page_title: List of hotel fires in the United States
section_title: Dupont Plaza
hierarchical_section_title: List of hotel fires in the United States / 1980s / Dupont Plaza
caption_attribution_description: English: As a Coast Guard crewman hoists a victim of the Dupont Plaza hotel fire in San Juan, Puerto Rico, other victims await rescue on the roof of the hotel.
context_page_description: The National Fire Protection Association has documented several dozen hotel fires in the United States since the 1930s that have killed more than ten people each, deeming these incidents to be fires of historical note. The Winecoff Hotel fire of December 7, 1946, in Atlanta, Georgia, which claimed 119 lives, is the deadliest hotel fire disaster in the history of the United States. According to the NFPA, the last fire in the United States that killed ten or more people took place at the Dupont Plaza in San Juan, Puerto Rico in December 1986 and caused 98 deaths and 140 injuries.
context_section_description: Fire broke out in the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on New Year's Eve 1986, killing 98 people and injuring 140. It was described as one of the worst such fires of the century. The National Fire Protection Association conducted the inquiry into the causes of the fire, in association with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Puerto Rican authorities. It was  established that the fire originated in a deliberate act of arson; three people were convicted for this.  The inquiry report found that fire spread from new furniture temporarily stacked in a ballroom of size 5.5×9.4×1.8 m; the furniture consisted of dressers made of wood and particle board, mattresses and sofa beds, packed in cartons. The fire originated in this room and quickly engulfed the casino and the lobby; smoke spread from the two-story lobby to other floors, and flames spread over an area of 437 m². Most bodies were charred beyond recognition; 84 charred bodies were found in the casino, five in the lobby area, three in an elevator and one in a guest room on the west side of the hotel.
  National TV networks gave live coverage of the fire and the rescue operations undertaken by Puerto Rican firefighters, using helicopter services and rescuing people from the roof of the hotel.
caption: Dupont Plaza Hotel Rescue by Phyllis Gottschalk
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