Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"Goring told the new chancellor that the fire must be the result of a communist conspiracy. . . . The fire was very convenient, and some have argued that the Nazis started the blaze. . . . The following day, civil liberties were suspended, and leading communists were arrested. In this atmosphere of panic and repression, the Nazis not only won the general election on March 5, but mustered enough votes, when the deputies met, to secure passage of an Enabling Bill giving Hitler dictatorial powers. The Reichstag and German democracy had both gone up in flames." [Furtado: 1001 Days]