THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL.100,NO.116
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 nighttop, 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 broke a hole 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 way of the two 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 chief. "It was a firetran."
Authorities early today began raiding and shutting down some of the 179 other illegal social clubs that were charged, said they were operating in the city.
It was the deadliest fire in the continental United States since the 1772 blaze at the Beverly Hills Sups Club in Southgate, Ky., that
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killed 164 people. A New Year's Eve 1988 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 said. He was to be arraigned 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 Medicine M.D. specialist Christopher McCarthy said. "They were out 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 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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Hungary
Socialists expect to lose vote
University Daily Kansan / Friday, March 23, 1990
The Associated Press
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 conversion to 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 better than the Nationalists. 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 noon, four hours after the voting
in and eight hours before polls. About 7.8 million people were able to vote.
were irregularities were reported p.m., when the voting officially ended. Several international rangers monitored the election. ameth, who voted at a state-run gertern garden serving as one of 11,000 station access the election to predict the chances of his alist Party. That party has gov'd since reform-oriented Consists formed it after defecting to the Communist Party in October
s comments reflected wide-
acceptance, even among
the students; it does not
do despite its role in steering Hunto democratic reform.
the only thing I hope for is that a long government is created," he said, adding that only a government not hamstrung by the action could deal with the in’sailing economy.
head of crediting the Socialists volunteering to play by democ rules, most voters remember excesses of more than four years that have e Communists unpopular about the Soviet bloc.
won't consider it an act of God if 'it make it into government," sth told reporters. "I will hold the reins head high and with a conscience. I don't have bitter in my heart but satisfaction."
ugary's last elections were in when the Communists won a ve majority, largely through A year later, they consolidated and forced all other parties out stence.
boughout the monthlong cam for 394 parliamentary seats, list candidates attempted to ecelect the electorate of their commitment to a multiparty system.
pre-election opinion polls indi-
cated the Socialists would finish no
r than fourth place, with a
num 10 percent of the overall
p of 5,000 people published by
rate MTI news agency less than
pur before polls closed indicated
center-right Hungarian Demo.
Form would finish strongest,
14 seats.
job
fare and the Office of Student
$400 for trip expenses. White
only long-distance trip he took
he often travels to Topeka and ties for meetings, he said he is travel expenses.
senate was the only student state that didn't pay for tripsident body president.
xid . . . " White said. "Hope-
work on this. I'm going to do
power for the next student."
e, assistant parking director,
t body president was the only
o qualified for a blue parking
nate paid $100 for his sticker.
the street from the Union in lot
circ is convenient because of his
round campus and out of the