This episode appears to be based on several cases/incidents:
- The 1990 Happy Land Social Club Fire caused by Cuban refugee Julio Gonzalez. On March 25, 1990, Gonzalez poured a gallon of gasoline at the only exit to an illegal Bronx social club, which resulted in the deaths of 87 people. The few who survived jumped through the flames, one of whom was the intended victim of the crime--Gonzalez's girlfriend, Lydia Feliciano.
- The 1980 Denmark Place fire in Central London. The fire, caused by arson, killed 37 people] of eight nationalities. Most of the victims were Spanish or Latin Americans, and were patrons of two unlicensed bars in the building.At the time, The Sunday Times said the fire could be "the worst mass murder in British history".
- The 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.
- The Rudolph Lee case. Winston v. Lee was a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which held that a compelled surgical intrusion into an individual's body for evidence implicates expectations of privacy and security of such magnitude that the intrusion would be "unreasonable" under the Fourth Amendment, even if likely to produce evidence of a crime.
The episode title "Heaven", or "El Cielo", was the name of the club that was burned down.
Phyllis Somerville (Kristen Cameron, Head Nurse) previously played the role of Ms. Maltese in Subterranean Homeboy Blues (1990) (Episode 1.2).
When Stone says that Roberto Diaz was the first Latino on fraternity row, he replies they hadn't seen many Latinos in New Hampshire. This suggests they may have attended Dartmouth University, located in Havover, New Hampshire.
Tom Tammi has played four different characters over the course of the series:
- Episode 2.10 Heaven (1991) - James Collins.
- Episode 6.1 Bitter Fruit (1995) - Mr. Gaines.
- Episode 8.6 Baby, It's You (1997) - Dr. Steven Janaway.
- Episode 12.4 Soldier of Fortune (2001) - FBI Agent Frank Gilliam.