Everybody was Jumping |
CHICAGO, Dec. 1 (AP) - Carlos Lozano, 10, whose leg was injured in a leap from a second floor window, said: |
“Everybody was jumping. The smoke was terrible. Everybody was screaming. Everybody was trying to get on the firemen's ladders at the same time.” |
Patricia Perryman, 14, slid head foremost down a fire ladder, scraping her left arm. From her bed in Walther Memorial Hospital, she told of panic in the room where fifth-five girls had been taking a reading test. |
“Most of them were fearful, and some of them started jumping up and running around.” |
Patricia said a nun, Sister Conice, (sic) calmed the children before a fire ladder was lifted to the window. |
“There were some coming out after me,” she said. “I don't know if all of them got out.” |
“The first I knew about the fire,” said Mrs. Barbara Glowacki, 29, “was when a stranger rushed into my store and asked to use the phone to call the fire department.” |
Mrs. Glowacki operates a small grocery store adjacent to the school. She is the mother of one of the first graders. She said she had seen flames at the rear of the school. The windows vented clouds of thick black smoke. |
She said she had seized youngsters as they marched out of the school. |
“I lined them up near my home. All the time I was thinking about Helena. But she got out okay. |
“Some of the kids coming out of the school had their hair on fire. I poured water on a number of these.” |
Concella Bellino, 8, whose burned hands were treated at Walther Memorial Hospital, fretted about her single red slipper. “I lost the other one on the ladder.” |