VOL.100.NO.116
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
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MONDAY, MARCH 26, 1990
(USPS 650-640)
Fire in NY social club kills 87
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — A man bounced from a Bronx social club for quarrelling with an ex-girlfriend returned with a jug of gasoline and set a fire to people at the nightspot, which had been ordered closed, police said.
Most of the dead suffocated in thick smoke in the pre-dawn blaze Sunday, authorities said. Some people were trapped to death; others walked through a wall to an adjoining hall in a desperate attempt to live.
Emergency workers described bodies felled by smoke so quickly that they still had their legs wrapped around a bar stool, gripped
drinks or held hands. Only three people managed to reach safety by the two of the tiny exit doors on the front of the two-story Happy Land social club.
"People literally were stacked on top of each other," said Anthony De Vita, the Fire Department command chief. "It was a fireman."
It was the deadliest fire in the continental United States since the 1772 blaze at the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Ky, that
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Authorities early today began raiding and shutting down some of the 172 other illegal social clubs that were operating. The clubs said were operating in the city.
killed 164 people. A New Year's Eve 1986 fire at a hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, killed 96.
The fire occurred 79 years to the day after a blaze at the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. in New York City that claimed 145 lives, many of them immigrant garment workers. That blazed led to reforms around the nation in workplace safety.
Julio Gonzalez, a Cuban immigrant and former boyfriend of a Happy Land's ticket seller, was charged with arson and murder, Police Commissioner Lee Brown to be asrailed later today.
Gonzalez, 36, was bounced from
the club after a quarrel in which he tried to woo back the woman, police said. After warning, "I'll be back," he returned and sprinkled gasoline on the floor, said Lt. James Malvey.
Gonzalez cried with remorse under questioning, said Lt. Raymond O'Donnell, a police spokesman. "Basically, he's saying he did it." O'Donnell said.
The impoverished Latino neighborhood near the Bronx Zoo was thick with mourners, who were asked to identify relatives from snapshots of the bodies posted on the wall of a high school.
Killed were 61 men and 26 women, most of them Honduran
and Dominican immigrants.
"Most of the bodies were in dance clothes," Emergency Medical Services specialist Christopher McCarthy said. "They were out to have fun."
Alva Romero, a Honduran immigrant, lost six relatives, including a daughter, both brothers and a sister. Jerome Ford lost five relatives. The local Honduran soccer club lost several players.
Happy Land was ordered shut in November 1988 and again a year later because of inadequate exits, sprinkler systems, emergency lighting and signs, Dinkins said. It had no liquor or cabaret license.
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Friday, March 23, 1990 / University Daily Kansan
Hungary
The Associated Press
Socialists expect to lose vote
BUDAPEST, Hungary - Millions of Hungarians cast ballots yesterday in the first free national elections in 43 years, and many expressed hope for the future and fear of the Communist past.
Premier Miklos Nemeth, a reform-minded Communist and a key engineer of the nation's convergence democracy, declared moments before he voted that he was relinquishing control with a clear conscience.
As in East Germany, where Eastern Europe's first free ballot in decades took place March 18, the Communists were expected to fare poorly in the elections. They competed with 11 other national parties for parliament seats.
Despite occasional rain showers, voter turnout appeared brisk at Budapest polling stations, with election officials reporting a turnout of nearly 50 percent in some wards by the vote. After the voting began and eight hour beepers closed, About 7.8 million people were eligible to vote.
Few irregularities were reported by 8 p.m., when the voting officially ended. Several international observers monitored the election.
Nemeth, who voted at a state-run kindergarten serving as one of 11,000 polling stations across the nation, added to predict the changes of his Socialist Party. That party earned since reform-oriented Communists formed it after defecting from the Communist Party in October.
His comments reflected widespread acceptance, even among Socialists, that his party would not do well despite its role in steering Hungary to democratic reform.
"The only thing I hope for is that a strong government is created." Nemeth said, adding that only a government not hamstruggy by the opposition could deal with the nation's allying economy.
Instead of crediting the Socialists for volunteering to play by democratic rules, most voters remember the excesses of more than four decades of one-party rule that have made Communists unpopular throughout the Soviet bloc.
"I won't consider it an act of God if I don't make it into government." Nemeth told reporters. "I will hand over the reins head high and with a clear conscience. I don't have bitterness in my heart but satisfaction."
Throughout the monthlong campaign for 984 parliamentary seats, the candidate attempted to convince the committee to commit to a multiparty system.
Hungary's last elections were in 1947, when the Communists won a relative majority, largely through fraud. A year later, they consolidated power and forced all other parties out of existence.
But pre-election opinion polls indicated the Socialists would finish no higher than fourth place, with a minimum 10 percent of the overall vote.
A poll of 5,000 people published by the state MT1 news agency less than one hour before polls closed indicated he center-right Hungarian Democratic Forum would finish strongest, with 31 seats.
he job
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