sentences:  In 1985, there were 7,500 reported fires in hotels and motels across the U.S., with 85 deaths and $56 million in damages (equivalent to $ million in ).The employees of the hotel were in the middle of a labor dispute with hotel management; negotiations between the hotel and the employees' union, Local 901 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, had begun in October 1986.The union represented 250 out of the hotel's 450 total employees.