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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: jessica On: 9/22/2005 ID: 237
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No After n/a
i was not around during the fire. but i did a report on it and i found lots of very emotional stories and i feel so bad. there are many people affected bi this and it horrible. i am currently reading a book from a student that was in the fire. her name is michelle mcbride. she sadly passed away July 4, 2001. the book describes how she delt who she was and what really happened to her. i had to do a multigenre project last year and i did it on OUR LADYS OF ANGELS SCHOOL FIRE. many were crying at the end of my presentation.


Posted by: wayne anderson On: 8/31/2005 ID: 236
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before chicago illinois
i remember it clearly. I was in the 3rd grade at Saint Genevieve grammar school in the Fullerton & Cicero area.I heard about the fire when I got home from school from my mother.It just happens to be the school that I went to just the year before. My family use to live on 920 n. Homan ave and we moved in july 1958. I had one friend of mine that died in the fire. To this day I still think about it.


Posted by: K. B. On: 8/19/2005 ID: 235
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No
My mother was in labor with me at Chicago's Lying-in Hospital on the afternoon of the fire. She was in the hospital for a week thereafter and all news of the fire was kept from her and the other new mothers. It would be nice to believe that the spirit of one of the slain children was re-born in me. Bless you all.


Posted by: Barbara Z. On: 8/14/2005 ID: 234
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before 2200 block of Thomas Street
I was 11 years old and a student at St. Mark's School on Campbell and Cortez. It was a chilly day and I remember the sound of fire trucks and probably other emergency vehicles on that late afternoon. We thought we could smell the smoke but it was over 2 miles away. We knew what was happening as soon as we got out of school. My mother met us and walked us home. My grandmother called from Salt Lake City. She was frantic because she didn't know the name of our school but had heard about the tragedy. My dad often helped his best friend (an undertaker) with removals and helped him that night with some of the children. He was devastated. I can't tell you how sad we were that December. My brother and I lost a friend in that fire. Roger Ramlow, who had lived next door, had moved to OLA just the year before. I still remember him and his little brother and it is 50 years later! God bless all the victims, survivors and all the OLA family.


Posted by: Steven N. Witt On: 8/9/2005 ID: 233
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 a Fireman for The City of Elmhurst Fire Dept. One of our retired fireman,s father was a Chicago fireman at the time, and had a Kelly Day on the day of the fire. I also met 2 ex Chicago firemen, that were on scene at the time of the fire. One fireman was supposed to have been on the Box Alarm Trk Co.26, but was detailed to Eng.Co.95, the second Eng. due in. He told Me They were trying to make the second floor with a 2 and one half inch handline, when then ceiling fell in and blew everyone out! He is also the fireman who is shown carrying out a deceased nun out of the ruins.The other fireman was on Squad Co.6. He is the Gentleman who currently has a working model of the Our Lady of the Angels building at the Chicago Fire Museum. When I was taking to these men, chills ran up My back! I know Myself,it must have been a tough job preforming rescues and firefighting under horiffic situasions! Also, My wife worked with a teacher here in Elmhurst, who lived in the neighborhood, at the time of the fire, and knew alot of the victims. He told Me that the area always celibrated Christmas, with lights on the shops and houses, etc. After the fire, hardly anyone put out anything!( could not blame them!) He also told Me that the woman they showed running on the Channel 11 program about the fire, had a lot of health problems, and couldn,t do much, but when she heard about the fire, she ended up running as fast as she could! Also, I worked with a Paramedic, who ended up making Chicago Fire Dept's Paramedic's, who's father's cousins was killed in the fire.


Posted by: kathy On: 8/4/2005 ID: 232
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No After n/a
came upon article by accident while researching fire in ciero ill trying to find out information about my father who died in a bowling alley fire so far all i have gotten is his obitutary his name was john jacob benedict his funeral was at the begining of jan 1962 i dont know if it is a coinsidence or not hoping for more information


Posted by: Janet On: 7/25/2005 ID: 231
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before South Dakota
I was ten years old in 1958, and attended a Catholic grade school in Emery, South Dakota. Our school, also, was an accident waiting to happen. Fortunately, one of the good things that came out of the fire in Chicago was that our teachers and parents became more aware of the danger of fire in old wooden and brick school houses. Before the fire the first and second grade students were taught on the third floor, with just an old battered round-tubed fire escape, but after this tragic fire, these students were moved to the first floor into the chapel. The nuns were willing to give up their beautiful chapel in order to keep the children safe.

I also remember that we had many fire drills after that time, and we prayed for those who lost their lives. Personally, this fire scared me tremendously as we lived in an old farm house that I was SURE was going to burn up at any time. (It still survives today, however.) I remember sitting next to my mother in an evening with my favorite doll and a few other favorite things in my hands, waiting for someone to yell "fire." I know I would have been out the door in 2 seconds flat if that would have happened. My mother did her best to reassure me that there would be no fire. However, to this day, fire is my greatest fear.

Janet Wendt


Posted by: wendy On: 7/22/2005 ID: 230
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before pittsburgh, PA
I have always been fascinated with disaster stories: tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, explosions, fires, etc. I was a 3-month-old baby in Pittsburgh when this fire occured but as I grew older I enjoyed reading about human tragedy for some morbid reason. I loved to browse through old LIFE magazines and as I got older I purchased books on subjects that I had read about in a magazine. So I've heard about the OLA fire for a long time but it wasn't until I discovered this website that I really got into reading about it and when I heard of the book "To Sleep With the Angels," (mentioned on this website) I immediately sent away for a copy (another good book about a fire is "The Circus Fire" by Stuart O'Nan, about the circus big top burning to the ground in Hartford in 1944. Why some tragedies are turned into a book and/or movie and others are not is a mystery to me). I loved the book and was horrified and dismayed to learn that David Cowan, one of the authors, was arrested for arson not too long ago. What a sad irony. I was in Chicago for 3 days just recently. I had always wanted to see the city and had a wonderful time. Even though my husband and I had access to a rent-a-car we were very hesitant about driving it around such a huge city (we live in a small Alaskan town and just driving in Anchorage is traumatic for us). I really wanted to go to the old OLA neighborhood but wasn't sure if I could reach it by the CTA and if a cab driver knew where to find the place. Plus I had read that the neighborhood had really deteriorated and that stopped me. But if I'm ever in Chicago again I'll take the chance. I also need to get hold of Michelle McBride's book about the fire. I tried finding a copy in Chicago but was not successful. I also sent away for a copy of A&E's Hellfire video that does a segement on the OLA fire. A local Chicago station did a documentary and I'm hoping they have it on video so I can order a copy. I've been meaning to call the station but keep forgetting. Anyway, my heart goes out to all those people who lost loved ones. The worst tragedy for a parent to experience is to outlive a child and some parents lost 2 children in the fire. In my opinion the whole thing was an waiting to happen. Some kind of tragedy was bound to happen sooner or later to a public building that was also an overcrowded firetrap. It could have happened anywhere but it occured on December 1, 1958 at OLA school. Those kids did not die in vain--new safety laws came into effect afterwards. It's a shame that sometimes it takes a horrible tragedy to change outdated rules & regulations that no one was really paying attention to. There are all kinds of examples throughout history, I won't go into them all but those of you who enjoy reading about this kind of stuff know what I'm talking about. What's really sad, though, is that a kid apparently started this fire. I'm sure he didn't mean to hurt anyone--maybe he thought the fire would be discovered and extinguished before it spread. He has to live with his own guilty conscience. I also feel that the Catholic Church and Mayor Daley wereinadvertently put in a difficult situation that they did not know how to handle. Their reaction to this disaster brought a lot of criticism but I believe that no one really know what to do. I don't believe that it was God's will that these children died such a horrible ; but I do believe He gave us freedom of choice between doing good and doing bad and does not interfere with our choices. Unfortunately some people--even kids--choose to do terrible things. That boy that started the fire had the freedom to do it and the results of his actions were just the laws of nature taking their course. Fire (and nature in general) doesn't distinguish between children who have not been on this earth very long and older people who have been here for decades. In any case I agree with Mike Guzaldo (one of the first people to add a story to this website) that this event needs to be made into a movie, not to capitalize on tragedy but to show everyone that good things can come out of bad (or horrendous) events (i.e., the changing of fire laws and constructing safer buildings) and the triumph of the human spirit in surviving such things. To those relatives who lost loved ones--you have my sympathy, prayers, respect and admiration for having the strength to survive such a tragic time in your lives.


Posted by: Francisco Fuentes On: 6/19/2005 ID: 229
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before San Juan, Puerto Rico
Woke up today, fathers' day, remembering a song I used to hear when I was a boy which related to a fire in a catholic school in Chicago. Been just a boy of school age, I was deeply impressed by the song's lyrics that talk about one hundred angels and nuns dying in this incident. I still can remember the song even though it's been years. I decided to search the web for any information and to my surprise, ran into this page. Now I can put real faces into the lyrics of a tragic song that touched me at a tender age,a world apart.


Posted by: judy On: 6/19/2005 ID: 228
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before Indiana
I found this site by accident. I have heard only a few stories about this tragedy, mostly from a friend who constantly derides the catholic nuns for their alleged directions to the students to pray. Even before reading these accounts here, I felt that IF those directions were given it was only because the sisters felt there was no other way out. Is there anything wrong with being prayerful at the hour of one's death? It is encouraging to see that many children did escape, especially with the assistance of these nuns. Thank you for providing this web site and the information within. Now I know where to direct my friend the next time she is getting her anger out on the catholic church.