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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: Mary Kay On: 11/27/2008 ID: 395
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before Berkeley, CA
I was a second grader, newly moved back to California -- just in time for my First Communion, but had attended my first year and a half of elementary school in La Grange. (I have lived in Chicago now-again for the last 4 years) This fire has really affected the remainder of my life until now -- and probably forever. I'm not afraid of fire, per se --- I'm afraid of dying in or because of a fire .. though I'm not necessarily afraid of dying ... just in or because of a fire. Oddly enough .. I really don't think anyone else in my family .. Mom, Dad, brother (5 years older -- also in elementary school at the time) and sister (3 years older) were affected in the same way -- or maybe even remember -- until now .. the 50th commemoration year (my sister also lives in the Chicago area -- Dad and Paul are no longer living). Even in Berkeley -- probably because we were in a Catholic school and a Presentation Sisters school, this was tragic news .... and I had lived relatively close to Humboldt Park -- and my school in La Grange had been a two-story brick -- like Our Lady of the Angels. This event seriously had an effect on me .... to this day I mourn the children .. so like me then .. who died that day ........ my memory is that the Sisters told them to put their heads on their desks and pray .. and that's what they did .. I remember being told the same thing though not in the same tragic way ... to their parents and families .. my condolences and to all of us healing


Posted by: Tom Kearney On: 11/24/2008 ID: 394
Enrolled on 12/1/58? Present on 12/1/58? Injured? Age Grade Classroom Teacher
Yes Yes No 7 2 109 Sister Mary Faustina BVM
Late that Dec. 1st afternoon I was siting to the back of room 109 with Sister Mary Faustina B.V.M. as my teacher. I recall hearing the fire alarm but was surprised we were told to line up WITHOUT our coats & I knew it was cold outside. I think Sister said she was not informed of a fire drill so we should proceed out the side door to Avers Ave.Immediately upon exiting I saw DENSE black smoke flowing rapidly, almost as if a large fan was blowing it out the window above. Being only 7 yrs old & not knowing of the severity I was excited because there would be no school tomorrow. We lined up along the curb just North of the school. I was cold but remember seeing children jumping from the 2nd floor & laying on the ground.After a while we were told to go into a neighboring house. We ocassionally looked out the window & could witness all that was going on. I recall a loud noise & saw a great amount of smoke rise rapidly. I recall being told the school roof probably caved in.When an older child arrived I was lent a coat & escorted home by a "short cut" thereby missing my mother who was walking the 5 blocks nort on Hamlin Ave. She met my younger brother who was sent home from Mary & Joseph Hall ,buildings down the block from the main school building.My mother tells of covered bodies near the rectory & being told to call hospitals & the morgue for my status.


Posted by: Thea On: 11/23/2008 ID: 393
Enrolled on 12/1/58? Present on 12/1/58? Injured? Age Grade Classroom Teacher
Yes Yes No 11 7 202 St. Mary St. Rita
I was in the first row seat next to the windows when I saw St. Mary Davidis and kids yelling out the window....the school is on fire. get out...the school is on fire. Smoke just filled our room. You could not see your hand in front of your face. It was difficult breathing and to get to the hall. Tommy Raymond pulled me by the uniform back into the room where we broke windows so we could get to the firemans ladder. I was so scared. Going down the ladder I lost one of my shoes and knew my parents would be so very angry.
It is a good thing that today we can talk about what happened and read the information shared thru others. We were such a close school. We students all miss those that we had as friends and lost.


Posted by: Tom On: 11/20/2008 ID: 392
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before Cicero and Kamerling Ave.
I was at school west of there, at Saint Peter Canisius grade school. When I returned home that day, my mother told me of the fire at Our Lady of the Angels. I watched the story on the news that night and was just in disbelief that this school was so close to mine, and such a terrible thing like this could possibly happen. We prayed for everyone that attended school at Our Lady of the Angels and talked about the tragedy for many years.
As years passed I had always thought of the terrible day at that school, and one day as the news came to be the topic of discussion with our Engineering Secretary at the Village of Hanover Park, Illinois, the Community Development Secretary, overhearing what I was talking about, came to ask me if I was there at the time. I said "No, but I knew that some of the children came to my school for classes, after the the fire." But to my surprise, she said that she was there the day of the fire, and that her father had somehow found out about the fire and drove to the school and pulled her and a friend out of class to safety.
I'm not sure what her maiden name was at the time, but her married name is Vickie(Ramondi) She still works for Hanover Park, Illinois, but I have since moved to Georgia. The article from the Chicago Sun Times was sent to me by email from Kathy, Engineering Secretary of Hanover Park. I just had to mention the story and say I'm always thinking of those Little Angels.


Posted by: Paul J. Sanborn On: 11/19/2008 ID: 391
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before Upper Darby, Pennsylvania
I was a Lieutenant of Safeties, seventh grade, on 1 December 1958 at St. Laurence Grade School, Highland Park, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. I was one of those seventh graders who was fifty years old at the time. Always my curse but strength too. I read about the fire in the Philadelphia Inquirer and Evening Bulletin. I read everything I could find. Another Catholic grade school. An older building similar to the one in which I attended school. So many people gone. So much tragedy. The TV also had some coverage. I had trouble sleeping for weeks and even today, in 2008, I vividly remember this event. I immediately called my safety squad together the next school day after we learned of the tragedy and drilled them on fire safety, at least at the standards of a very concerned seventh grade student safety lieutenant. I spent the next year and a half until graduation always watching and waiting for the same fate to hit us. It never did.
In the Marine Corps, and later as an educator, principal and today, director of curriculum and instruction for Devon Prep School, a small Catholic independent school west of Philadelphia, I have always stressed emergency planning and fire safety. I even live in a ranch home to stack the odds in my family's favor. One possible good thing that came of this horrible event was to sensitize many of us around the country to the dangers of fire and the need for proper zoning, building and drilling to prevent such losses of life. It just seems to be the nature of humans that Cassandra's are always seen as irritants and it takes some horror to awaken in people the need to take care.
God bless everyone who has been influenced by this fire.


Posted by: Michelle (LoPresti) Jenkins On: 11/17/2008 ID: 390
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before Ridgeway and Division: Chicago
I was attending D.R. Cameron school in kindergarten on Dec 1, 1958. My sister, Paulette, was in 3rd grade at OLA and my cousin, Nancy Pilas, was in 8th grade at OLA. I was home from school on that day and remember having lunch with my mother, when somehow, there was news of a fire in the neighborhood. It was then known to be OLA school. I was unaware of how that news came to be.
Both my mother and my aunt left the house to run to the school-both my sister and cousin were there. A friend happened to be visiting my aunt that day and I was left with him, while they ran.
I remember the phone starting to ring continuously...I also remember my sister running to the house, crying and scared. Instead of staying there, she ran back toward the school, since that was where my mother was. There was much running back and forth of adults, asking, wondering where the children were. We then knew my sister was safe-and she was then staying by a neighbor's house. We waited for word about my cousin.
The phone continued to ring, my aunt, my uncle, my mom, continued to run back and forth from the school to the house to see if she had come home.
The rest of the evening was a flurry of tears, people coming over, more tears, prayers, and no sign of my cousin Nancy.
The day ended in tragedy for our family. There were reporters, phone calls, and non-stop people visiting, questioning, paying their sorrowful respects.
My memory of that day will always be with me. My aunt and uncle kept a picture of my cousin and a vigil to her memory every day, until their deaths. They were also featured in an exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry-and I will always remember that as well.
When I became a school teacher, and then a school principal for the Archdiocese of Chicago, I knew how important fire safety was, and always will.
Nancy will always be in our prayers, along with all the other victims of the OLA tragedy.


Posted by: Don Fredrick On: 11/13/2008 ID: 389
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before 854 N. Homan Avenue
My family lived at 854 N. Homan Avenue, just one house away from Iowa Street and about a mile east of Our lady of the Angels School. I was the second of four sons, and was eight years old at the time of the tragedy. Many of our neighbors were Italian and Catholic and their children attended OLA. Our family was of German ancestry and was Lutheran, so my brothers and I attended public school (D.R. Cameron, on Monticello, just north of Grand Avenue). Many of our friends, of course, attended OLA, and we knew several children who died in the fire.

My mother, Ardelle Fredrick, passed away in 2006. Among her belongings was a copy of the book, "To Sleep With the Angels." I found the book yesterday and began reading it. Inside the book was a note written by my mother. She wrote:

"Our Lady of the Angels Church School Fire 12/1/58

It was about 3 PM when I went out to the back porch to shake a dust rag. The rear of our house faced west, we lived on the 2nd floor. I saw a poof of smoke go up - the telephone rang - it was Aunt Stella. I told her I hoped it was not our church (Hope Epiphany Evangelical Lutheran Church) which also was on Iowa St. but a few blocks west of OLA.

The whole neighborhood was chaos for days. Jimmy Ragona - across the alley from us - died in the fire and lived upstairs on the corner of Trumbull and Iowa. The day before the fire, I'd found Jimmy burning matches, sitting on the pavement, against the garage directly in back of us. I immediately took him up to his mother. How could this be? Almost like a bad omen. Jimmy was their only child. They were not young. It took her a long time to get pregnant.

Johnny and Dorothy Porcaro's daughter, Joan, had been transferred from the class that was found, all dead, sitting with folded hands praying - to another room. She'd begged her father to have them put her with her old friends. He said 'no' - how right he was.

The whole neighborhood was in chaos for days and I have several other memories of that day, too."

My mother believed the story that the chidren had died at their desks, hands folded and prying, because the nuns foolishly told them simply to trust God and did little to help the students. There was perhaps only a very small kernel of truth to that, but the story nevertheless most certainly caused some of the non-Catholics in the neighborhood to be skeptical of Catholic judgment in a real world.

I was eight years old at the time of the fire. For the next 50 years I remained skeptical of religion in general. How could a God have allowed such a tragedy to occur? Even now, I attend church only for weddings and funerals. Would I have felt the same way without that tragedy? I don't know.

My paternal grandfather, Elmer Fredrick, had been a blacksmith early in the 20th century. As the years went by, he lost his four-legged "customers" and turned his iron-working skills to iron railings and fences. Many of the more elaborate railings in the OLA neighborhood were the work of my grandfather - I would recognize them even today if I saw them again. His shop was on Chicago Avenue, not far from OLA.

Elmer Fredrick grew up in Roberts, Illinois, where his grandfather (my great-great-grandfather) had a blacksmith shop. A tremendous fire in 1894 swept through Roberts and the entire main street, including the blacksmith shop, had to be rebuilt.

Decades later in Chicago, my grandfather constructed and installed the sturdy iron fence at OLA. Until he died in 1966, he always felt a sense of guilt about that fence and gate. He heard the stories about firefighters having a difficult time knocking it down to get ladders into the school courtyard, and wished he hadn't done such a good job building it. Everyone told him it wasn't his fault the gate had been locked, but no doubt those words were of little comfort.

Just a few years before the OLA tragedy was the much-publicized murder of young Bobby Peterson and the two Schuessler brothers. The Petersons were lifelong friends of my parents. That triple murder signaled a historic "loss of innocence" in Chicago in the 1950s, and the fire was, of course, an even more intense tragedy that signaled another end of innocence in Chicago in the 1950s.

My mother's maternal grandfather was a skilled stonemason who helped build Chicago's Iroquois Theatre. As a bonus for his construction work, he was given tickets to a performance. At the last minute, he and his wife (my great-grandmother) decided not to attend - on the very same day in 1903 on which the theater was destroyed by fire, killing 603 people.

At least two of my mother's ancestors witnessed the Chicago Fire of 1871, escaping the flames by taking to the Chicago River in a boat. It seems that my family has managed to escape fire tragedies over the last 150 years, despite being relatively close to them.

I am now a semi-retired writer, living in a beach town in Brasil. Despite the vast distance in both time and location, from time to time I still think of that tragic December afternoon. I can still see the smoke rising in the distance, and can still hear the sounds of the wailing sirens that were too late for 95 innocent people.

Don Fredrick
www.colony14.net


Posted by: sgate On: 11/3/2008 ID: 388
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before Chicago, Illinois south side
I remember my mother telling me that I cried and cried after hearing about the fire on the news. I was only four years old at the time, but was impacted greatly by the news stories recountuing the tragic deaths of the children and the nuns. It seems hard to believe today that such lax regulations existed or were allowed back then.


Posted by: karin On: 10/29/2008 ID: 387
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before Cleveland, Ohio
I live in CA and two years ago I met a gal that confided in me that she was in the first grade when her school had a devastating fire. She has a "story" but I suppose she does not want to share. I do not see her on this website even athough she suggested I visit. Since then I have visited often. I have read both books and I suppose I am one of the "curious." I am a Bereavement Minister at my catholic church. I grew up in a Polish community in Cleveland and was in the second grade on 12/1/58. In school we were told about the fire in Chicago and even had a special Mass. When we moved to CA in "87 my boys attended a catholic school that (this was told in the history of the school) moved to a new location because the school did not meet fire standards after a school burned in Chicago in 1958.

I cant even begin to imagine what the survivors and their families went through. I especially feel for the moms and dads that had to go on without their children. Back in 58 things were so different. Dont talk, just go on. It's all so different now. What a blessing that you have this website to vent and express. Please do not think badly of us who visit. I pray for all often and even have our prayer chain at church remember you on the 1st of each month.

My younger son moved to Chicago on 9/17 and is living in the Lincoln Park area.

God bless all of you and I pray for your continued healing.


Posted by: Mary Newell On: 10/28/2008 ID: 386
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before 4549 N. Lowell Ave., Chicago
I was a second grader at St. Edward's School on the northwest side at the time of the fire. I heard about it that night at home, but with little information except that there had been a fire at Our Lady of Angels and that there were children killed.

The next day, though, our second grade teacher, Sr. Lillian, told us a great deal more. As the days passed, she reverted to the topic over and over. She relayed news stories as well as stories passed through Chicago's convents. One of the things that she told us was that our school was built on the same plan as Our Lady of Angels. Looking at the pictures on this site, I can see that isn't accurate, but I had believed it until now. It seems like an odd thing for her to have insisted on.

While my parents were unperturbed by the fire and didn't discuss it, the nuns were consumed with it. They took their responsibilities for us very seriously.

The nuns at St. Edwards had always been safety conscious, but they became absolute fanatics about fire drills. Up until the fire, we had worn our winter coats for the occasional cold weather drills, but afterward we were reminded constantly to evacuate without picking up coats or books. The drills were timed and if we were too slow, Sr. Isabelle, the principal, would schedule another drill almost immediately. Their goal was to evacuate the entire school, 1248 students, in five minutes. We managed that feat on a pretty regular basis.

Sr. Lillian was obsessed with the classrooms that were trapped. She had various pieces of advice (stay calm; jump even if you're scared; roll down the stairs; feel the door before you try to open it, etc.) but the thing she was most constant about was the necessity of being able to say a good Act of Contrition automatically.

The remainder of my time in grade school was normal, but with an almost daily emphasis on fire safety. I remember years later, when I was in 7th grade, we were waiting for one of the parish priests to come to the classroom and hand out our report cards. Our teacher, Sr. St. Frances Cabrini, a strict disciplinarian of great good humor, glanced at the transom, turned white and ran for the door. She paused (probably feeling the door, I suppose) threw it open and looked out into the hall. We heard her say something, then she leaned back into the room, closed the door and practically collapsed against the wall. After a minute she started laughing and told us that she had seen smoke curling up over the transom and had run to the door expecting a fire. Turns out the young priest was standing outside of our room having a cigarette break. Funny story, even at the time, but the look on her face when she ran to the door is a vivid memory.

I remember there were rumors at the time that a boy who was truant that day had been hanging around the school, smoking, and had tossed the lit cigarette in through a basement window onto a pile of newspapers. I have no idea where the rumor started, but it was given great currency at the time. One of the details offered in the rumor was that the boy's name would never be published because he hadn't intended to cause the tragedy and that he would be unable to deal with public sentiment if his role were known.

The thing that I carried away from the fire at Our Lady of Angels was a sense of responsibility to ensure safety for children. One of the first things I did when moving was to lay out routes out of the house for my children and make them practice them. And always, a place to meet outside of the house and wait.

I don't know if I can convey the sense of grief that still haunts me over the fire. I have never been able to mention it or read about it without crying. Fifty years. Hard to believe.