High Rise Building Fire - 6 die - Nov 29, 1972

[Renfurrer]

Those poor women having to go through that. May God rest their souls. Bless their hearts.

[gray73]

There's almost nothing about this online but I did find one thing that said Mark Essex, who worked in the Rault building may have started the fires that day. There was one fire. The fire department responded then this second one. The theory is he set the fire because he knew he would wind up in the hotel across the street during his shooting spree and he wanted to take out the vantage point for police snipers.

[zaffdoc]

@gray73 >>>---> You are confusing two separate incidences. One was a sniper shooting from the Howard Johnson Motel located on Loyola Ave where he murdered and wounded several police officers, firefighters and civilians. This video is of the Rault Center that had a fire on the top floor that took out six people. The last I heard the Rault Center building was still standing but was not occupied. The Howard Johnson is now a Holiday Inn in the 300 blk of Loyola Ave across from City Hall.

[rhsharp]

No, Zaffdoc, I don't think I am confused. The Rault Center became a Holiday Inn briefly in the mid-70s. I clearly remember the sign on the building saying, "Holiday Inn - Rault Center." I know there's another Holiday Inn across the street now.

[rhsharp]

I remember that my family visited New Orleans for the 1975 Sugar Bowl game. We came to town without hotel reservations because my dad was sure we could find a room in the city anyway. Wouldn't you know we walked right up to the Rault Center (it was the Holiday Inn/Rault Center in 1975) to see if there were any rooms available. I knew what had happened there and told my dad I would NOT stay in that building. Fortunately there were no rooms available anyway.

[zaffdoc]

@rhsharp >>>---> You are a little confused. The Rault Center fire was in a different building than the event at the Holiday Inn.

[happymike44]

@rhsharp

The Rault Center closed after this fire and never reopened it is in the heart of New Orleans CBD or Central Business District it was closed and never reopened

It is now being considered for a condo complex however that may have stalled due to the current economy.

Just sharing the information with for you since I used to live in The Big Easy.

[zaffdoc]

@happymike44 >>>---> Thanks for the update

[k4ldh]

 what was the purpose of showing it in slow motion?

[TheChemaery]

my father worked at the rault center he died in 1070-but at the time of the fire my sister was workinh there.. I knew the ladies in the hair salon..I watched them jump.. I have nightmares still...My heart and prayers go out to the families .

[gerry3x]

Aw man, did you have to show it in slow motion? I watched this live back in the day.

[shanegalang2]

Is it possible to go inside the building and up to the burnt floors?

[PopppaBlue59]

Lots of younger people don't know how rare film (or video) like this used to be. I was 13 when this happened, and saw it on the news here in Texas. We had seen some pretty nasty film coming out of Viet Nam, but this was truely awful. Then the Joelma Building burned in Sao Paulo Brazil, in 1974, and we saw more. Thanks for posting Doc...this needs to be remembered.

[asurtain]

That's not the Rault Center at the end of the video. That is the building across the street. The Rault Center is abandoned and had b een for years

[ovationrob]

the last time i was in New Orleans.less than a month ago.this building was still there and was still vacant..it was never rebuilt or torn down.everyone envolved with the building just walked away from it....it has been a hazard for years.from time to time chucks of the facade fall off and crash onto the sidewalk..sadly the city does not have the money to tear it down.

[1327david]

is like the 911 jumpers

[zaffdoc]

@1327david >>>---> Never thought of that. I guess they had a similar feeling that it was not going to end good and took the steips necessary to keep from the horror of burning to death.

[imajeepster]

I remember this on tv...it's before my time, but I remember the surviving woman describing how she saw jesus open his arms...and woke up in the hospital with every bone in her body broken. There was no sprinkler system either. ..one woman was pregnant. It must have been on 2020 that I saw it...btw...nov 29 is my birthday!

[happymike44]

@imajeepster

For that time period sprinklers were not installed in alot of building across the nation.

It become more common later in the 80's to current due to litigation and the expense of the loss of a multi million dollar building and keeping insurance cost down.

There was a high rise in L.A. that had a similar incident and with the sprinklers functioning kept the fire contained to one floor with no loss of life.

Sad day for New Orleans that a disaster touched so many live.

[felixn65]

Life is so fragile... we have got to take great care of each other

[Carbon657]

I feel sick when I think what these poor women went through in their last moments and what it must have been like for them, I feel so bad for those women.

[AUSROTTENY2K]

Didn't leave the beauty salon looking beatiful for very long...

[dgonzalee]

According to DR MARYS MONKEY , The owner Charles Rault was funding ( along with other NOLA businessmen) Jim Garritson's investigation into the New Orleans connection to JFK killing. Official information on this fire is hard to come by ( still unsolved)....gee I wonder why........?

[sistaquig]

The woman who survived in this video is my great aunt, Natalie Smith. She did make a full recovery but is still affected pyschologically today. One of her legs needed to have part of her bone taken out. But she is a widow today and doing well.

[zaffdoc]

@sistaquig Thanks for the info. We can all understand how she could still be affected pyschologically. That was a mighty long fall and it is a wonder that she lived.

[cookieman38111]

@sistaquig that is good to hear that they did not all die.

[zaffdoc]

@cookieman38111 Yes, read through the comments.

[cookieman38111]

According to Ed Haslam it was started by a bomb that was detonated in the building. The sniper was at a howard johnson's a few months later.

[zaffdoc]

@cookieman38111 That is the first time I have ever heard that. Who is Ed Haslam and where did he get that infomation? There was never any explosion that anyone ever mentioned concerning this fire. The fire department had been there eariler and extinquished a small fire in the vicinity of the salon. Whether it was a rekindled or arson has never been established.

[cookieman38111]

@zaffdoc Ed wrote a book called "dr marys monkey". There are several videos on youtube about his theories. He grew up in NOLA. He says a group of influential men were having lunch or dinner in the rest. on the top floor when a bomb went off. Supposedly to make them stay quiet about things that were happening.

[cookieman38111]

@cookieman38111 I believe they also used a corporate helicopter that was in the area to retrieve people on the roof. A floor or two below was cut off from the roof though.

[markryan1963]

I was in the city again last week and I do now know that this is the building being remodeled or going to be removed, I looked at this video again and looked at other buildings around it and also counted how many floors was on the building and all have fell into place, So for the people who view this video this building is being removed or remodeled, the date is 08/22/2010... Thanks

[markryan1963]

if this is the building I think it is, it looks like it is now being remodeled or going to be torn down, is this that building?

[zaffdoc]

@markryan1963 I do not know. Perhaps some other other visitor to this clip will let us know.

[zaffdoc]

@tinarsmith1 No, I sure don't know anything about that book. Perhaps, you could try the New Orleans Public Library or the llibraries at Loyola, UNO and Tulane. Good luck.

[jarwillnc]

I remember the horror of watching this footage on tv. I was around 10 years old when it happened.

[RaynauddeChatillon]

This is why you should always have a 200 ft rope in your room, then you can get to a lower floor.

[MIKECNW]

it mentions the ladders weren't long enough.

Does that mean the FD wasn't up to to code and if not, why?

[cozmosis]

@MIKECNW Fire departments do not have to have ladders as tall as their tallest building. That would impractical in cities the size of New Orleans or larger. Fire department trucks usually have aerial ladders of 75-110 feet tall. Firefighters rescue the occupants of highrise buildings by climbing the interior stairs and (ideally) leading them to safety.

[1972lita]

one of the women were married to my second cousin. she was pregnant during that time. she died. sad.

[LoneStarMike59]

BTW, from what I remember, the woman who survived is the one wearing the black top and the skirt with thick horizontal stripes holding a coat at 1:12 in the slow motion part. In the interview I saw years later, she said her husband saw the news footage and recognized her by the skirt she was wearing.

[turnipbob]

I was 13 when this happened and remember this event clearly along with the sniper a couple of months later.

[abletonreason]

Hellish!! What started the fire? Did they catch the guy who started it? And then there was another bloody incident at the hotel across the street? Sounds like cursed ground to me. Those ghost hunter guys ought to spend a night up there!

[zaffdoc]

@abletonreason I don't ever remember hearing that anyone started it.

[hebneh]

For some reason, I remember this fire. I also recall reading that this film existed, which I think was shot by a local TV station, but I've never seen this part till now.

I remember a network TV special about fires and fire safety in the 1970s. This fire was one of the ones discussed and shown.

[DandDskeeto]

Thanks for posting. I had almost forgot about that. I need to send a message about this one. Shout at me when you get it.

[rhsharp]

I have some information I've gathered over the years. There was one survivor - Natalie Smith. She said that when she had to jump she decided that her husband and children needed her and that she must not die. She spent almost 6 months in the hospital, but after surgeries, was able to walk again. I saw her interviewed on 20/20 in 1982, ten years after the fire. The owner of the Lamplighter Beauty Salon died from jumping as did the others. Her assistant survived for a month or so. Horrible!

[zaffdoc]

Thank you for this information.

[ctfireapparatus]

To Verse 47-- You are thinking of another fire 5 weeks after the Rault Center fire. It was right across the street at the Howard Johnsons Hotel ( Now the Holiday Inn ). A sniper set a fire in the hotel and killed 6 police officers in a 24 hour standoff. Read the gripping book " A Terrible Thunder- the true sory of the New Orleans sniper".

[ctfireapparatus]

To verse47--- You are thinking of another fire which occured 5 weeks later at the

Downtown Howard Johnsons ( Now the Holiday Inn), which is directly across the street from the Rault Center. That was a fire and sniper incident which killed police officers. Read the very good book,

"A terrible Thunder, the story of the New Orleans Sniper". A very well written account of that incident which is a reallly action filled true crime story. The Rault Center Fire is mentioned several times.

[YouHeardMeBitch]

One of the women did survive. she appeared on TV and this footage was shown. She was badly injured but recovered.

[verse47]

At 19, I was working on Prytania St. for South Central Bell that day. The sky was black everywhere. We began to stop working as news came in. I remember that the cause was arson, from a man in the bldg, who was also trying to shoot firefighters. Sharpshooters were on adjacent roof tops, who planned to shoot the arsonist if he escaped to the rooftop. I believe he was shot multiple times there by a sharpshooter in a police helicopter.

[zaffdoc]

@verse47 That was another incident and was not related to this fire in any way.

[italainmobster6]

How did you get that video.

[audubon5425]

Those last pictures are not the Rault Center - it is the building directly across Rampart Street. The Rault Center is long abandoned and looks exactly as it did in the 1972 film. Pieces have been falling off of it for years. Also, one of the women did survive the fall but lost her baby and broke several bones in her back. It was eight stories from that window to the roof of the DeMontluzin Building (if I remember correctly.)

[zaffdoc]

Thanks for the update.

[sethtriggs]

Wow that's just awful...is there any more information on this?

[zaffdoc]

I knew a lot about it when it happened, but over the years I forgot most of the details. I cannot find anything about it on the web. I am almost positive that one of the ladies did survive. Death by fire is a horrible way to die and as at the World Trade Towers they chose to leap than be burned to death.

[MetalSanke]

wow that must of been at least a five alarm

[Heanor]

oh shit just shocking

[drewpers101]

wow its just shocking