(Photo: Location of the former UpStairs Lounge; picture taken in 2016 by Infrogmation | CC)
Wednesday marked 47 years since nearly three dozen people were killed in the UpStairs Lounge fire at 141 Chartres St. in the French Quarter.
The fire was first reported shortly before 8 p.m. on June 24, 1973 as people were enjoying a party on the second floor of the building during the last day of Pride Weekend.
While arson is suspected, no one was ever prosecuted. The fire is often forgotten even though it was the deadliest known attack on an LGBTQ+ club until the 2016 Pulse nightclub mass shooting in Orlando.
The fire’s anniversary comes days after the six-alarm blaze at the Quarter House hotel at 129 Chartres St. in which two firefighters were injured, just a few doors down near where The Jimani bar now sits.
UPDATED Crews battle 6-alarm blaze at Quarter House Hotel; two firefighters injured
The UpStairs fire killed 32 people and injured 15 more. Two white males who died in the fire have not been identified. Those who died include:
Willie Inez Warren, 59
James Curtis Warren, 26
Eddie Hosea Warren, 24
Luther Boggs, 47
Rev. William R. Larson, 47
Dr. Perry Lane Waters, Jr., 41
Horace “Skip” Getchell, 35
Leon Richard Maples, 31
George Steven “Bud” Matyi, 27
James Wall Hambrick, 45
Larry Dean Stratton, 25,
Joe William Bailey, 29
Clarence Joseph McCloskey, Jr., 48
Adam Roland Fontenot, 32
Ferris LeBlanc, 50
Donald Walter Dunbar, 21
Kenneth Paul Harrington, 48
Gerald Hoyt Gordon, 37
John Thomas Golding, Sr., 49
Douglas Maxwell Williams, 20
Robert Lumpkin, 29
David Stuart Gary, 22
Guy D. Anderson, 41
Duane George Mitchell, 31
Louis Horace Broussard, 26
Reginald Adams, Jr., 24
Joseph Henry Adams, 51
Herbert Dean Cooley, 32
Glenn Richard Green, 32
Larry Norman Frost, 32