OLAFire Logo
Our Lady of the Angels (OLA) School Fire, December 1, 1958
nUserID=0

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.
Click here to add your OLA fire experience.        

Posted by: Michael Guzaldo On: 10/7/2002 ID: 3
Enrolled on 12/1/58? Present on 12/1/58? Injured? Age Grade Classroom Teacher
Yes Yes No 12 7 201 Sister Andrainne
Before I get into my recollections of the fire, I ask the WebMaster to correct my 1st Cousin Frances Guzaldo's entry under "people involved" Frances is listed as a boy - Frances was a girl.

I also lost my 1st Cousin, Frank Piscopo, I remember both of these people very well and I guess our family never really got over the loss of our loved ones.

The day of the fire in etched in my memory, I recall the blind walk down the stairs from room 201. I sat in the last seat nearest the back door adjacent to the window and radiator. It was my job to lead part of the class out the door through the cloak room down the stairs and out. We had fire drills to practice that. The smoke was very thick and sooty, our faces were black from it. We were to go outside across the street and line up by class room in front of the convent. I remember looking at the licks of fire coming out the windows and wondering if anyone would die in this and how long we would be off school. I had find Frank and Gerald Guzaldo who lived upstairs from us on Homan Ave. Michael Piscopo (Franks younger brother) and Frances. I rounded up all of my cousins I could find (all but the ones that died) and ran to Connie's a little restaurant on Chicago and Hamlin a block away, I knew they had a phone there. I called my mother, I still remember the phone number SA2-5698, to tell her what was happening and who I had found. She showed up soon after with my aunts.

We went home to watch TV and listen to the radio for any news. My Father his Brother Cos and Brother-in-law Frank were searching the temp morgues to look for our missing family members. They finally found them.

Boy what a day.

We children were mostly kept in the dark about what the adults were doing, although we lost friends and family nothing much was ever discussed with us - to this day the fire is never discussed among the family.

The attempted schooling to finish the year on WTTW Channel 11 then various public schools we were bused to turned out to be a mess.

Today if a kid stubs their tow they bring in an army counselers we had the nuns who told us "GOD TOOK ONLY THE GOOD ONES" nice huh guess that was their idea of therapy. So we weren't good eneough to be "TAKEN" by GOD well guess this is one reason I have no religion today and haven't since that day in December 1958.

I think this story needs to be told on the big screen. I think the corruption of the Church and the Daily administration needs to be shown for what it was. I would like to know why all the money the church collected went to the Nuns convent and elaborate church decorations, and we had to be schooled in a fire trap that failed fire inspedtion after fire inspection. I want the story told about how the survivors were treated and the few dollars that were given to sibilings of the dead children. How the mayor an Irish Catholic stifeled any attempt to sue the Church.

As far as I am concerned the Catholic Church killed al those children by way of criminal neglence and greed.

My name is Mike Guzaldo and can be reached by email - guzaldo@yahoo.com


Posted by: Kenneth Lichon On: 9/26/2002 ID: 2
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before 7 blocks away
The worst for me was carrying the casket of my best friend, John David Trotta. The day of the fire shut off my emotions until this day. When I learned of the courage of the men and women who went to the windows to get my friends out, my mind was fixed on one thing: If I ever had a family, there would be no locks on the doors, no doors that I could not overcome and nothing on earth that would keep me from my children.

We have five children and 6 grandchilren and there are no inside locks on our doors, no doors that I cannot get through and nothing on this earth that prevents me from getting to my children if I need to.

The fact that I could not get to my friends and help them has made my life one of helping and sharing whatever I can with my family and friends because you never know when they will not be ...... there.

When John David's casket was lowered into the ground, a very special part of my life ended and the nightmares began ... and still come back.

I wish I had not learned of this site .....


Posted by: OLAFire Webmaster On: 9/21/2002 ID: 1
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before Colorado
In 1958, I was about the same age as the children at OLA. Although I was only dimly aware of the catastrophy at the time, I remember staring for hours at a huge fire prevention poster in a local storefront window. The poster was the famous Steve Lasker photo of Chicago fireman Richard Scheidt carrying a dead little boy, 10-year-old John Jajkowski, from the ravaged school (this picture is in the photo gallery). I remember being moved by the poster: the boy was my age, the school was of very similar construction to my school - basically, a fire trap. That could have been ME in the poster! For years after that, I would often fantasize about being a fireman and rescuing my friends from my burning school. In fact years later, for a time, I became a volunteer fireman.

Over the years I have thought about that poster quite often, and wished I knew more about the circumstances behind it. Then I discovered the excellent book "To Sleep With the Angels" by Cowan and Kuenster, and at last I knew the story. When I found there were no web sites devoted strictly to the OLA fire, I decided to build this one.