Chicago's Devastating Fires-- Part 3: Our Lady of Angels School Fire

On December 1, 1958, there was a fire at the Lady of the Angels Catholic School in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood.

On that day, shortly before classes were to be dismissed, a fire broke out at the foot of the stairway.  Even though it took firefighters only four minutes to arrive, there was only so much they could do as 92 students and three nuns died.

The Tribune devoted eight pages to the tragedy.  Every parent of school-aged children were terrified.  The severity of the fire shocked the nation and surprised educational administrators of both public and private schools.

My wife was a second grader at Our Lady of the Angels' sister school, Our Lady of Grace, and her father ran a deli in the Humboldt Park area so she knew some of the families  who lost children.  She still gets upset every December 1.

Some solace can be found as this fire sparked major improvements in standards for school design and safety codes.  Particularly fire drills.

60th Anniversary of Our Lady of the Angels Fire-- Part 7: The Aftermath

The only positive that came out of the fire was the changes made to the fire protection system requiring the inclusion of sprinklers in all schools, the fire alarms required to be hooked up to local fire departments, building materials changing from flammable to non-flammable materials such as concrete to replace wood and plaster.

Fire drills are held and students are trained what they need to do in case of fire.  Teachers are required to account for all their students.

There has not been another school fire  in which more than ten students have died since the Out Lady of the Angels fire in 1958.

60th Anniversary of Our Lady of the Angels Fire-- Part 6: Other Suffering

In the early 1960s, a boy who was ten years old and in fifth grade at the time of the fire confessed to starting the fire, a confession that he later recanted.  He did, however, know details of the fire's origin that had not been made public and that he should not have known.  He was not ever prosecuted.

Those that died that day were not the only ones to suffer.  Many of the students were severely burned and spent months in the hospital healing and even several years later were still undergoing skin grafts.  Others had nightmares and others required counseling to overcome the emotional problems they had to deal with.

60th Anniversary of Our Lady of the Angels Fire-- Part 5: Arson?

That afternoon throughout the Midwest, as families turned on their televisions to watch their favorite afternoon shows, they discovered that the only program on was news about the Out Lady of Angels fire.  Throughout the area, watchers remained mesmerized through the following  days as coverage moved from the fire to the funerals of the victims.

It was not easy to find out who was still inside the school as many of the students found their parents in the crowds watching or made their way home.

The cause of the fire has never been officially determined but it was thought to be that the fire started in the basement and was probably started by one of the boys who brought down the wastebaskets at the end of the school day and thus it was arson.

60th Anniversary Our Lady of the Angels Fire-- Part 4: 92 Students and 3 Nuns Perished

The school's second floor windows were 25 feet from the outside ground preventing a safe jump for students ir teachers.

The fire department was late getting to the fire as they had somehow been given the wrong address.  They then had to use a ladder as a battering ram to break through the locked iron fence surrounding the school.  Eventually more than 200 firefighters from 22 engine companies, seven ladder companies and 10 squad companies responded to the fire.

The Chicago Fire Commissioner at the time, Robert Quinn, was quoted as saying of the fire, "It was the worst thing I have ever seen or ever will see."

Firefighters and neighbors began to bring ladders to the site to attempt to rescue trapped students on the second floor of the north wing.  Firemen climbed ladders and pulled many students through the windows to safety.

Some of the students jumped from the windows.  Approximately 340 students and teachers were trapped on the second floor of the north wing and of these, 92 students and three nuns perished.

60th Anniversary Our Lady of the Angels Fire-- Part 3: A Recipe For Disaster

While the building was made of brick, it was the interior that was fuel for the fire.  Inside was entirely combustible.  The walls, desks, doors and the roof quickly burned.  The floors had been coated with flammable petroleum-based waxes that had built up over the years.

There was only one fire escape which was located in the north wing but the hallway leading to it quickly became filled with toxic smoke.  Sprinklers were not required in the building.  Fire alarms were located in the south wing and not connected to the fire department.

There were not any fire safe doors from the stairway to the second floor.  The few fire extinguishers in the north wing were mounted seven feet off the floor as a deterrent to students messing with them.  Unfortunately, at seven feet even most of the adults could not reach them without a ladder.

60th Anniversary of Our Ladies of the Angels Fire-- Part 2

Continued from December 2.

The fire began in the school's basement between 2 and 2:20 p.m., shortly before the students would be dismissed for the day.  The basement housed cardboard trash barrels where students emptied classroom waste baskets into to be disposed of later by the janitor.

It was here in the basement at the foot of the stairway that the fire started.  And the really sad thing was that 30 minutes later the students would have been gone.

The fire quickly made its way through the school, filling the air with fire, smoke and heat.  The halls quickly filled with smoke and soon the second floor of the north wing of the school was cut off from easy access to the hallway, fire escape and stairway needed to exit the building.

The school was built in 1910 and included numerous additions and remodeling as the student population grew, leaving a winding building of many wings, bot something that would be effective in a fire.  Even though the school had been fire inspected a short time before the fire and it is reported that it passed inspection because of the age of the structure, it had been grandfathered in in and not required to meet the newer safety measures.

So Sad.

60th Anniversary of the Our Lady of the Angels Fire--Part 1: December 1, 1958

From the November 28, 2018, Hi-Liter newspaper  "Remembering the students of Our Lady of the Angels school fire" by Sandra Landen Machaj.

For students at Our Lady of the Angels Catholic Grade School, Dec. 1, 1958, began as an ordinary school day.  But for these students and their families, it would not end that way.  It would be a day that changed their lives in ways that would never be forgotten.

For it was on that day that a fire broke out in the school and took the lives of 92 students and three of the nuns that taught them.  The fire with its large number of deaths was the worst school fire ever in Illinois and the third worst school fire in the nation.

In 1958, Our Lady of the Angels was one of the largest parishes in the Archdiocese of Chicago.  The parish consisted of about 4,500 families, many of whom sent multiple children to the parish kindergarten through eighth grade school.

The school had an enrollment of approximately 1,600 students.  Located at 909 N. Avers in the Humboldt Park section of Chicago, the community at that time was a melting pot of Italian, Polish and Irish families, most of whom had lived here for several generations.

My Wife's Memories of the OLA Fire

My wife attended school at a nearby Catholic school and knew some of the survivors and victims. Her father had a little corner store in the neighborhood that served the Our Lady of Angels School and she spent a lot of time there and got to know neighborhood residents.

She said that a lot of the families began moving out of the area and out to the suburbs after that.

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.

50th Anniversary of OLA Fire in Chicago

Today marks a very sad day in the history of Chicago, the 50th anniversary of the Our Lady of Angels School fire that claimed the lives of 92 children and 3 nuns. It took place December 1, 1958. Today, these kids would have been 67-71 years of age.

THE STORY OF MARK STACHURA

Max Stachura stood helplessly trying to get his nine-year-old son Mark to jump from the window of his burning classroom. He was trying to get his son to jump into his arms, but Mark was too afraid.

His mother Mary arrived at the scene and saw that he was waving a statue of the infant Jesus which they learned later that he had won in a class competition earlier that day.

They had to watch as the other children pushed him back into the flames. His body was later identified by a crumpled up homework paper in his pocket.

The cause of the fire has never been conclusively identified and no one has ever been held accountable for the tragedy.

However, schools across the country now have fire drills because of it.

From the November 29th Chicago Tribune

A very Sad Day.