I'll believe you were there and I am sorry you had to go through it. The Teamsters were a dangerous bunch back then. I have been working in opposition to them for the last 18 years or so. But the general conclusion is that the fire started as a small intimidation tactic, like the other small fires over that week, and that it went terribly out of hand.
It was indeed a horrible day. I'll never forget the poor girl that had to be evacuated from the rooftop half naked after she had to scramble out of her room. And the many others.
Dang. It's going to be exactly 20 years next New Year's eve since that fire.
I didn't know about the half naked girl but I'll never forget the woman with two little children (about 5 and 9 years old) who sent them up in the elevator to their room while she stayed downstairs to do something. At the time I remember thinking they looked awfully young to go upstairs alone.
Five minutes later the fire broke out and it spread fast. She didn't know for hours if they were alive. It had to be agony for her. They had made it to their room and a kindly grandmother type got them up to the roof where they were finally rescued. I finally learned of their fate by reading the newspapers.
Hard to believe it was 20 years ago. I remember running through the pool area, I think I was the 2nd or 3rd person to get through that turnstyle so I didn't have to climb over the barbed wire that had been put up to keep union thugs from climbing in. As I ran down the beach I could feel what sounded and felt like explosions - although they said there were no explosions, it sure felt like there was. All I could think about was the probability of being in a terrorist attack. I figured it was easier to win the lottery than to be in one. You think of strange things in the middle of a crisis.
Clearly they didn't plan for the fire to get out of hand. They wanted to ruin the ballroom so the hotel wouldn't make any money on New Year's Eve. Unfortunately the fire got to the sterno cans and spread rapidly after that. Supposedly the plan was to have the fire as a distraction while the money was raided from the casino safe. The hotel manager, who died, was locked inside the casino and the 'freedom fighters' never got their hands on the money.