Two Suits Seek $19 Million in Fire at Hotel

Lawyers for two victims of the New Year’s Eve fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel filed lawsuits Monday seeking $19 million in damages from the hotel owners, charging negligence in the blaze that killed 96 people.

Authorities say arson caused the blaze, and Col. Jorge Collazo, who heads the police criminal investigation department, said there was enough physical evidence of arson to obtain convictions.

“It has already been established that it was a malicious fire,” Collazo said. “If that has been established, it’s because there is evidence to sustain that there was a malicious fire.”

Evidence Gathered

Asked if enough evidence had been gathered to obtain convictions once suspects are arrested, he answered: “We are confident of it.

“I can’t tell you that in the next hours we are going to announce arrests,” he said, adding that the investigation would likely take “a few more days.”

More than 100 agents from the FBI, the San Juan police and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms interviewed witnesses and examined evidence Monday, with some of the questioning conducted at the charred hotel.

Lawyers filed a $9-million damage suit against the hotel management, accusing it of “negligence and wrongful death” in the case of Juan Rosario Torres, who died in the hotel casino.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of Torres’ wife and four children, mentioned the alleged sealing of the casino doors after the fire erupted as one example of negligence.

Negligence Claimed

The suit also listed failure to provide an effective sprinkler system, failure to comply with existing and applicable local and national fire codes and building codes, and maintaining and operating a building in violation of safe building practices.

A separate suit asks $10 million in damages for Jose Aponte, of Cidra, a supermarket clerk who survived but suffered burns and cuts when he leaped from a window of the burning casino.

The first suit named as defendants the Dupont Plaza Hotel and Hotel Systems International of Santa Monica. The Aponte suit also named Hotel Systems International and the San Juan Dupont Plaza Corp. as defendants.