Thirty years ago, an arson fire at the Happy Land Social Club left 87 people dead. The effects are with us still.
Before the fire was out and the smoke had lifted, Ruben Valladares was already in the emergency room with second- and third-degree burns covering half his body. The ambulance call report, handwritten at 3:47 a.m. and updated several times over the next hour, detailed the locations of this injuries.