On November 29, 1972, a nation watched in horror as five women fell from a burning building in New Orleans.

This documentary examines the tragedy of the Rault Center fire. Included are interviews with eyewitnesses, a fire lieutenant called to the scene, relatives of the victims, and a scientist whose entrepreneurial family business impacted fire safety worldwide.

Director Biography

Cuban-American & New Orleans native Royd Anderson, a COTB alum, is an award-winning

doucmentarian & historian who specializes in Louisiana disasters

overlooked by historians. His 5 documentaries "The Luling Ferry

Disaster", "The Continental Grain Elevator Explosion", "Pan Am Flight

759", "The UpStairs Lounge Fire", & "Mother's Day Bus Crash on 610" have been accepted into the Historic

New Orleans Collection, one of the state's prestigious archives. Anderson

has been a featured guest in numerous programs, including WYES' "Informed

Sources", LPB's "Louisiana, the State We're In", & The Lifetime Movie

Network's "Ghost Inside My Child". He has also been an invited guest

speaker at Princeton University & the FBI New Orleans Division's All

Employee Conference. He released his first book "New Orleans Diasters: Firsthand Accounts of Crescent City Tragedy" (The History Press) in Nov. 2021. It peaked at #4 in Amazon's 'New Releases in Disaster Relief' category in Dec. 2021.

Anderson is a graduate of Loyola University New

Orleans, UL-Lafayette, & Delgado Community College.