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On this day, December 31, 1986, three disgruntled employees set fire to the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page• 1986 – Three disgruntled employees set fire to the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, killing more than 90 people and injuring 140 others, making it the second-deadliest hotel fire in American history.
Dupont Plaza Hotel arson
Coordinates: 18°27'22"N 66°4'13"W
Dupont Plaza Rescue by Phyllis Gottschalk
Date: December 31, 1986; 38 years ago
Time: 3:30 p.m.
Venue: Hotel Dupont Plaza
Location: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Coordinates: 18°27'22"N 66°4'13"W
Type: Fire
Cause: Arson
Deaths: 96–98
Non-fatal injuries: 140
Convicted: Héctor Escudero, Armando Jiménez, and José Rivera
Convictions: Murder
Sentence: Jiménez: 75 years in prison; Escudero, Rivera: 99 years in prison
On New Year's Eve, December 31, 1986, three disgruntled employees at the Dupont Plaza Hotel (now San Juan Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino) in San Juan, Puerto Rico, intentionally set a fire. The employees (Héctor Escudero, Armando Jiménez, and José Rivera) were involved in a labor dispute with the owners. The fire killed between 96 and 98 people and injured 140 others. It is the most catastrophic hotel fire in Puerto Rican history and the second deadliest hotel fire in U.S. territory in history, after the Winecoff Hotel fire in Atlanta in 1946.
Hotel history
The Dupont Plaza Hotel opened in 1963 as the Puerto Rico-Sheraton and was operated by the Sheraton hotel company until 1980, just before Sheraton imposed significant fire-safety measures in its hotels throughout the world in 1981. Before national fire safety requirements were enacted in 1990, most hotels had implemented fire safety measures based on local regulations and ordinances, which in some localities were lax, despite frequent fires and fire-related deaths at American hotels. In 1985, there had been 7,500 reported fires in hotels and motels across the U.S., with 85 deaths and $56 million in damages (equivalent to $132 million in 2023).
In June 1985, the Dupont Plaza was inspected by the local fire department and was found to have deficiencies in its safety systems, including malfunctioning equipment and lack of evacuation and emergency plans. The fire sprinkler system, which was not criticized in the fire department's report, was not automated, as it was in 95% of hotels across the U.S. at that time.
Fire
Background
The employees of the hotel were engaged in a labor dispute with hotel management; negotiations between the hotel and the employees' union, Local 901 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, had begun in October 1986. The union represented 250 out of the hotel's 450 total employees. One of the main issues causing the dispute was an alleged management plan to terminate sixty union members from employment and replace them with non-union employees. In the week the fire took place, there had been three smaller fires at the hotel: one in a linen closet, one in a pile of cardboard boxes, and another in a roll of carpeting. Management had then added thirty more security guards. Tension between management and employees had become so great that desk clerks, taxi drivers, and local food stand employees were advising tourists to stay away from the hotel and its casino. One week after the fire, the governor of Puerto Rico, Rafael Hernández Colón, stated that, according to preliminary reports, in the days before the fire "information was going around that something was going to happen".
Disaster
The union called a meeting in the hotel's ballroom for the afternoon of December 31, 1986. At the conclusion of the meeting, around 3:00 pm, the 125 members present voted to go on strike starting at midnight. At the time, the hotel was estimated to be at near-peak occupancy, with 900 to 1,000 guests.
Three union members—Héctor Escudero Aponte, José Rivera López, and Arnaldo Jiménez Rivera—planned to set several fires with the intention of scaring tourists who wanted to stay at the hotel. At around 3:30 pm, they placed opened cans of chafing fuel in a storage room filled with newly purchased furniture, adjacent to the ballroom on the ground floor of the hotel. While some of the labor organizers created a distraction by staging a fight just outside the doors to the ballroom, three men set the fuel alight. The fire ignited the furniture and quickly burned out of control, growing to massive proportions and flashing over.
The ATF brought an investigation truck by air to the scene
After flashing over in the ballroom (which witnesses confused with an explosion), the hot gases swept up the grand staircase into the lobby of the hotel. From there, the fire was drawn through the open doors of the casino by the smoke-eaters (devices in the ceiling that sucked the smoke from cigarettes out of the room) present throughout the casino. With more than 150 guests estimated to be in the casino when the fire started, most of the deaths occurred in that area. Several months before the fire, hotel management had had the emergency exit doors locked to prevent theft, and the only other way out was through a pair of inward-opening doors. Some people pressed against the doors to no avail. Others leaped from the second-story casino through plate-glass windows to the pool deck below; many were injured. Others died of smoke inhalation on upper floors of the casino. Still others were killed as they rode the elevators to the lobby, only to discover their path blocked by the fire when the doors opened.
Those who were able to do so climbed to the hotel's roof, where an improvised helicopter rescue, including civilian, police, Puerto Rico National Guard, U.S. Coast Guard, and U.S. Navy helicopters from the Roosevelt Roads Naval Air Station, transported people to safety. Nancy Brensson, a survivor of the blaze, was one of those rescued by the helicopters:
The Puerto Rico Fire Department was dispatched at around 3:40 pm and thirteen firetrucks, 100 firefighters, and 35 ambulances responded. Firefighters extinguished the flames three hours later, although black smoke continued through the night.
Casualties
The total number of deaths from the fire was at least 96, mostly by burns, and 140 people were injured; some sources give a death toll of 97 or 98. Most of the victims were burned beyond recognition and their belongings destroyed. in total, 84 bodies were found in the casino, five in the lobby, three in an elevator, and two at a pool-side bar outside the hotel.
{snip}
Coordinates: 18°27'22"N 66°4'13"W
Dupont Plaza Rescue by Phyllis Gottschalk
Date: December 31, 1986; 38 years ago
Time: 3:30 p.m.
Venue: Hotel Dupont Plaza
Location: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Coordinates: 18°27'22"N 66°4'13"W
Type: Fire
Cause: Arson
Deaths: 96–98
Non-fatal injuries: 140
Convicted: Héctor Escudero, Armando Jiménez, and José Rivera
Convictions: Murder
Sentence: Jiménez: 75 years in prison; Escudero, Rivera: 99 years in prison
On New Year's Eve, December 31, 1986, three disgruntled employees at the Dupont Plaza Hotel (now San Juan Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino) in San Juan, Puerto Rico, intentionally set a fire. The employees (Héctor Escudero, Armando Jiménez, and José Rivera) were involved in a labor dispute with the owners. The fire killed between 96 and 98 people and injured 140 others. It is the most catastrophic hotel fire in Puerto Rican history and the second deadliest hotel fire in U.S. territory in history, after the Winecoff Hotel fire in Atlanta in 1946.
Hotel history
The Dupont Plaza Hotel opened in 1963 as the Puerto Rico-Sheraton and was operated by the Sheraton hotel company until 1980, just before Sheraton imposed significant fire-safety measures in its hotels throughout the world in 1981. Before national fire safety requirements were enacted in 1990, most hotels had implemented fire safety measures based on local regulations and ordinances, which in some localities were lax, despite frequent fires and fire-related deaths at American hotels. In 1985, there had been 7,500 reported fires in hotels and motels across the U.S., with 85 deaths and $56 million in damages (equivalent to $132 million in 2023).
In June 1985, the Dupont Plaza was inspected by the local fire department and was found to have deficiencies in its safety systems, including malfunctioning equipment and lack of evacuation and emergency plans. The fire sprinkler system, which was not criticized in the fire department's report, was not automated, as it was in 95% of hotels across the U.S. at that time.
Fire
Background
The employees of the hotel were engaged in a labor dispute with hotel management; negotiations between the hotel and the employees' union, Local 901 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, had begun in October 1986. The union represented 250 out of the hotel's 450 total employees. One of the main issues causing the dispute was an alleged management plan to terminate sixty union members from employment and replace them with non-union employees. In the week the fire took place, there had been three smaller fires at the hotel: one in a linen closet, one in a pile of cardboard boxes, and another in a roll of carpeting. Management had then added thirty more security guards. Tension between management and employees had become so great that desk clerks, taxi drivers, and local food stand employees were advising tourists to stay away from the hotel and its casino. One week after the fire, the governor of Puerto Rico, Rafael Hernández Colón, stated that, according to preliminary reports, in the days before the fire "information was going around that something was going to happen".
Disaster
The union called a meeting in the hotel's ballroom for the afternoon of December 31, 1986. At the conclusion of the meeting, around 3:00 pm, the 125 members present voted to go on strike starting at midnight. At the time, the hotel was estimated to be at near-peak occupancy, with 900 to 1,000 guests.
Three union members—Héctor Escudero Aponte, José Rivera López, and Arnaldo Jiménez Rivera—planned to set several fires with the intention of scaring tourists who wanted to stay at the hotel. At around 3:30 pm, they placed opened cans of chafing fuel in a storage room filled with newly purchased furniture, adjacent to the ballroom on the ground floor of the hotel. While some of the labor organizers created a distraction by staging a fight just outside the doors to the ballroom, three men set the fuel alight. The fire ignited the furniture and quickly burned out of control, growing to massive proportions and flashing over.
The ATF brought an investigation truck by air to the scene
After flashing over in the ballroom (which witnesses confused with an explosion), the hot gases swept up the grand staircase into the lobby of the hotel. From there, the fire was drawn through the open doors of the casino by the smoke-eaters (devices in the ceiling that sucked the smoke from cigarettes out of the room) present throughout the casino. With more than 150 guests estimated to be in the casino when the fire started, most of the deaths occurred in that area. Several months before the fire, hotel management had had the emergency exit doors locked to prevent theft, and the only other way out was through a pair of inward-opening doors. Some people pressed against the doors to no avail. Others leaped from the second-story casino through plate-glass windows to the pool deck below; many were injured. Others died of smoke inhalation on upper floors of the casino. Still others were killed as they rode the elevators to the lobby, only to discover their path blocked by the fire when the doors opened.
Those who were able to do so climbed to the hotel's roof, where an improvised helicopter rescue, including civilian, police, Puerto Rico National Guard, U.S. Coast Guard, and U.S. Navy helicopters from the Roosevelt Roads Naval Air Station, transported people to safety. Nancy Brensson, a survivor of the blaze, was one of those rescued by the helicopters:
We got to the 8th floor, but then there were people blocked by smoke. We ran to another stairway, and got down to the eighth floor again before we ran into the smoke ... [Near the roof] [h]elicopters circled around us, but it looked like they were afraid to land. Finally, one hovered about two feet above the roof. A co-pilot reached his hand out and pulled us to a step under the door. It looked like there was room in the back of the helicopter for two people. We squeezed five in.
The Puerto Rico Fire Department was dispatched at around 3:40 pm and thirteen firetrucks, 100 firefighters, and 35 ambulances responded. Firefighters extinguished the flames three hours later, although black smoke continued through the night.
Casualties
The total number of deaths from the fire was at least 96, mostly by burns, and 140 people were injured; some sources give a death toll of 97 or 98. Most of the victims were burned beyond recognition and their belongings destroyed. in total, 84 bodies were found in the casino, five in the lobby, three in an elevator, and two at a pool-side bar outside the hotel.
{snip}
Mon Dec 9, 2024: On December 7, 1946, 119 people died in Atlanta's Winecoff Hotel fire.
Thu Nov 21, 2024: On this day, November 21, 1980, the MGM Grand fire happened in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Wed Jun 5, 2024: On this day, June 5, 1946, the La Salle Hotel fire in Chicago killed 61 people.