Mr. Leighton, who runs a guest house here, glanced at his watch. It was 3:26 P.M. on New Year's Eve. In the next several minutes the Dupont Plaza was engulfed in the most deadly hotel fire on American soil in 40 years. The authorities say that it was deliberately set and that their search for those responsible is now focusing on several members of a labor union that had been feuding with the hotel. Details of the disaster have unfolded in bits and pieces. Now, through interviews with dozens of survivors, fire fighters, investigators and other witnesses it is possible to piece together a comprehensive account. In studying the fire, questions have been raised about the hotel's initial response to the disaster, its fire safety equipment and procedures.

Furthermore, the extent of damage and the manner in which 96 people died because of the fire are strikingly different from what was suggested in the initial dramatic scenes of guests frantically screaming and waving for help from the balconies of the 22-story tower as firefighters and helicopter crews maneuvered through billowing clouds of smoke. While the fire raged for more than six hours, all but two of the deaths occurred in the first few minutes and many of the victims literally exploded when a wave of intense heat and smoke estimated at greater than 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit flashed through the casino, Puerto Rican fire officials and Federal investigators say.

The authorities say that although a great deal of smoke coursed through the hotel, the fire did not spread upward beyond the main floor, where the the lobby and casino were. Only one person died above that level: an elderly woman in room 404 who was overcome by smoke. Beneath the casino and lobby, on the ground floor where the fire is believed to have been started, the ballroom, a restaurant, a discotheque, several shops and an open-fronted, poolside cafe were gutted. Three people, including Brooke Thompson, the Dupont Plaza's operations manager, died in the lobby. One person died in a hospital. The other 91 victims died in the casino, most of them in two big heaps near a small door and a row of big floor-to-ceiling windows facing the blue-tiled swimming pool. A handful of people smashed the windows with chairs and jumped to a patio 15 feet below. Puerto Rican fire officials say the fire may have been burning for as long as 10 to 14 minutes before the hotel called the the department for help at 3:40 P.M.

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Marriott International Inc. has found itself in the middle of some of the world's worst recent disasters. It had dozens of properties damaged in Hurricane Katrina, its World Trade Center hotel was destroyed in the Sept. 11 attacks, and its hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, was bombed in August 2003, to name a few. Even recent accidents have affected its operations. For example, February's undersea cable cut in the Persian Gulf disrupted Internet service to Marriott hotels in the region.

"We have been tested as a company in nearly every natural and manmade event that you can think of over the last 10 years," says Wendell Fox, senior vice president of shared services. Bethesda, Md.-based Marriott's crisis response teams have learned that no two disasters are exactly alike and each offers its own lessons. But with the right people, processes and governance in place, it's possible to be better prepared for whatever the next disaster might be.

Take Hurricane Katrina, for example. Though Marriott's crisis teams were prepared for the storm, its magnitude and the subsequent isolation of the affected area because of flooding surpassed their expectations. Some 63 Marriott properties in the region were flooded, and many faced security issues. Network circuits were knocked out, and communication was difficult.

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Fire forced guests and staff to evacuate the 3,000-room Monte Carlo Resort & Casino in Las Vegas on Friday, quickly engulfing parts of the upper floors, facade and roof before being brought under control. There were no serious injuries in the blaze, first reported at about 11 a.m. (2 p.m. EST) in the south tower of the huge hotel complex on the Vegas strip, but a dozen people were treated for smoke inhalation, authorities said. The Monte Carlo -- owned by MGM Mirage, the world's second-largest casino operator -- was quickly evacuated and the strip was shut down in both directions, jamming traffic back onto Interstate-15 as embers and debris fell into the street.

Television images showed flames sweeping across the 35-story hotel's white and black facade, with dark smoke belching into the sky as fire crews scaled ladders. The blaze was contained and largely extinguished in about an hour but authorities said the hotel and casino would remain closed until they were fully inspected.Local media reports said the fire may have started on the hotel's roof, where welders were working, but authorities said the cause had not been determined and was under investigation. The fire burned "just on the upper couple of floors" and the damage may be just to the exterior of the building, said Gordon Absher, a spokesman for MGM Mirage. "We've been going door to door."

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A tornado roared through downtown Atlanta on Friday night, damaging the city's convention center, the Georgia Dome (which was hosting the SEC basketball tournament) and Centennial Olympic Park. The storms left two people dead and caused about $150 million in damage to city buildings. On the hotel front, when such a large convention center is damaged, adjacent hotels dependent on the center's business suffer as well.

One such hotel was the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel which had about 100 windows blown out. Walls said that guests were relocated in the hotel or to another hotel after the storm, but that there were no injuries. The hotel's glass elevator, located on the outside of the building, was also damaged.

Yet another hotel got hit much worse. The Omni Hotel at CNN Center had about 467 of its 1,067 rooms damaged by the tornado (above). The hotel has downsized to 50 percent of its normal capacity while the Westin remains fully functional.

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