Smoldering School Ruins Like A Cavern Of Death |
By Joe Albright |
In the drenched and smoldering ruins of Our Lady of the Angels parochial school, it is almost impossible to feel disaster. |
The rooms and halls where nearly fivescore died Monday suggest a subterranean cavern. Blackened plaster boards dangle from ceilings like stalactites, dripping water. Black-faced firemen poke through classroom rubble like archeologists — only not so gingerly. |
They don't have to be so careful—the bodies they seek are dead four hours, not 4, 000 years. |
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Then the spell breaks. A fireman carrying a pickax says: |
“Hey, reporter, you got any dry cigarets?” |
The answer is no. |
“Well, then can you tell me how many are dead?” |
The answer stuns him. |
He points to a mound of debris in the second-floor classroom, caused by the cave-in of a section of roof. |
“There may be more in there,” he says. |
Charred and soaked school-books, plaster and cinders are ankle-deep on the floor. A copy of Charlotte Bronte's “Jane Eyre” has covers singed off. |
Then there is an eighth-grade spelling book. Among the words its owner spelled right were “skeleton,” “ambulance,” “safety,” “sadistic.” |
And neatly handwritten is the sentence: |
“What is the definition of 'fiery'?” |
One girl wrote the sentence before she died. |
In another second-floor classroom, geography books left on the desk tops remain open. |
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On the desk of Annette La Mantia, 10, of 840 W. Springfield, is a wallet. It contains a picture of a boy friend and a little brother. |
She'll never see them again. She was one of the victims. |
In the second-floor halls, bone-weary firemen work mechanically. There are none of the customary wisecracks and at least one of them is praying that his child is not in the County Morgue. |
Illuminated by the powerful fire department hand torches, the death rooms cease to look like caves. Instead, the specter of a gaunt architectural skeleton has been created. |
The building's flesh—the lath and plaster ceilings, the linoleum floors, the plastered walls—has been picked off by the fire. What remains is wooden balloon frame construction resembling blackened ribs. Wire - bearing metal conduits are the arteries. |
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A statue of Jesus stands on a pedestal, almost untouched by falling timbers. Its gilt is black and an ear is missing. |
A porcelain flowerpot is in the form of a Virgin Mary figure. The virgin smiles. The plant inside droops over the side, grotesquely scorched. |
A first-floor classroom wall bears the slogan: |
“Holy Communion is the shortest and surest way to heaven.” |
A book jacket says: |
“Are you listening? Maybe God is calling you.” |
And out in the halls are rows and rows of little coats and hats. |