Sunday’s horrific Bronx blaze that killed 19 people was the city’s deadliest fire in nearly 32 years — since 87 people perished in March 1990 …
Sunday’s horrific Bronx blaze that killed 19 people was the city’s deadliest fire in nearly 32 years — since 87 people perished in March 1990 in the Happy Land social-club arson attack. Nine children were among Sunday’s dead, part of a tragic pattern in recent years. New York City has repeatedly seen children killed in apartment fires, often from the same family. The tragedies turn parents of eight into parents of one and leave family members, neighbors and city officials desperate for answers. March 25, 1990: 87 people die at the Happy Land social club in The Bronx Spurned beau Julio Gonzalez used gasoline and two matches to turn the hot spot into what was then the biggest mass murder in US history. Angry over a woman, he set the blaze while closing the establishment’s front metal gate, leaving 87 people to die amid the flames, smoke and panic. The destruction was so swift that some victims were found resembling the figures frozen in ash in Pompei. March 7, 2007: Bronx blaze kills eight kids from two different families A series of catastrophic errors, including a delayed application for sprinklers and missing smoke detectors, turned an electrical spark into the inferno that killed nine people from a pair of families on Woodycrest Avenue. Among the fatal victims were eight children.
