Probers Say Incendiary Matter Had Been Smuggled Into Hotel

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico —  Federal officials investigating arson at the Dupont Plaza Hotel believe that a few people familiar with the hotel’s layout smuggled “a small amount” of incendiary material into its ballroom and set the fire shortly after a union meeting broke up, sources said Tuesday.

Investigators are understood to be prepared to offer possible entry into the federal witness protection program in return for eyewitness testimony about how the New Year’s Eve blaze began, the sources said.

‘Starts as a Little Fire’

“There were all kinds of security people, guests and others around,” one source said, emphasizing that the original blaze was “small, a little fire. It starts as a little fire.”

The source said evidence indicates that the “small fire” spread quickly after flames reached highly flammable materials used to cover furniture stored in the basement ballroom.

The fire turned into a conflagration, roared upstairs and engulfed the casino and lobby. Temperatures reached 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit, one source said.

The fire killed 96 people and injured more than 140 others. It coincided with negotiations between hotel management and the Teamsters Union.

Mysterious Death Reported

Another mystery was added to the Dupont tragedy Tuesday when a woman who escaped the fire but then wandered away from rescuers in a dazed state was found dead in the basement of a neighboring hotel.

The woman was identified by police as Marilyn Zar D’Stephano, 38, of New York. Pending an autopsy, officials at the Central Medical Institute declined to rule out the possibility of foul play. Police said she died “in an incident of violence,” but did not elaborate.

Relief workers and police had been looking for D’Stephano since New Year’s Day.

She had been assisted by Red Cross volunteers in the hours after the fire, but the next day, apparently still dazed by her ordeal and perhaps under the influence of medication given to calm her nerves, she walked out of the relief center and disappeared.

Officials said that employees of the Condado Beach Hotel discovered her body in a remote area of the hotel’s basement garage, near a luggage-handling room, and behind a large cooling vent.

Hotels to Be Inspected

In another development, Puerto Rico’s fire chief said Tuesday that every hotel on the island would be inspected for safety violations to head off any repetition of the Dupont Plaza disaster.

Fire Chief Aurelio Lopez Rivera told the Associated Press: “Today (Tuesday) and tomorrow we are going to take out the inspection reports (of all the hotels) to determine which should be reinspected immediately. And then we are going to extend the inspection to the other hotels” in this U.S. commonwealth.