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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: Tony Guzzi On: 5/3/2004 ID: 177
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before 1108 N. Central Park, about 6 blocks from the school
(Entry removed - please confine messages and discussions to the Message Board)


Posted by: Judy Bush On: 5/1/2004 ID: 176
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before Brighton Park, Chicago
I was 5 years old when the fire occurred. I attended Peace Lutheran Elementary School in Brighton Park. It was in an old building with beautiful high ceilings and polished wooden floor, much like OLA. We also had no sprinklers. I remember our classrooms ceilings suddenly sprouted sprinkler heads. I remember some of the adults grumbling about the cost of having to install sprinklers. Then some other adult would just say "Our Lady of the Angels" and that would end the conversation. I remember having lots and lots of fire drills. Whenever anyone dawdled or would act up in line, our teacher would remind us of the children who died in the OLA fire. I think the OLA tragedy saved the lives of thousands of children who attended schools that really were unsafe. I know the fire changed and shaped an entire generation of Chicago's children. I never met anyone from my generation who grew up in Chicago who did not know about that fire.


Posted by: DOLORES LABUDA On: 4/29/2004 ID: 175
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before 4064 S. FRANCISCO
(Entry removed - please confine messages and discussions to the Message Board)


Posted by: Tony Guzzi On: 4/29/2004 ID: 174
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before 1108 N. Central Park, about 6 blocks from the school
I was only three years old on December 1, 1958, but I believe that day is one of the first recolections of my life. I remember looking out our back door from our first floor flat on Central Park and seeing the thick black smoke. I can then remember my mother on the phone to my grandmother saying 'ma the school is on fire.' I also remember feeling very scared hearing the almost constant whining of fire engines. The girl next door came home from OLA without her coat and I remember my mother and I going out on the back porch and talking to her. Those are about the only recolections that I have of that day, but I can remember them like they were yesterday. My fathers cousin died in the fire and a neighbor , a 13 year old girl who my mother tells me used to come over and play with me was also one of the 92 children that died. I eventually went to OLA in the fall of 1961 and graduated in 1969. I now have two children of my own and I have told them about the OLA fire. They sometimes ask me questions about it. Although I was only three years old at the time, those few recolections have never left my mind. I think about the fire every December 1st. It is a day that I will never forget.


Posted by: Vince T. On: 4/27/2004 ID: 173
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before Chicago, Taylor & Racine
I was only 4 years old when this happened. I went to Holy Trinity High School on the north side of Chicago where I had a classmate whose older brother was sick that day and ended up staying home. I currently have a co-worker who attended first grade at OLA but I'm unsure if he was in the north wing of the building. He told me that the fire alarm went off in the middle of a spelling test and the nun walked the class out like a regular fire drill. Later as he was waiting in line outside, his grandma came up to him and said you need to come home with me. He told his grandma that he couldn't go home with her as he was to stand in his spot waiting for the nun's further instructions and he refused to leave with her.


Posted by: Anzu Mazaki On: 4/25/2004 ID: 172
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No After n/a
I am reasearching the oal fire for a school project. I am in the 7th grade. I have seen many sites and have looked at pictures of the devastation this fire had caused. Many peole died in this fire, and because of tecnology we can prevent many more lives now than we could have back then.


Posted by: Marty Oppenheim On: 4/12/2004 ID: 171
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before Jamaica, New York
I was 9 years old and living in Jamaica, NY at the time of the fire but I vividly remember the news of the disaster as if it happened yesterday. Being Jewish, I attended public school but grew up across the street from a large Catholic church and school where so many of my friends went. Both my public school and the Catholic school were older buildings and were built in the early 1900s. My old school had the same kind of classrooms the OLA had. I remember frequent and thorough fire inspections and fire drills in my school following this tragedy. I also had nightmares from the Life Magazine article about OLA. I own and have read both "To Sleep With Angels" and "The Fire That Would Not Die". I can only imagine, what it must have been like to experience the fire firsthand. May everyone connected with OLA continue to heal and keep up this wonderful forum and website. God Bless all of you and your wonderful city!!!


Posted by: Dan Minutillo On: 3/28/2004 ID: 170
Enrolled on 12/1/58? Present on 12/1/58? Injured? Age Grade Classroom Teacher
Yes Yes No 8 3 Not sure Sister Mary Rayme---may be misspelled
At the time of the fire, I was eight years old. I will never forget that tragic day. I live in California now, so not many people that I meet have heard of OLA but each time I meet someone my age from the midwest, I ask if they heard about this fire. Every once in a while, I get a positive response and we chat a bit about it.
My younger sister and I were both at OLA that day. Fortunately, we both made it out alive, only to carry the memory of that horrid day. I lost two cousins and many close friends in the fire. Their parents have never recovered. My family rarely talks about the fire because of the pain that it brings.
As I recall, on this day, we were to purchase candy bars as a fund raiser for OLA. I brought a coin to school to buy my candy. As an 8 year old, this was a very important day. I really looked forward to buying my chocolate and eating it later in the day.
When the fire alarm rang, I thought it was just a fire drill, a practice for the real thing that would probably never happen. My teacher, Sister Mary Raymee (probably misspelled) heard the alarm and asked all of us to stand up and move toward the doorway in single file. She asked me to make sure that every student filed out of the room. She was a wonderful teacher and a very nice person so I was always glad to help her. She stood right with me, gathering a few things as the students filed out of the room. I was the last student out and she walked right behind me.
I remember turning out the light as I left the room. I also vividly remember flipping the coin that I held in my hand which was supposed to be used to buy my candy that day. I flipped it a few times thinking that this was only a drill and there was nothing to be worried about. Sister made sure that all of us stayed calm and walked out of the room as quickly as possible. She did a great job.
I remember going down some stairs and not seeing any fire but just some smoke. I still thought, for whatever reason, that this was just a fire drill. I thought this until I got outside the main door of the school. Fire trucks were quickly moving up and down the street. Fire hoses laid across the street, about four inches thick. Children were burned and leaning up against the wall of the school screaming for help. I didn't know what to do, so I started to run toward the annex building that my sister was in. I ran into her classroom, grabbed her and against the wishes of her teacher, I pulled her with me. Her teacher did not want to let her go with me but I told her that if she didn't my mom would go into the burning building looking for us. I knew that my mom would come to the school and try to find us if I didn't get to her first. The teacher was still reluctant to let her go, so I yanked my sister's arm hard and pulled her away. The whole area was in total choas. We started to run toward our home. We lived at 949 Montecello Avenue, near the school.
I still held my coin in my hand as we were running. I remember being on a sidewalk running toward home and passing my mother who was running the opposite direction on the sidewalk. We ran right past each other but my sister noticed her (I didn't even see her) and we ran back to her. She took us home. My dad arrived home very shortly after we got home. He looked freightened, which made me freightened.
My mom had cooked up some "mock chicken legs" for dinner that night. These were my favorite. As I remember they were pieces of cooked, breaded meat put onto a thick stick. As much as I enjoyed them, I could not eat. We were all very upset because of the fire and because we had just gotten a call that two of my cousins and a friend from our neighborhood who were also in the fire could not be found. Later, I remember my dad telling me that he went from hospital to hospital trying to find them. We found out late that evening that they had died. This was like a nightmare. I could not believe it. My sister and I were lucky. We made it out of the fire without injury. Many of our friends and memebers of our family were not so lucky. They did not make it.
I remember that we were put into another school for a long time. We had our classes in that school. The most vivid memory that I have of that school is that at noon time, they would serve us sandwiches. The only reason that I remember this is because the sandwiches were loaded with butter, spread right over the meat. I had never eaten a meat sandwich with butter on it. It didn't taste very good but everyone at this new school was very, very nice to us. I can't recall the name of the school but it was a great place. They seemed to really care about us. We moved to California the next year. My parents could not bear the constant reminders of the fire so we moved west to start a new life.
That's about all that I can remember. I'm sure that I blocked a lot of it out of my mind because it was so terrible. There are not many positive things that come out of a tragedy like this except to realize that you need to make the best of your life while you are here; try to help as many people as you can--just as people helped us cope with this tragedy.
Thanks for keeping up this web site. Dan Minutillo (Carmen Daniel Minutillo, born 1950, minu@flash.net)


Posted by: Michael Ramelli On: 3/26/2004 ID: 169
Enrolled on 12/1/58? Present on 12/1/58? Injured? Age Grade Classroom Teacher
Yes Yes No 10 6 2nd Floor Mrs. Coughlin
By chance I happened to locate this web page. I was a sixth grade student at the school on that horrible day.

As I remember we were the first class out of the building.

The events as I recollect were as follows:

Just prior to dismissal for the day, two classmates, who were the designated waste basket monitors, returned to our second floor classroom telling Mrs. Coughlin that "when they went to the boiler room to empty the waste baskets, the janitor encountered them yelling "get out, the building was on fire"".

Mrs. Coughlin immediately instructed us to leave the building in accordance with our fire drill practice, which was to exit down the stairwell in the building's south wing and continue to the street corner in front of the church. When we exited the classroom, the smoke was very intense which to this day leads me to believe that we were very lucky. The smoke must not have been present at the moment the two classmates returned to our classroom after their encounted with the janitor.

As we moved toward the stairwell, we were able to see through the windows accross the courtyard separating the north and south wings. The north wing was totally engulfed in fire. Ironically, as we moved down the stairs to the first floor south wing, the nun in the classroom immediately to the east of the stairwell we were exiting was still teaching as if nothing was wrong.

We proceeded as instructed and trained to the designated street corner, but no other classes were following us...we were the only ones out of the building. I remember to this day the horror on Mrs. Coughlin's face as she ran back into the building ostensibly to notify other faculty of the situation. Shorly there after, I remeber hearing the fire bells. I can only assume that Mrs. Coughlin actuated these devices.

We were standing there, and as instructed during fire drill, continued facing away from the school. I remeber another adult coming up to us and telling us to go home. As I was leaving, I turned to look back at the school, and all I remember is the smoke and people jumping from the second floor.

Surely, I was too young to realize the magnitude of the disaster, but I proceeded to the dry cleaning store my parents operated on the corener of Division St. and Lawndale, and informed my mother that "the school was on fire and they sent us home". She immediately ran out of the store, and I found out later ran to the school.

Eight of my cousins and my sister were also attending the school. Most were in smaller facilities away from the main building used for kindergarten and pre-school classes. I fould out later that many of the students were brought in out of the cold by people living near the school. Many of the students must of been in shock because some couldn't remember their phone numbers (mostly the younger ones)which made it very diffult and time consuming to reunite them with their parents. One of my cousins, who I belive was in first grade at the time, wasn't located until six or seven o'clock that evening.

The events of December 1, 1958 are in my memory like it was yesterday.

Over the years, these memories have been brought into focus for a number of reasons. Just living in the neighborhood and being the first graduating class from the new OLA School provided a daily reminder in the early years after the tragedy. When attending Weber High School, some of my classmates were siblings of students lost. I also belonged to a local Drum and Bugle Corps, the Royal Airs who, to this day, dedicate all it's performaces in rememberance of the tragedy and the three members of the group that perished in the fire. And finally, years later, I was hired as a salesman with ADT Security Systems, a company that specializes in electronic protection systems, particularly fire alarms. The first bit of ADT training materials handed to us was pictures of the OLA fire. I am still in this industry, and every time I think about fire protection systems I remember the OLA School Fire. If what I know now was implemented then, this never would have happened. But that was then, and now is now. I'll never forget.


Posted by: Wendy S. On: 3/22/2004 ID: 168
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before Melrose Park, Ill.
I am so happy to see that there are still survivors of OLA that remain so close.
Dec. 1st, 1958 I was freshman at Proviso East High School. When I arrived home my mother was crying after hearing the news regarding the fire. It was truly a sad day for Chicago.
I followed the newspaper stories daily and cried when I read that one girl had been buried in her First Communion dress.
I grew up attending the same kind of Catholic School. Sacred Heart in Melrose Park, Il. We had the same old walls and wooden floors that would have ignited in only a few minutes. I used to hate having to go to the old school and felt safer in the new school.
In our old Church we had a nun embalmed by the front altar. I was terrified of her. I remember my Grandmother dragging me to the front of the Church. (the nun had died during the famous Palm Sunday Tornado that went down 15th Avenue.) It was in the late 1920's.
I pray for all of you who live with such horrible nightmares. Dec. 1st never passes that I don't say a Rosary for the memory of those who died and for joy for each of you survivors. I know that your parents are grateful for each of you.
God Bless you all,
Sincerely, Wendy S. (I now live in Atlanta, GA)