text: Fire A serious fire consumed the top four floors of the U.S. Postal Service headquarters on October 15, 1984. More than 200 firefighters needed two hours to put out the fire, one of the largest in D.C. history. It caused an estimated $100 million in damages and injured 25 firefighters. (District of Columbia law required sprinklers in very few buildings.)
  Property taxes
  Property tax issues dogged L'Enfant Plaza in the late 1980s. In 1981, L'Enfant Plaza and its constituent buildings and shopping mall was the city's most expensive property, valued at $78 million. In 1985, the assessor's office in the District of Columbia Department of Finance and Revenue valued the hotel at $83.7 million. Eastern Realty challenged the valuation, and the D.C. property tax Board of Equalization and Review reduced the assessment to $65.1 million. Eastern Realty still felt the valuation was too high, and asked a D.C. Superior Court to lower the structure's value to just $44.5 million. The court declined to overturn the equalization board's ruling. In 1986, the tax valuation was set at $98.5 million, but after an appeal and the assessment dropped to $62.1 million. The 1987 assessment was $93.2 million, but when the equalization board refused to reduce the assessment Eastern Realty sued.