Happy Land fire

Happy Land fire
Investigation of the club on the day after the fire
Location	New York City (West Farms, Bronx), New York
Coordinates	40°50′35″N 73°53′09″W / 40.8431125°N 73.8859465°W / 40.8431125; -73.8859465
Date	March 25, 1990 3 a.m. EDT
Target	Happy Land social club 1959 Southern Boulevard, Bronx, NY 10460
Attack type	Arson, mass murder
Deaths	87
Non-fatal injuries	6
Perpetrator	Julio González
Motive	Argument with girlfriend

The Happy Land fire was an arson fire that killed 87 people trapped in the unlicensed Happy Land social club at 1959 Southern Boulevard in the West Farms section of the Bronx in New York City on March 25, 1990. Most of the victims were young Hondurans celebrating Carnival. Unemployed Cuban refugee Julio González, whose former girlfriend was employed at the club, was arrested soon afterward and ultimately convicted of arson and murder.

Before the blaze, Happy Land was ordered closed for building code violations during November 1988. Violations included lack of fire exits, alarms or sprinkler system. No follow-up by the fire department was documented.

González served three years in prison in Cuba in the 1970s for desertion of the Cuban Army. In 1980, he faked a criminal record as a drug dealer to help him gain passage in the Mariel boatlift. The boatlift landed in Florida, he then traveled to Wisconsin and Arkansas and eventually settled in New York, sponsored by the American Council for Nationalities in Manhattan.

Six weeks before the fire, he split up with his girlfriend, Lydia Feliciano. Before that, González had lost his job at a lamp factory in Queens. At the time of the fire, he was two weeks behind on the rent of his room, and the owner of the boarding house where he was staying said of him "From what I know, he was down to his last hope."