The story references the "Nodell Tower fire..." This is, most likely, a reference to Mart Nodell, creator of the Golden Age Green Lantern.
The temperature of the first fire is mentioned to be "no higher than 250 degrees", which only makes sense if the unit of measurement is degrees Celsius rather than degrees Fahrenheit.
The expert on TV when Thea and Oliver are watching it near the beginning of the episode says that the vigilante was active for four months and has been missing for six weeks. Given that the previous episode (1x9, "Year's End") was set around Christmas-time (later stated to be December 12 in episode 1x21, "The Undertaking") and featured the reasons Oliver has taken a step back, this episode occurs early-February, late January at the earliest and the pilot episode is set sometime in August, meaning that the timeline of the episodes in-canon is not tied to the actual time of airing (this episode aired January 16; the pilot aired in October).