Tuesday, December 2, 2008

50th Anniversary of the OLA Fire in Chicago-- Part 2

Continued from yesterday.

GRACE RILEY

Grace Riley was 23 that day an an emergency room nurse. She was cutting the clothes off a first-grade girl when the girl said, "Oh nurse, my face hurts so bad." She looked up and saw the girl's face was totally burned. As more children were brought in the acrid smell of burnt flesh became overwhelming.

The memory and smells of that day are still with her. She also helped place bodies on the floor so gurneys were available for the living.

There was an extensive graphics section including cut-away view of the building.

One graphic showed the injuries and deaths by room. It went room (grade), number of students, escaped, injured, and killed.

207 (5th/6th), 40, 39, 1, 0
208 (Seventh), 47,21, 13,13
209 (eighth), 55, 45, 8, 2
210 (fourth), 57, 14, 15, 28
211 (eighth), 64, 23, 17, 24
212 (fifth), 55, 6, 21, 28

What struck me was the number of students in these classes.

At the time of the fire, there were 1600 students and 30 faculty members. The fire began at approximately 2:15 PM.

You can find more information at
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-our-lady-of-the-angels-fire-students-killed,o,6650568.story

One of Those Times You Have to Wonder Why It happened.

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