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Our Lady of the Angels (OLA) School Fire, December 1, 1958
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Personal Experiences with Our Lady of the Angels School Fire

If you have a personal experience, recollection or opinion about the December 1, 1958 Our Lady of the Angels school fire, whether you were present at the fire or not, you can relate it here. Any story or information is welcome as long as it relates to Our Lady of the Angels school fire.
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Posted by: ROBERT D. KERRIGAN On: 8/3/2003 ID: 106
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before Sacred Heart Parish, 70th & May Sts.
At the time, I was a senior at Quigley Seminary. Classes were disrupted and we were told about the fire, as many priests began to leave to help those in need. Our choir group, the "Schola Cantorum" was informed that we were to sing at the funeral Mass at the Armory. We were taken by bus to the service. Singing was difficult, as we kept looking at the grieving families during the Mass. The priest who led us in singing had to keep reminding us not to look, that we were there to sing, but trying to concentrate was so hard. I can still clearly remember those poor Families, in the midst of their horrible loss. I say a prayer each day for the poor little souls who had to die in sich a painful and tragic way. God Bless the children and their Families! Bob Kerrigan.


Posted by: Linda Reames Fox On: 7/28/2003 ID: 105
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before Clark Street, Rogers Park Area
I was eight years old at the time of the fire, attending Field Elementary School in Rogers Park. So far as I know I never met or knew any of the children who attended OLA, but the images I must have seen have been etched into my memory for all these years.

I know that age eight is about the time when you become aware of death and what it is, but it is usually later in life before you realize that someone your age can die. I knew and I remember being afraid for my friends even when I was an adolescent and we were all supposedly immortal.

I don't have nightmares about being in the fire, but for some reason the subject occurs often in my dreams. It has made a very deep mark on me and has probably embedded itself in my subconscious as a symbol of all the worst uncertainties of life.

I grieve for the families and for the survivors who are still in pain and hope that they find healing, if not in this life, then in the next.


Posted by: Nina Caruso Maciag On: 7/21/2003 ID: 104
Enrolled on 12/1/58? Present on 12/1/58? Injured? Age Grade Classroom Teacher
Yes Yes No 12 6 Cheesebox Sister Geraldita
I will never forget that day. We were in class diagramming sentences. It was close to dismissal an I was thinking about going to the bathroom, but changed my mind because it was so close to dismissal. Ten minutes or so after that the smoke started pouring under the classroom door. Sister opened the door and it just fanned whatever was in the hall. Our room was called the "Cheesebox" because it was the smallest room in the school. I think there were about 30 to 40 of us in that room. There were only two windows. Sister wanted us to pray, but the smoke was choking us. I believe two classmates climbed out the window on to the fire escape to get help. The rectory was right next store. I remember all of us pushing for the window. Sister either did not have the keys for the other door which was kept locked, and used as a closet for cleaning stuff, or she dropped them and because the smoke was so thick could not find them. I really thought it was he end, the smoke was so hot and I couldn't breathe. Suddenly the locked door was opened and we managed to get out on the fire escape.Thank God Father Hund was home sick that day. Father Hund and our janitor got the door open just in time. I looked up after getting out and our room was in flames. They tried to get us all to the church and we were there for awhile, but I left to go look for my sister and brother I was worried about them. My lungs were hurting and lost my voice. I walked home and I found my sister and brother there safe with my mother who had run to the school to look for us. She was told that my room did not get out and she wept with joy when I walked in the house.

My father Dr. Michael Rainiero was in the emergency room at Franklin Blvd. Hospital and he never did have time to call home and see if we were alright. Too many injured children were brought there.

For a long time all I could think about was what would have happened if I did go to the bathroom earlier. Maybe I could have helped avoid this tragedy by warning people sooner. I still live with that thought.

We went to Our Lady Help of Christians first and then to John Cameron School.

We were bussed to John Cameron School and I used to hide in the back of the church until the bus left because I was afraid to go to school. I would walk home and my mom would take me back to the rectory where Father McDonald talked with me and escorted me to the bus to make sure I got on. I also will never forget how Sister Geraldita had a breakdown in front of us. She put her head on the desk and asked to be taken to God. I still can't stand elevators and plane rides and locked doors.

We were the first graduating class from the new school in 1961. I remember bricks and steel and how much light the new school had because of all the windows. Sister Mary Paul Ellen was my eighth grade teacher. I kept in touch with her for many years after that. She really helped me get through some rough spots. Sometimes in my life now I forget little things, but I will never forget that day.


Posted by: princess On: 7/18/2003 ID: 103
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No After n/a
I first want to say to all the survivors, I can never understand how it feels but I can pray for you and for the people who died.

I first heard about the OLA fire when I was in fisrt grade. My school had to have fire drills once a month, and I hated them. My teacher told me they were for us to be safe, and she told me about a school that kids had to jump out of a window to survive.

I haven't stopped hating fire drills, but I apperciate them more because of OLA. I have read "To Sleep With the Angels", and it was hard for me to do so because I know somebody who was in it. My heart goes out to all those who helped on that day and who put up this website. It is a great tribute.


Posted by: laura On: 7/17/2003 ID: 102
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before downers grove
I was just 4 years old on December 1, 1958, but remember watching the news about the fire on television that evening. My mother taught 2nd grade at Our Lady of Charity in Cicero and picked me up at my grandmother's house nearby. She told me about the fire in an effort to prepare me for what I would see later. The pictures of the children and nuns in the newspaper, some of the little girls in their first communion veils is still imprinted in my memory. I attended catholic grade school in an old building and recall the frequent fire drills. Of course on the anniversary of the fire, we would pray for the victims, being told that God chose them. He could have picked a kinder, more gentle way. In part because of the fire and the nonsensical indoctrination inflicted by nuns in the early 1960's, I renounced catholicism in 3rd grade. I still at the age of 48 can not begin to comprehend what those families endured.


Posted by: KateT On: 7/15/2003 ID: 101
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before Chicago, Illinois
First of all I would like to commend all the people involved in this Web site. It came to my attention through my brother who wasn't even born at the time of the fire. I however, was in second grade at St. Mary of the Angels and people always confused both the schools, asking when I told them what school I went to, if it was the one that burned.

I do remember how somber everyone was at our school and how fearful we also were. It was after this fire that sprinklers were put into our school. The whole tragedy is very vivid in my memory and seeing the pictures really brings back the time. It was such a tragedy and we were always afraid it would happen to us, as our school was big and old as well. I remember how afraid I was of fire drills and also having to go to the second floor of the building. I also swore to myself that if our school was ever on fire, I would not, for the first time in my life, listen to the nuns, but would run out of the building as quickly as I could.

I knew Eddie Berg in high school who told me that he and his sister went to Our Lady of the Angels. I don't see his or her name listed. According to what he told me, both he and his sister were able to get out. I think he was 10 at the time.

The school was in my Aunt's neighborhood and she also was greatly affected by the tragedy.

God bless all of you survivors - I hope that you know The Lord and can feel His love and grace.

Best to all,

Kate T - Phoenix, AZ Area


Posted by: Sally Konley On: 7/10/2003 ID: 100
Enrolled on 12/1/58? Present on 12/1/58? Injured? Age Grade Classroom Teacher
Yes Yes No 9 4 106 Sister Mary Alexis
It seemed very peculiar to be having a fire drill at 2:40 pm since we would have to stand outside in the freezing weather without coats, turn around and march inside to get our coats and turn around again and leave for the day. We had been wrapping up our lessons and the boys were collecting discarded papers to take down to the trash bins by the boilers. We lined up and marched out as usual for a drill. In the hallway, bigger kids were running down from the 2nd floor and we could hear kids screaming from the other side of the building. A few thick tendrils or smoke were creeping down the stairs. By the time I realized this was not a drill and a huge wave of fear descended, we were down the half flight of stairs and out the southeast doorway that had been right outside our door, 106, onto Iowa St. We were out in less than a minute. There was some pushing and shoving but basically we stuck together and performed as we had been drilled. As we ran past the gangway between the school and the rectory, I happpened to glance down the gangway and saw a bright, glaring light that I took to be the setting sun. It was decades later, in my adulthood, when I was thinking about the experience that I was stunned to realize it was: a) too early for sunset and b) I was looking north and not west. What I had so briefly seen was flames shooting out of the northeast doorway. I just couldn't comprehend it.

We were herded into the church and instructed to pray for the school and the children. Probably the Rosary. The atmosphere was confused and distracted and some kids from throughout the church were agitated and crying but it was reasonably orderly. Then a rumor, totally false, spread that the church was on fire, too. We were promptly dismissed and told to go home. As we poured out of the church and down the steps, I looked right, back towards the school and saw many adults just milling about. Maybe there were some fire hoses sprawled about, too. There wasn't anything out of order on the south side, not even much smoke because the wind was blowing to the north or northeast. I turned left and crossed Hamlin and started the 3 blocks to home. It seemed like the farther I got from school, the more my anxiety level rose. I started to cry, thinking, my school is hurting, my school is hurting. It never crossed my mind that CHILDREN were injured, that CHILDREN were dying. What does a 9 year old know about death? Even watching the TV that night, hearing the death toll rise, it didn't seem to be REALLY happening to children I knew and saw every day. One thing I did know, though, is that the rooms we so carelessly left, we would never enter again.

Walking down Iowa St. past Ridgeway and Lawndale, I don't remember seeing other people at all. The public schools should have been out by then and there always seemed to be people around in the neighborhood, but I don't remember seeing anyone except for one mother who was hurrying to school to find her own child. She stopped to comfort me and hug me and went on her way.

When I got home to our 2 flat on Monticello, I ran up the back stairs into the house, crying "Mama, Mama, the school is on fire". My mother, who had been sewing in the back bedroom looked up in horror and asked where Mary, my 2nd grade sister, was. I didn't know so she grabbed her coat and one for Mary and ran out ordering me to stay home with my toddler sister and my grandma. Whe it seemed like she had been gone so long, I asked my grandma if I could go outside to wait. She gave me permission and I walked down to the corner of Iowa and Monticello to see if I could see them coming, because you could almost see somone coming all the way from Hamlin. I looked and looked and there seemed to be no one on the streets. There may have been people coming home from work or from the schools, but I was looking so hard for my mother and sister that I don't remember. I even tried to stand on the fire hydrant to see better but I couldn't balance and look at the same time. Eventually it got too dark or too cold to wait outside anymore so I went home. Eventually my mother and my sister returned unharmed. We watched the TV all night in utter shock and disbelief along with the rest of the city and the country. So many children. So much grief.

We finished out the school year by attending Our Lady Help of Christians. This was way cool because we got prepared lunches and got to ride chartered buses every day and only had classes for a half day. The 2nd floor wasn't too high off the ground, either. But, eventually, the novelty wore off and we just wanted to be back at our school, the everyday way we used to be. Such a simple, beautiful, impossible wish.

The next year, arrangements were made for us to attend 3 local public schools, Orr, Hay and Cameron. The largest group went to Hay. Mary and I went to Cameron. Cameron was a big oldfashioned Chicago public school with high, airy rooms and tall windows that you opened from the top with a big pole. The rooms seemed very much like our old OLA rooms. They were sunny and breezy and so high up over the bungalows and 2 flats of the neighborhood that we felt that we could see about half the city from up there. Of course, if you looked down from those windows you knew it was way too high to jump from in case of another fire. So we tried to forget our unease about that.

Like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, in the fall of 1960, we came back together to be a whole school again. The new Our Lady of the Angels was complete and it was the newest, safest and most modern school in the country. The halls were wide and sparkly clean and the rooms were large and sunny. Everything was new, new, new. New desks, new books, new everything. I was so proud to be there and relieved to be back with all the classes. I felt out fallen classmates were looking out for us and happy for us even as we remembered them and hoped they were with us. They were always, always with us. After 1 year, my parents bought a house in Austin and we moved away.

I felt like my heart was ripped out. Although OLA will always be remembered with unspeakable sadness, it was a great school to attend in a great, comfortable, and safe neighborhood. It is easy to forget that a large majority of children escaped unharmed. And I haven't even started on the wonderful, beautiful faces I remember and all the funny, goofy ordinary kid things we did. I loved OLA. And it was so worth loving. In spite of the grief and horror associated with OLA, in spite of all the difficult and complex emotions and memories, it was so worth loving.


Posted by: Theresa On: 7/6/2003 ID: 99
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before Chicago, Ill.
I was nine years old attending St. Pancratius School on the southwest side of Chicago at the time of the fire. I rembember my Uncle, Stanley Myszkowski, who was the fire chief of the Bridgeview Fire Department telling my family about the fire. He was there fighting it. He told me there was some sort of a slide the children came down. He also told me that they had a line of people involved in the retrival of the children. He was in that line. He said they handed the children one person to the next because the bodies were so hot no one could hold them for long. He told me there were lots of reporters there taking pictures instead of helping and that made him very angery. I remember how upset my Uncle was as he told us this story. Normally he was a happy go lucky guy, but not that day. Uncle Stanley told us he was so angered by one reporter trying to take pictures of a charded child's body that he grabbed the reporter, punched him in the nose, and told him that if he couldn't help to get out of there and to stop being so disrespectful of the children and there families.

My Uncle was a hero that day and I was very proud of his actions. I was very moved by what he told us and still feel a part of me was there that day.

Theresa, Valparaiso, Indiana


Posted by: MARIA E. COMPIANI On: 7/1/2003 ID: 98
Enrolled on 12/1/58? Present on 12/1/58? Injured? Age Grade Classroom Teacher
Yes Yes No 8 3 101 SR. MARY EDGAR
My name is Maria Compiani. I was in 3rd grade, 8 years old and was in the building on the day of the fire.

Our nun, Sr. Mary Edgar was out ill that day and I believe we had the Mother Superior as our substitute. She had left the room and it was going on 3:00 as she came back in to give us a homework reading assignment. The bell for dismissal was about to ring but suddenly the fire alarm went off. We were strictly trained to stand and form a line to file directly outside into the street, without stopping for coats or anything, and all of us began to do so. She told us to be re-seated as it was a false alarm. However, a lay teacher came to the door and told her there was smoke in the 2nd floor stairway, and then we all panicked and started for the door as quickly as possible. The cold air hit our faces as we all went into the street to face the horrible tragedy that was before our eyes. In just minutes we saw students at the 2nd floor windows covered with black soot screaming down for help! I remember thinking how could I help them up there, when I am down here and I am so short!

There were fire trucks, ambulances, police cars and people screaming everywhere. Finally some nuns and priests came to tell us to file into the church so we could all pray to God for help! The church was filled with students and parents and families looking for loved ones. Miss Joan Rossi, a lay teach who lived in an apartment near my home, found me and my two friends Lois and Darlene and had her boyfriend take us to our homes in his truck.

As family and friends found out about the news they were calling and coming over, and every time the phone or doorbell rang, I seemed to jump a mile high because it reminded me of sirens.

My grandparents lived with us then and they had just arrived home before I got there and they had no clue as to what had happened. When she saw me at the door with no coat and I smelled of thick smoke she started to cry at what she heard had happened. My grandmother also kept telling me how lucky I was to be near an exit that was right by an outside door and how God had wanted to save my life - she took me to every funeral home on Chicago Avenue to share prayers for the families of my fellow students who did not survive that horrible event.

I stayed on at OLA while the new school was being built and we werer bussed to various schools in the city so we could continue classed. I went to John Hayes Public School, and was back at OLA for my fifth grade term. I stayed until November, when I was confirmed with my class and then moved to Morton Grove to join my parents and brother. I attended NIU and graduated from Mundelein College on Sheridan Rd., graduating with a BA in English. I now work for a Computer Distributor in Bloomingdale, IL.

I will never forget the horror, the shock, the sadness, the pain and trauma of that December 1st, 1958. As I told Eric before, I know God took the lives of those children and nuns to serve as Angels, but those of us who survived are also special Angels that he left here on earth to serve and tell our stories as well.


Posted by: Mickey Sanders On: 6/30/2003 ID: 97
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before Sherman, Kentucky
I was in 3rd grade at the time of the fire. I attended a very small rural school in Kentucky, a complete contrast to OLA. I remember my mother talking to me about the fire and how more girls than boys had died because they were afraid to jump. We talked about what I should do if there ever was a fire at my school or any other public place. We talked about knowing two ways out of any building and never be afraid to jump. A broken leg or arm could be fixed. She said don't let modesty kill you because you are afraid your dress will fly up. She emphasize to never go back into the building for my coat, books, or anything else. Once out, stay as far away as possible. She told how the nuns rolled the children down the steps to get them out of the builidng and explained that staying low is an essential maneuver in escaping a fire. This sad event provided my mother with a teaching moment and those lessons have stayed with me all these years. Whenever I am in a new place, I always look for two ways out.

The TV and newspaper images of the day stuck with me. I've never forgotten the fire and found the information on the Web a few months ago. I have read To Sleep with the Angels and appreciated the human face this book puts on the tragedy. As a parent now, I shudder to think of the agony of the OLA families.

Sometime later that year (3rd grade) we had a problem with the furnace at school. The fire bell rang and I could tell by my teacher's reaction, this was not a drill. I remember how my legs were shaking and my mother's words came back to me and as I fought to stay calm. It was a small malfunction, and there was no danger.

My parents were always cautious about fire. In our little town, when I was an infant, a mother went next door for a few minutes while her three young children were napping in an upstairs bedroom. There was a smoky fire in her house. There was no organized fire department, just neighbors running to help. There was no running water either, just a bucket brigade. The men saved the house, but the children suffocated from the smoke. My Dad, a young father, had the grim task of carrying out the bodies of these children. It haunted him so that he never had a house where his children had to sleep upstairs.

My heart goes out to the children, families, firemen, policemen, and neighbors who were touched by the OLA fire. The safety features in schools implemented as the result of this tragedy, the teaching opportunities it gave parents and children, and the outpouring of compassion generated are among the legacies.

I'm glad my mother talked to me about what happened and prepared me to take care of myself and others if I needed to in a fire.