Julio González doused the entrance of the Bronx social club with gasoline and set it alight after a fight with his former girlfriend, who worked there. That door was the only exit. Within five minutes, 87 of the 93 club occupants, mostly Honduran immigrants under 25, were killed. At the time, it was New York's deadliest fire since the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, which had occurred on that same date 79 years before.
González started the blaze, but its effects were magnified by a raft of code violations including improper lighting, a lack of exits, no fire alarms and no sprinklers. An order to vacate the premises for those violations had been issued in 1989, but the city never followed through. González was found guilty of 87 counts of arson and 87 counts of murder on August 19, 1991. He was denied parole in 2015 and died in prison a year later. The owner of the club died in the fire, but the city filed misdemeanor charges against the building’s owner and landlord for which they pleaded guilty and received a fine and community service.
After the fire, Mayor David Dinkins ordered a task force to inspect the city’s social clubs for code violations.