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.

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Posted by:

Patrick

On:

11/28/2008

ID:

399

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

I was a kindergarden student at H.O.C. Help of Christians.. The events of that day and subsequent days have haunted me so...I as a child that young just knew something [evil] way out of the ordinary fire had happened.. My older sister ran through the apt we lived at yelling Our Lady of The Angels is burning down..! I remember the endless sound of sirens from the firehouse at Chicago & Laramie going to help put out that horrible fire.. I mentioned evil earlier because something evil I believe possesed that little boy to start that fire.. I really believe this.. Fifty years and this still haunts me.. I later went to S.P.C. and our football team played against O.L.A. some of the football players on their "big team" had burn scars I remember.. Everyone shook hands after the game but know one talked about the fire.. I met Mike Canella years later as a classmate at Willowbrook H.S. in Villa Park Ill. I remember we discussed the fire as at first I did'nt beleive him as we were freshmen together in science class I appologise Mike as I know better now.. If you read this Mike we were in Mr. Maggio's class together '68.. My good friend John from S.P.C. [St. Peter Canisuis] classmate later in life met his bride an O.L.A. student 1st grader her name is Bernadette.. May God bless all of you who survived with wonderful thoughts only and blessings of joy and good health for the rest of your lives..

Posted by:

Barb

On:

11/28/2008

ID:

398

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

I was a 7th grader that day and remember watching the news that night in horror...now a similar feeling to that experienced on 9/11/01. I felt like I knew those kids having been a Catholic School student for most of my life and went to St. Peter Canisius school just west of Our Lady of the Angels. Whenever I am at Queen of Heaven Cemetary to visit my family I always try to go past the area where the kids are...to say a prayer. Their names will always familiar to me. Families of those kids...know they will never be forgotten! Now, I'm a Grandmother of 6 precious children and still think of that fire and those kids when I see my grandchildren's schools. All on the first floor, able to get out quickly.

Many of the surviving kids went to St. Anne's Hospital at Division near Cicero...I was a student nurse there a few years after the fire and was told stories of how the little kids had been taken there and suffered so. I ALWAYS REMEMBER THEM AS THIS TIME OF YEAR APPROACHES...they have remained my angel friends all these years.

Posted by:

Gayl A. Liebman

On:

11/28/2008

ID:

397

At OLA on 12/1/58?	Born before or after 12/1/58?	Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No	Before	A few blocks from our Lady of Angels - it was my parish

I was a student at Ryerson Elementary, several blocks away from OLA, but also I attended Catechism classes there every Wednesday afternoon. So, had the fire occurred on a Wednesday instead of a Monday both my brother and I would have been there. My cousin, Joan Rossi, was a lay teacher at OLA, who along with her friend Pearl Tristano, taught 5th grade. Both teachers were able to lead their students to safety. However, a good friend of mine, Joann Chapetta, perished in the fire. I could see smoke from the fire through the window of my class at Ryerson that afternoon. When I arrived home, my father told us a fire had broken out at OLA and I ran to a neighbor whose children attended OLA to inform her of the fire and my dad piled all of us in his car in an attempt to locate her two children, Celeste and Donny Florio. We encountered them a few blocks from our home on Ridgeway, stunned, without coats, but safe. My grandmother attended the funeral mass held at the Armory, and later served as a bus mother for two years as our catechism classes were held at other neighboring schools until a new school was built. We moved away from the neighborhood in 1962.I have carried the memory of that terrible afternoon for 50 years.

Posted by:

Rolf A. Sivertsen

On:

11/28/2008

ID:

396

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 school superintendent in downstate rural I llinois. How sad. When I read the stories on your web site it nearly made me cry. I have two small boys and I can't fathom the sadness and grief the parents and families of the victims felt. May god bless their souls and god bless the Chicago Fire Department whom distinguished themselves on that sad day. It is true that schools are now safer than in 1958 and I am confident thousands of children have lived due to the tragedy of the Our Lady of the Angels fire.

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.

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