Personal experiences with Our Lady of the Angels School Fire on 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.

Click here to add your OLA fire experience.

Story Index

Stories 174 to 165 Stories 154 to 145

Posted by:

Patti Sansonetti Leonardi

On:

3/4/2004

ID:

164

At OLA on 12/1/58?	Born before or after 12/1/58?	Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No	Before	Oak Park, IL

My parents moved our family out of the city where I had been attending OLA and into Oak Park a scant two months before the fire broke out. I had two cousins who also attended OLA at the time of the fire, but they were not injured. A third cousin, Margaret (Peggy) Sansonetti perished in the fire. My father and one of my uncles spent the entire evening at the school and, eventually, the morgue, to try and find Peggy, and then ultimately to identify her body. I only recently found this site and it has brought back painful memories of innocence lost. People I've talked to who never attended OLA remember the stories and news coverage. It was my fate to have left the school two months before the fire, but the memories live on in me forever. patti_l_51@yahoo.com

Posted by:

Anonymous

On:

3/4/2004

ID:

163

At OLA on 12/1/58?	Born before or after 12/1/58?	Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No	Before	New York

I was nine years old and in the fourth grade in a Catholic school similar to Our Lady of Angels at the time of the fire. I remember looking at the pictures in the paper and thinking that this could really happen to me. It was my first experience with the death of children. My mother,a devout Catholic, had us pray for all the poor little souls and their families. I remember going to school and from my second floor classroom window, looking down and wondering if I could jump if I had to. I was,and still am, terrified of fire. My mother finally hid the newspapers from me. I was obsessed. I never forgot the picture of the little shoe filled with ice. I never forgot the victims and their families and often wondered if anyone else was wondering about them. When I found this site I was stunned to find stories from those who felt the same way. Even more stunning was the possibility that the fire could have been started by a child my age! I'm ashamed to admit that I feel some relief by relaying my story considering the unimaginable suffering of those that experienced this tragedy. Thank you for allowing me to do this. I think that if I could have talked to someone when I was nine I would have felt better.

Posted by:

DEE

On:

3/3/2004

ID:

162

At OLA on 12/1/58?	Born before or after 12/1/58?	Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No	Before	THE SOUTH SIDE OF CHICAGO

I LIVE IN FLORIDA NOW. BUT I HAD A SISTER IN THE SCHOOL FIRE, HER NAME WAS CAROL ANN GAZZOLA, SHE WAS IN ROOM 211. I THINK YOU PUT JE WHEN YOU WROTE. YOU CAN TALK TO ME ON THE MESS. BOARD, MY NAME IS DOLORES. I HOPE THIS IS ALRIGHT ERIC. .

Posted by:

On:

3/3/2004

ID:

161

At OLA on 12/1/58?	Born before or after 12/1/58?	Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No	Before	South Side of Chicago and attended St. Clare of Montefalco school

I remember hearing the news of the fire on the radio when I was on the way to the dentist office with my Dad. It was one of those things you remember for the rest of your life and you know where you were when you heard the news. We listened to the news in shock. I still remember the editorial cartoon in the Sun Times the next day showing the nuns leading the children on a stairway to heaven. I also remember all the changes we had to make in our school after that, with firedoors, sprinklers etc., and how we had to raise funds to do it. I still cry today to think about it or when I tell someone the story. Strangely enough, I now live in Florida and have a friend here who is from the North side and who knew children who were in the fire, some of whom died.

Posted by:

Brother Jeremy Dominic

On:

2/28/2004

ID:

160

At OLA on 12/1/58?	Born before or after 12/1/58?	Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No	Before	Hammond, Indiana

Coming home from school on December 1, 1958, my mother told me about the fire that was happening at Our Lady of the Angels School and how forty-five students had already lost their lives. Our own Catholic school, St. Stanislaus in East Chicago, Indiana had had a fire on January 18, 1958. It occurred on a Saturday evening, and one can remember the flames from the third floor engulfing each classroom. We followed the newspaper accounts of the Our Lady of the Angels Fire for many days. Just as the OLA students and teachers would later be divided into attending classes in temporary locations, so too were we. Some time after the OLA Fire, a few of my classmates and I were on the third floor of the church building where several of the St. Stanislaus School's grades were assigned during the time of transition. Looking out the windows we thought about the boys and girls at Our Lady of the Angels and how many of them had to jump, and we wondered. I kept the December 2, 1958 newspaper issue as well as the January 19, 1958 issue of another paper which reported the tragedies. As a teaching Brother I have many times reflected on what happened at OLA School. A fitting memorial ought to be reclaiming and then returning the name Our Lady of the Angels School to the building now on the site, perhaps as an alternative independent Catholic school.

Posted by:

Rosemary Cibelli

On:

2/28/2004

ID:

159

Enrolled on 12/1/58?	Present on 12/1/58?	Injured?	Age	Grade	Classroom	Teacher
Yes	Yes	Yes	10	4		Miss Tristano

I remember that day so vividly. I can still see myself walking down Augusta Blvd that morning with my new coat on that I got from making my confirmation just a few weeks before.
About 2:40 pm one of the boys in our room told Miss Tristano there was smoke coming in from the window at the top of the door. Miss Tristano told our class to wait in our seats while she went down the stairs to ring the fire bell. Miss Tristano closed the door behind her and ran down and rang the bell. She then came back up and saw to it that our class escaped alive. This was a very courageous act on her part, she easily could have just left the building when she got to the bottom of the stairs.
I don't believe Miss Tristano was ever recognized for her courage, I'm sure she is responsible for saving hundreds of lives by ringing that bell when she did. Time was certainly of the essence. I have waited many years to thank her for saving my life and hundreds of others.
So Miss Tristano, God Bless You and thank you for your courage. Because of you I am alive and a very proud grandmother of 5. I'm sure God has a very special place for you.

Posted by:

DOLORES LABUDA

On:

2/18/2004

ID:

158

At OLA on 12/1/58?	Born before or after 12/1/58?	Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No	Before	ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF CHICAGO

(Entry removed - please confine messages and discussions to the Message Board)

Posted by:

MICHALENE MANCINI POGGI

On:

2/18/2004

ID:

157

Enrolled on 12/1/58?	Present on 12/1/58?	Injured?	Age	Grade	Classroom	Teacher
Yes	Yes	No				MISS ROSSI

(Entry removed - please confine messages and discussions to the Message Board)

Posted by:

On:

2/10/2004

ID:

156

At OLA on 12/1/58?	Born before or after 12/1/58?	Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No	Before	Chicago

I just want to add some information that Bill (Entry 155) might find clarifying. The Adrian Dominican Sisters whom you had at St. Mary, Royal Oak, Michigan, did indeed run many, many Chicago parish schools and one of those schools was named Queen of Angels, which was also on the North Side (Sunnyside Street). (By the way, there was yet another Northside parish school called St. Mary of the Angels.) On Decmber 1, 1958, the confusion caused by these three similar names for Northside Catholic schools was tremendous. It was a very reasonable misunderstanding to think that the Adrian Dominicans were involved at OLA. Wherever the Adrian Dominicans taught they were really loved by their students. My memories come from St. Ambrose in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, and earlier from Saint Rita on the southside of Chicago.

Posted by:

Bill

On:

2/9/2004

ID:

155

At OLA on 12/1/58?	Born before or after 12/1/58?	Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No	Before	Royal Oak, Michigan

I was in the second grade at St. Mary in Royal Oak Michigan. For some reason I thought our nuns were teaching at OLA (Adrian Dominicans) during the time of the fire. They made it sound like they were there. I learned different when I found your site. I had the wonderful opportunity of E-mailing Charlene before her death. What a fantastic person!!!!! I remember being told the students had to stay in there desks and pray tell the firemen came. Your site has answers to my questions about the fire ,nuns, and students. I always wonder thoughout my life how it started and what happend. I hope to get a hold of the two books about the fire. I would like to hear from the former students if possible. GOD BLESS YOU ALL Bill

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