Unable to gather for the annual memorial event for two consecutive years due to COVID-19 restrictions, family members of the 87 people killed in the 1990 Happy Land Social Club fire gathered in late March with members of Bronx Community Board 6, first responders and elected officials to remember, once again, the victims of the tragic event.

 

A smaller crowd than in past years, the group gathered on Friday, March 25, in the small park located at Southern Boulevard and East Tremont Avenue, where a monument is erected across the street from where the fire broke out at 1959 Southern Boulevard in the West Farms section of the borough.

 

Lt. Roy David, a member of EMS for the last 48 years, was present on the day to pay his respects. Mingling among those in attendance and chatting informally with them, he recalled being part of the first EMS team that arrived at the scene of the tragedy. “The call came across of rubbish burning in front,” he said. “I pulled up over here, and I was told by the firemen that there were up to 100 people inside and I said, ‘Where?’ Because there was no sign or anything.”

 

David continued, “It was upstairs, and the two windows were blocked by these two huge air-conditioners.” He recalled treating one of the lone survivors, the club’s disc-jockey, who apparently ran through the flames. Only six people escaped the blaze according to a 2016 article by The New York Times. The publication reported that Happy Land was found to have lacked fire exits, alarms and sprinklers, prompting City officials to belatedly form a task force to toughen and enforce regulations governing social clubs.

 

On his reason for attending the annual vigil, David later told Norwood News, “It’s something that still resonates in my heart. It’s a very sad situation and it was a very tragic event from then until now. It’s just good, and very supportive to have all of these people around, you know…the families and people from the community all joining together just to commemorate this event.”

 

Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson was also in attendance and spent some time speaking informally with family members of the victims. The vigil took place just two-months after the Bronx’s most recent mass fire tragedy, the Twin Parks Northwest fire at 333, East 181st Street in Fordham Heights.

 

As reported, that fire killed 17 people, including 9 children on Sunday, Jan. 9, and was caused by a faulty space heater. The situation was worsened by non-functioning, self-closing doors, a factor which impeded residents from escaping due to heavy smoke. A class action legal case has been launched by residents of the public housing complex against both the property managers and the City.

 

Referencing the ongoing relief efforts in the wake of the tragedy, Gibson said, “We’ve set a really high standard, and now, everyone wants to be accommodated to that level, which is a lot.” She then spoke of three or four families who did not live at Twin Parks but who had lost family members in the blaze, including a 2-year-old child who died while staying with a babysitter in the building.

 

Meanwhile, due to prevailing COVID-19 social distancing restrictions which were in effect on the last two anniversaries of the Happy Land Social Club tragedy, including on the 30th anniversary in 2020, Carmen Crisanto of Belmont had been unable to visit the park where the Happy Land Memorial Monument is located in memory of the victims.

 

Instead, she said she stood outside the locked iron fence to pay her respects to her sister, Justa Gladys Batiz, who was just 25 when she died in the fire. “From day one, every year I would come here and provide flowers, and we used to gather at the church down the block,” she said. “We used to go there for the mass and then from there, we would come here.”

 

Crisanto continued, “My sister would be 57 years old [this year]. Yesterday, I couldn’t sleep because I knew I was going to come down here, and every time I think about it, I don’t want to think about it, but I have to, because I was the one that identified my sister when the tragedy happened, because they took pictures of all the dead bodies, and I remember the school right there.”

 

She concluded, “That’s where they took all the pictures, and the relatives had to come and identify the pictures.” Cristano said she was able to identify her sister at the P.S. 67 location from her yellow dress and curly hair.

 

State Sen. Luis Sepúlveda (S.D. 32) also spoke to the crowd and said he had been approached by Ivine Galarza, the former chairwoman of Bronx Community Board 6, and by family members of the victims who suggested some type of sign be hung on the fence outside the park, in addition to the monument plaque, that would tell the story of the fire tragedy. He said Galarza also suggested the park be kept open “every single day” so family members could visit on birthdays and anniversaries.

 

Family, community board members, and David later took turns reading the 87 names of those who perished in the fateful blaze.

 

After the ceremony, Norwood News asked Gibson about the suggestion of keeping the park open. “As of right now, it’s closed all the time and so, we would really like to work with the Parks Department to find a responsible way of opening this memorial [site] and providing access to family members and friends,” she said.

 

The borough president added, “I don’t know that we necessarily want to open this up as a full-fledged park, with the normal park regulations and rules because obviously, I want to be very concerned about maintaining the sanctity of this place, with a sense of dignity, and I don’t want it to be the victim of any vandalism or anything.”

 

The park housing the Happy Land memorial monument was later found to be open on Saturday, April 16, but this may have been the result of “normal” access to the park having resumed around Easter time. Calls placed with Bronx Community Board 6 on the matter were not immediately returned.

 

In the aftermath of the Happy Land blaze in 1990, detectives tracked down the perpetrator, Julio Gonzalez, who they said had flown into a rage with his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Lydia Feliciano, who had been at the club on the night of the tragedy. Gonzalez intentionally started the fire. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison and died of a heart attack in 2016, while serving his sentence.

The Happy Land Social Club fire remains the second deadliest fire in New York City history, after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which occurred in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan. Ironically, it occurred on the same date as Happy Land, on March 25, 1911. It claimed the lives of 146 garment workers, including 123 women and girls, and 23 men.

 

Similar to what happened following the recent Twin Parks fire tragedy, where a swath of fire prevention and fire safety legislation was kick-started at all levels of government, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire also led to new legislation that brought about improved safety conditions in sweatshops. It also prompted the founding of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union which today is called the Unite Here Labor Union. It currently has nearly 300,000 active members.

 

*Síle Moloney contributed to this story.