coincidentally occurred on the same day in 1911, and the deadliest in American territory since the Dupont Plaza Hotel fire in Puerto Rico in 1986 and the Winecoff Hotel Fire in 1946.

The building that housed Happy Land club was managed by Jay Weiss, the primary leaseholder, and Morris Jaffe.

The 87 victims were trapped in the unlicensed Happy Land social club, located at 1959 Southern Boulevard in the West Farms section of the Bronx.

Most of the victims were young Hondurans celebrating Carnival, many of them part of the Garifuna American community.

Cuban refugee Julio González, whose former girlfriend was employed at the club, was arrested soon afterward and ultimately convicted of arson and murder.

Julio González served three years in prison in Cuba during the 1970s for desertion from the Cuban Army.

In 1980, he faked a criminal record as a drug dealer to help him gain passage in the Mariel boatlift.

The boatlift landed in Florida; he then traveled to Wisconsin and Arkansas and eventually settled in New York, sponsored by the American Council for Nationalities in Manhattan.

Six weeks before the fire, he split up with his girlfriend, Lydia Feliciano.

Before that, González had lost his job at a lamp factory in Queens.

At the time of the fire, he was two weeks behind on the rent of his room, and the owner of the boarding house where he was staying said of him: "From what I know, he was down to his last hope."

The evening of the fire, González had argued with his former girlfriend, Feliciano, who was a coat check worker at the club, urging her to quit.

She said that she had had enough of him and did not want anything to do with him anymore.

He was ejected by the bouncer around 3:00 a.m. He was heard to scream drunken threats to "shut this place down."

He also reportedly shouted, "I'll be coming back."

Feliciano tried to warn others, worried that González was going to do something.

González went to an Amoco gas station, then returned to the establishment with a plastic container with $1.00 worth of gasoline.

He spread the fuel at the base of a staircase, the only access into the club, and then ignited the gasoline.

Eighty-seven people died in the resulting fire.

Nineteen bodies were found downstairs; the others upstairs.

Six bodies were found within several feet of the front door.

Some of those trapped punched a hole through a wall to an adjoining union hall in an attempt to escape.

Most of the deaths were from asphyxiation or trampling.

The club filled with toxic smoke so quickly that some victims were found with drinks still in hand.

Most of the victims were young Hondurans celebrating Carnival, largely drawn from members of the local Garifuna American community.

A hundred and fifty firemen responded to the blaze, which was extinguished in five minutes.

Initial reports indicated that only three people survived the blaze, but later reports gave the number of survivors as five or six.

Among them were Feliciano, the club owner’s wife, and disc jockey Ruben Valladares.

Valladares was hospitalized in guarded condition with second- and third-degree burns over half his body.

After setting the fire, González returned home, removed his gasoline-soaked clothes and fell asleep.

He was arrested the following afternoon after police investigators interviewed Feliciano and learned of the previous night's argument.

Once advised of his rights, he admitted to starting the blaze.

In 1987, Weiss and Jaffe's company, Little Peach Realty Inc., had leased the building space for seven years to the club owner, Elias Colon, who died in the fire.

Before the blaze, Happy Land was ordered to close for building code violations in November of 1988.

Violations included lack of fire exits, alarms or sprinkler system.

No follow-up by the fire department was documented.

The Happy Land fire was an act of arson that killed 87 people on March 25, 1990 in the Bronx in New York City, United States.

An eviction trial against Colon had been scheduled to start on March 28, 1990, three days after the fire.

González was charged with 174 counts of murder, two for each victim, and was found guilty on 87 counts of arson and 87 counts of murder on August 19, 1991.

For each count, he received the maximum sentence of 25 years to life.