A Dance Of Fire And Ice Benzeri Oyunlar
Gema Shisila
A terrifying Bronx blaze Sunday is feared to be among the deadliest in New York City history.FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro compared the tragedy to the Happy Land inferno, where 87 people died in a fire deliberately set in an illegal Bronx dance club.
At the time, it was the biggest mass murder in modern U.S. history and the deadliest fire in the city since 1911 when 146 people were killed at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, a sweatshop in Greenwich Village.
After arguing with his ex, Gonzalez left Happy Land but returned with gasoline that he poured around the building. He then pulled down the metal gate in front of the only exit and set the fuel ablaze.
Gonzalez, who was 36, was convicted of 174 counts of murder, two for each of the victims. He was given the maximum sentence, which totaled 4,350 years. He was in prison at Clinton Correctional in Dannemora when he died of an apparent heart attack in 2016.
Happy Land, on Southern Blvd. in East Tremont, had been operating illegally after it was cited for a lack of exits and ordered to close in 1988. Of the victims, 48 were sent home to be laid to rest in Honduras.
The Triangle fiasco raised public awareness of the dismal and dangerous conditions suffered by many workers in the city. Likewise, Happy Land prompted officials to seek ways to improve safety regulations at social clubs.
In Manhattan in 1966, 12 firefighters were killed when the floor of a renovated drug store collapsed on E. 23rd St. at Broadway. They had been trying to make their way into a brownstone on E. 22nd St.
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