Editor's note: This is WPIX's original coverage from March 25, 1990. Karen Hasby is the anchor. The reporters are Glenn Thomson and Radames Soto. It aired on our national news franchise, USA Tonight, at 10 p.m.

"A jam-packed social club, an arsonist and America's deadliest fire in more than a decade. It's been called the worst mass murder in U.S. history. Nearly 90 people died early this Sunday morning as fire ripped through an overcrowded social club in New York City's Bronx borough. Officials say the fire was no accident and they have a suspect in custody. It's a tragedy surrounded by irony and unanswered questions."

With those words, Karen Hasby introduced WPIX's heartbreaking coverage of the Happy Land Social Club fire. A jealous man, Julio Gonzalez, torched the illegal club -- a fire trap that had been ordered closed over fire concerns -- after fighting with his ex-girlfriend, who worked there . She survived, but 87 others did not escape the inferno that quickly enveloped the only exit. Gonzalez has also shuttered the metal gate out front, ensuring that clubgoers, many of whom were Honduran immigrants, could not escape.

The human toll was wrenching -- death came so quickly that some victims still were holding their drinks when their bodies were found, others were in an embrace, frozen in their horrific final moment. It was a tragedy of epic proportions -- the city would not see another mass loss of life in a fire until 11 years later -- Sept. 11, 2001.

The fire was the worst in the city since the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory blaze -- incredibly Happy Land happened on the exact anniversary of that 1911 tragedy, which claimed 146 lives. Happy Land had other echoes of the Triangle factory fire -- the victims were immigrants who were trapped in a building with serious fire-safety violations.

We have two original reports, one from Glenn Thomson exploring what happened, and a second by Radames Soto as he tells of the families' deep grief and how the city was responding to the tragedy.

Below is a report from a year later, looking at how the city marked the first anniversary of the blaze.