“I'll Remember It to My Dying Day,” Says Fireman |
By Marty O'Conno. |
CHICAGO - Dec. 2, 1958 - Two of the first firemen on the scene at Our Lady of the Angels school fire afterwards had eyes as deep and troubled as those of combat infantrymen. |
Richard Duchene and George Harper, Hook and Ladder Company 26, sipped hot coffee less than 30 yards from where the worst ordeal of their lives took place. |
Gazing at the school building, lit now by floodlights, gleaming with running streams of water, Duchene said: |
“Nobody in the world would believe what went on there less than three hours ago. Merciful God.” |
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Duchene said Hook and Ladder Co. 35 was already on the Iowa street side of the school when his own rig with its five men pulled up. He said: |
“We swung around the corner to the Avers avenue side and all we did was run up the 85-foot aerial ladder. |
“Civilians went up the ladders to do what they could. The firemen were too busy trying to catch or break the falls of children leaping from the bulding. |
“The children were screaming and jumping faster than we could catch them. It was the worst thing I ever saw. Children on the ground everywhere, some with their shoes knocked off in the fall. Everywhere.” |
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Fireman Harper agreed. He said: |
“I never saw anything like it before and I never want to again. Some of the children were on fire, rolling around in the slush trying to put out the flames and screaming and screaming. |
“I'll remember it to my dying day.” |
Men of Hook and Ladder Co. 26 were under the command of Lt. Roger Hester. |
Also making the run on 26 were firemen Dan Bodner and Robert Thorpe. |
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Thorpe suffered an eye injury in the furious battle to reach the burning children. Harper and Duchene were active in the removal of dozens of bodies. Duchene said: |
“The bodies seemed to be coming out by the truckload and for all I knew they were. |
“I don't know which was worst, putting kids in ambulances knowing they would be dead before the vehicle went a block or seeing the little forms trapped in the rear of the building. |
“Most of them never had a chance.” |
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Another fireman who had just hit the coffee wagon joined the group. |
He eyed the smoking schoolhouse and a legend chiseled in stone over the doorway. The inscription reads. |
“Our Lady of the Angels.” |
The fireman said: |
“That's the name of this place now, all right … now and forever.” |