[4] The primary suspect, a gay man with a history of psychiatric impairment named Roger Dale Nunez who had been ejected from the bar earlier in the day, was never charged and died by suicide in November 1974.

The MCC was the United States' first national gay Christian fellowship, founded in Los Angeles in 1968; the local congregation had held services in the UpStairs Lounge's theatre for a while.

[11][12] On June 24, 1973, the regular "beer bust" drink special attracted its usual blue-collar gay crowd to the UpStairs Lounge.

After the drink special ended, about 60-90 patrons remained; they listened to pianist George Steven “Bud” Matyi perform and discussed an upcoming MCC fundraiser for the local Crippled Children's Hospital.

[14][15] At 7:56PM, a buzzer from downstairs sounded, and bartender Buddy Rasmussen, an Air Force veteran, asked Luther Boggs to answer the door, anticipating a taxi cab driver.

Reverend Bill Larson of the MCC clung to the bars of one window until he died, and his charred remains were visible to onlookers for hours afterwards.

Reverend William P. Richardson[22] of St. George's Episcopal Church agreed to hold a small prayer service[23] for the victims on June 25.

A few anonymous individuals stepped forward and paid for the three unknown men's burials, and they were buried with another victim identified as Ferris LeBlanc in a mass grave at Holt Cemetery.

[24] In 2018, Robert L. Camina, director of the UpStairs Inferno documentary, announced in The Advocate that, after extensive research, one of the three unknown victims could finally be identified as 32-year-old Larry Norman Frost.

[9] This announcement and its underlying research received a negative peer review in The Advocate from fellow UpStairs Lounge scholars Clayton Delery and Robert Fieseler.

These scholars pointed to a lack of forensic evidence, the omission of historic materials contradicting Camina’s case and the absence of comment from the coroner as reason for Frost to remain “a possible Up Stairs Lounge victim or even a probable one with an asterisk.” [25] In June 1998, the 25th anniversary of the fire, as part of Gay Pride celebrations, a memorial service was organized by Rev.

[16] It was held at the Royal Sonesta Hotel Grand Ball Room and attended by New Orleans Councilman Troy Carter, Rev.

Carter then led a jazz funeral procession to the building on the corner of Chartres and Iberville Streets, the site of the club, and members of the local MCC laid a memorial plaque and wreaths at the grave.

He told the friend he squirted the bottom steps with Ronsonol lighter fluid, bought at a local Walgreens, and tossed a match.

"[32] Coverage of the fire by news outlets minimized the fact that LGBT patrons constituted the majority of the victims, while editorials and talk radio hosts made light of the event.

After returning from a trip in Europe, New Orleans Mayor Moon Landrieu held a routine press conference on July 11, 1973, where a gay reporter questioned him about the “homosexual angle” to the tragedy affecting community response.

Landrieu stated that he was “not aware of any lack of concern in the community.” New Orleans Archbishop Philip Hannan, silent for weeks, offered brief remarks at the end of a column about human rights in the archdiocesan newspaper The Clarion Herald in mid-July 1973.

[34][35][36] In 2015, Upstairs Inferno, a feature-length documentary written, directed, and produced by Robert L. Camina, had its World Premiere in New Orleans at the historic Prytania Theatre.

[39] In 2018, the national ABC News investigative unit released a documentary entitled Prejudice & Pride: Fire at the UpStairs Lounge.

[49] In 2018, Liveright Publishing released historian Robert W. Fieseler’s debut book Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation, which received multiple prizes including the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America and the Louisiana Literary Award from the Louisiana Library Association.