-40%
RARE DUPONT PLAZA Casino RED & BLUE Poker Chip SAN JUAN Puerto Rico Bud Jones
$ 9.9
- Description
- Size Guide
Description
VISIT MY STORE /VISITA MI TIENDA
SOBRE
1,000
SUBASTAS MENSUALES
/ OVER
1,000
MONTHLY AUCTIONS
GANE
POR CADA COMPRADO / EARN
PER EACH BOUGHT
PROUD MEMBER CC>CC
IT MATTERS !
**** 1986 ARSON SURVIVOR ****
DUPONT PLAZA
HOTEL & CASINO
Condado - San Juan , Puerto Rico
***
Opened
1978 - 1986
Burned
***
Very scarce anywhere you go
*******************************
$ 5 U.S. DOLLARS
Listed at Archie Black's 2014 Catalog of
Puerto Rico Casino Chips
# DPL - 5 a
ESTIMATED VALUE "
G
" (
-
0
A PIECE )
PAULSON BRAND CASINO CHIP
************************************
Same face both sides
, Bud Jones casino chip
BLUE chip with BLUE stripes & 4 suits symbols
Coin at Center
Idéntica por ambos lados
, molde Bud Jones
Ficha ROJA franjas y diseños de Baraja AZULES,
Moneda al centro
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The Dupont Plaza opened in 1963 as the Puerto Rico-Sheraton and was operated by the
Sheraton
hotel company until 1980, just before Sheraton imposed significant fire-safety measures in its hotels throughout the world. Before national fire safety requirements were enacted in 1990, most hotels had implemented fire safety measures based on local regulations and ordinances, which in some localities were lax, despite frequent fires and fire-related deaths at hotels.
In June 1985, the Dupont Plaza was inspected by the local fire department and was found to have deficiencies in its safety systems, including malfunctioning equipment and lack of evacuation and emergency plans.
The
fire sprinkler system
, which was not criticized in the fire department's report,
was not
automated
, as it was in 95% of hotels across the U.S. at that time.
The employees of the hotel were in the middle of a labor dispute with hotel management; negotiations between the hotel and the employees' union, Local 901 of the
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
, had begun in October 1986. The union represented 250 out of the hotel's 450 total employees.
One of the main issues causing the dispute was an alleged management plan to terminate 60 union members from employment and replace them with non-union employees.
In the week the fire took place, there had been three smaller fires at the hotel: one in a linen closet, one in a pile of cardboard boxes, and another in a roll of carpeting. Management had then added thirty more security guards. Tension between management and employees had become so great that desk clerks, taxi drivers, and local food stand employees were advising tourists to stay away from the hotel and its casino. One week after the fire, the
Governor of Puerto Rico
,
Rafael Hernández Colón
, stated that, according to preliminary reports, in the days before the fire "information was going around that something was going to happen"
The employees' union called a meeting in the hotel's ballroom for the afternoon of December 31, 1986. At the conclusion of the meeting, around 3:00 pm, the 125 members present voted to go on strike starting at midnight. At the time, the hotel was estimated to be at near-peak occupancy, with 900 to 1,000 guests. Three union members—Héctor Escudero Aponte, José Rivera López, and Arnaldo Jiménez Rivera—planned to set several fires with the intention of scaring tourists who wanted to stay at the hotel. At around 3:30 pm, they placed opened cans of a flammable liquid used in
chafing dishes
in a storage room filled with newly purchased furniture, adjacent to the
ballroom
on the ground floor of the hotel. While some of the labor organizers created a distraction by staging a fight just outside the doors to the ballroom, three men set the fuel alight. The fire ignited the furniture and quickly burned out of control, growing to massive proportions and
flashing over
.
After flashing over in the ballroom (which witnesses confused with an explosion), the super-heated gases swept up the grand staircase into the lobby of the hotel. From there, the fire was drawn through the open doors of the casino by the smoke-eaters (devices in the ceiling that sucked the smoke from cigarettes out of the room) present throughout the casino. With more than 150 guests estimated to be in the casino when the fire broke out, most of the deaths occurred in that area. Several months before the fire, hotel management had had the emergency exit doors locked to prevent theft, and the only other way out was through a pair of inward-opening doors. Some people pressed against the doors to no avail. Others leaped from the second-story casino through plate-glass windows to the pool deck below; many were injured. Others died of smoke inhalation on upper floors of the casino. Still others were killed as they rode the elevators to the lobby, only to discover their path blocked by the fire when the doors opened. Those who were able to do so climbed to the hotel's roof, where an improvised helicopter rescue, including civilian, Commonwealth Police,
Puerto Rico National Guard
,
U.S. Coast Guard
, and
U.S. Navy
helicopters from the
Roosevelt Roads Naval Air Station
, transported people to safety.
The total number of deaths from the fire was at least 96, mostly by burns, and 140 people were injured; some sources give a death toll of 97 or 98. Most of the victims were burned beyond recognition and their belongings destroyed, with only a small percentage of readily identifiable bodies. 84 bodies were found in the casino, 5 in the lobby, 3 in an elevator, and 2 at a pool-side bar outside the hotel.
[
An investigation by the U.S.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
revealed 25 safety violations, including a lack of emergency exit doors in the casino area leading to the deaths of 84 trapped guests.
FBI
San Juan personnel worked closely with the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
(ATF) to identify suspects and build cases against them. The union representing the hotel employees denied that it or any of its members had been involved in starting the fire, and offered a ,000 reward for information that would help the investigation. On April 25, 1987, union members Hector Escudero Aponte, 35; Armando Jimenez Rivera, 29; and Jose Francisco Rivera Lopez, 40, pleaded guilty to setting the New Year's Eve fire. They were subsequently convicted of murder and were sentenced to 99 years in prison. As of January 2017, only Escudero Aponte is still in prison. Jimenez Rivera and Rivera Lopez were released from federal prison in 2001 and 2002, respectively.
According to confessions obtained by the government from two hotel employees, Escudero Aponte admitted setting the fire and Rivera Lopez admitted providing him with the
sterno
used as an accelerant. Escudero Aponte told the government that Rivera Lopez had suggested setting a fire that day to pressure management to give in to union demands. Other witnesses told investigators that Rivera Lopez had made statements before the fire broke out that suggested that there should or could be a fire at the hotel that day, or that he had urged hotel employees to make a "curtain" to shield him from view as he started the fire.
Eventually, all three defendants pled guilty. Rivera Lopez admitted that he had urged Escudero Aponte to set the fire and had made statements to the effect that a fire should be set, but did not admit any involvement in shielding him from view as he lit the sterno. In its plea agreements with Rivera Lopez and Jimenez Rivera, the government agreed to recommend sentences of 25 and 24 years, respectively. At the plea hearing, the government made the promised recommendations, but the court federal judge,
José A. Fusté
, sentenced Rivera Lopez to 99 years in prison and Jimenez Rivera to 75 years
The Dupont Plaza Hotel fire and other fires of the era gave rise to several amendments to security policies in hotels around the world. One of the biggest problems at the time was the lack of standard fire safety requirements. The hotel included an unsprinklered 17-story tower that housed 423 guest rooms. The fire alarm system in the tower was not working, and many guests were not aware of the fire until they saw or smelled it, heard someone shouting "Fire", or heard firefighters responding. In 1987, there were four major fire codes across the United States with over 1,800 variations because of local codes and ordinances, with one code having significant fire protection requirements, and another having nothing.
On September 25, 1990, three years after the disaster, the United States enacted the
Hotel and Motel Fire Safety Act of 1990
, requiring all hotels and other public accommodations wanting to accommodate federal workers or hold federally funded activities to have
smoke detectors
in all guest rooms and to have working sprinkler systems if the building had more than three stories. U.S. Representative
Sherwood L. Boehlert
stated that the law was one of the first times the U.S government took "direct action to protect the public at large from the danger of fire". The
United States Fire Administration
has credited the Dupont Plaza fire along with the
MGM Grand fire
in 1980 as the catalysts for the safety requirements being signed into law. The Dupont Plaza reopened in 1994 as the
San Juan Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino
after a massive overhaul effort.
***********************************************************
OFFICIAL CC>CC GRADE & CONDITION: NEW
These 50 year old
chips are in outstanding shape condition
you If you haven't found this chip its simply because aren't any around. Consider that
if you haven't seen in all these years, chances are you won't see them again once you pass this chance to get one.
Bid with confidence, see my other auctions
.
ENVIO / SHIPPING :
EMPAQUE /
PACKAGING
Enviamos dentro de mica, cartón, cápsula, o protector acrílico, envuelto entre cartón grueso o burbuja, dentro de sobre o caja sellado con cinta adhesiva a los 4 lados. Haremos todo lo posible por resolver su problema y ganar su satisfacción. Algunas medalla o moneda quizá sea enviada en cápsula de acrílico como cortesía nuestra. Debido a que usted pagó por la medalla o moneda, y no por la cápsula, nosotros no somos responsables de reemplazar cápsulas recibidas rotas. Debido a que las medallas vienen con alguna que otra imperfección de fábrica, es normal que una medalla contenga algún rayacito o cantacito mínimo de lo cual no somos responsables. Las antiguedades que vendemos tienen imperfecciones por vejez, uso y desgaste, que pudieran no reflejarse en las fotos. Por eso sólo reemplazaremos o devolveremos dinero en caso de mercancía recibida gravemente dañada. Clientes que abusen con reclamaciones exageradas e infundadas serán bloqueados en el futuro.
Items are put inside plastic wrap, coin flip or capsule, foam insert, card protector, bank note jacket, FDC jacket, or similar protective method, then shipped padded within card board or bubble wrap inside an envelope or box. We’ll do everything we can to help you and get your 5 stars. Some medals or coins may be shipped inside plastic capsules as a courtesy of ours. Because you paid for a medal or coin, and not for an acrylic capsule, we are not to be held responsible over capsules received cracked or broken. Medals received from the factory will feature minor scratches or nicks over which we shouldn't be held responsible. Likewise, vintage items we sell may feature imperfections due to age, tear, and wear, which may not reflect on the photos. Due to this, we will only replace or provide refund on items received greatly damaged. Clients maliciously seeking to take advantage of the system by placing bogus or exaggerated claims will be blocked from making future business with us.
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/ SHIPPING CHARGES
SUBASTAS pagan envío: 1er ítem gano pagará .99 o más; cada ítem adicional pagará .99 de envío.
(a menos que se indique lo contrario)
AUCTION ITEMS will pay: 1
st
Auction item won pays either .99 or MORE. Each additional item will pay .99 each.
(unless otherwise noted)
EXTRANJEROS /
INTERNATIONAL BUYERS
Para más seguridad y proteger su inversión, utilizamos el Sistema de Envío Global Ebay. Si desea método alterno debe informarme antes de comprar. El comprador pagará los gastos de envío, incluyendo seguro y c
ódigo de seguimeinto. NO ENVIAMOS SIN SEGURO PAGO.
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Due to the large amount of items being sold, and to streamline expedient shipping process, effective APRIL 3, 2014 Ebay's automated non-payer assistant will start processing orders not paid within 7 days of purchase.NO EXCEPTIONS!
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PURCHASE RETRACTION
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:
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