Hotel Worker Charged With Fire Fatal to 96

A Dupont Plaza Hotel maintenance worker was arrested Tuesday and charged with 96 counts of murder for the New Year’s Eve fire at the luxury hotel.

Hector Escudero Aponte, 35, an employee of the hotel for 10 years, was the first person arrested in the case. But Justice Secretary Hector Rivera Cruz said officials believe he did not act alone.

Rivera Cruz said in a statement that Escudero Aponte was charged with “setting fire to the Dupont Plaza Hotel on New Year’s Eve, in agreement with others.” He said that the investigation was continuing and that he could provide no further information.

Jerry Rudden, chief spokesman for the U.S. Treasury Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms that joined the investigation, said that the phrase “in agreement with others” is the “wordage for conspiracy.”

Escudero Aponte used a Sterno-like fuel to torch new furniture stacked in the hotel’s ground-floor ballroom, according to a complaint filed by the FBI in U.S. District Court.

The five-page complaint said Escudero Aponte, a Teamsters Union member, went to the hotel at about 2 p.m. on Dec. 31 and set the fire shortly after a union meeting broke up. The fire, which killed 96 people and injured about 140 others, raged out of control through the ballroom and then through the casino directly above.

Gov. Rafael Hernandez Colon has said tense labor-management relations may have been a motive for the fire, but he has not blamed the union--which had planned a strike for midnight New Year’s Eve--or hotel management or non-Teamster employees.

Union Denies Involvement

Teamster officials have denied any involvement in the fire.

The FBI contended that Escudero Aponte confessed to his role in the fire and added: “He was identified as having stated to another union member that the Sterno-type fuel can that he possessed and had in his hand was to start a ‘small fire.’ ”

The federal indictment accused Escudero Aponte of setting the fire and thus interfering with interstate and foreign commerce. He received a hearing on that charge before U.S. District Judge Justo Arenas, who ordered him jailed without bail until Friday. A preliminary hearing was set for Jan. 20.

The commonwealth indictment accused Escudero Aponte of 96 cases of first-degree murder plus arson and destruction of property. Each murder charge carries a maximum penalty of 99 years in jail.

Escudero Aponte, the father of two, could be sentenced to up to 10 years in jail if convicted for arson, and 15 years for destruction of property.

Judge Carlos Rivera Martinez of the local court set bail at $2 million.

FBI special agent James Esposito said officials also planned to seek a separate charge against Escudero Aponte in the death of Secret Service agent Manuel Marrero, who died in the fire while investigating the possible passing of counterfeit money at the hotel’s casino.

Other Charges Possible

A lawyer in the case, who spoke to United Press International on the condition his name not be used, said authorities are considering charges against other hotel employees who reportedly saw Escudero Aponte set the fire.

In Washington, meanwhile, a federal official said Tuesday a door that opened inward made it “virtually impossible” for gamblers to flee the fire and contributed to the high death toll. Most of the dead were found in the casino.

Edward Wall, deputy administrator of the U.S. Fire Administration, and who was part of a team that investigated the fire, said in a prepared statement:

“As more people became aware of the fire, occupants in the adjacent casino rushed to the only available exit--a door that had to be pulled inward, which became virtually impossible as more than 200 people panicked and ran to the exit.”

Two Sets of Doors

Wall said two sets of doors led from the casino: a double-leaf tempered glass door that did open outward and a single door that opened inward.

Witnesses reported the doors might have been locked, but Wall said the fire team found no evidence of that.

However, he said, by the time many people realized there was a fire in the casino, they apparently were unable to use the double doors because of the intense heat, smoke and flames. They were left with the single, inward-opening door as the sole exit from the casino.