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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: George On: 4/30/2012 ID: 589
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before Eastern Oregon
I now live in Vancouver, British Columbia Canada. I belong to a yacht club which owns a 4 story, 100 year old plus, all wooden lodge in a remote location with no fire or ambulance service. On the 3rd and 4th floors there are hotel type rooms for families and guests to stay. There is a fire alarm system but no automatic sprinkler system.

I recently made a submission to the appropriate club committee asking for a resolution to proceed with the installation of an automatic fire sprinkler system. Much of my presentation was comparing our lodge to the OLA school, showing the committee many photos from this site, and suggesting that our lodge with its remote location, 3 fireplaces, commercial kitchen and higher number of floors where families sleep, is more hazardous than OLA and is a potential disaster waiting to happen. I quoted passages from the book To Sleep With the Angles referencing how fast the fire spread and that no students or adults from any classroom on the second floor were able to access the 2nd floor hallway to get to the exit stairs. Also the fact that even with the first fire engines arriving within five minutes of the phone call, many lives were still lost.

The committee was persuaded and voted unanimously to proceed with the sprinkler system, even though the cost will not be insignificant. The pictures of firemen carrying deceased children our of OLA were very compelling.

My point is that all these years later there is still "good" coming out of the 1958 OLA tragedy and that this site continues to serve useful purposes. Thank you.


Posted by: Cathy Clark On: 4/19/2012 ID: 588
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before Illinois
I remember as a small child, my mother saying, "Oh those poor children" but wouldn't tell me what happened. I remember Howdy Doody and that's all. Then in November, 1970 , I was a senior at Granite City Senior High. The school dismissed. 2800 kids, I think. the fire alarms went of as we were boarding the busses. By 4 pm the auditorium collapsed. someone say fire to the curtain in the auditorium. The fire spread to the adjoining classrooms in the center of the school. GASP, group against society's pollution, met every Monday after school. The principal came over the intercom and said "get out now,". Only the assistant principal hurt his ankle as they handed school records out the window.
just minutes before the halls were crowed with nearly three thousand kids. We were out of school for about two weeks while classes were redlined. Going back we cpuld still smell the smoke. he guidance office was destroyed. Fire doors kept it from spreading to other wings and upstairs. I then learned of the fire at Our Lady of Angels. I knew what my mother was talking about years ago. O also believe our school was spared and lives were spared because of better safety standardsOur fire was right after school. Even without loss of life, I shudder to think what could have been. many kn detention that day were questioned but we never found out who did it.
God bless all who were there that day in Chicago. the school was righltly named. little angels and heroic people who helped and the people who live with the memories. God bless them all. fi


Posted by: rose bower On: 4/16/2012 ID: 587
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before chicago
I was a a student at St. Viator's about three or four miles from Our Lady of the Angels. I attended Alvernia High School with several students that were from OLA. They never spoke of that day and some with obvious injuries never mentioned how they were injured. The Church teaches that nothing ever happens without God's permission - except sin. If arson was the cause we must still trust in God's mercy that He is in charge and perhaps every victim that died went to heaven. Only when we are judged will any of this suffering make sense.


Posted by: Reagan On: 4/15/2012 ID: 586
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No After n/a
This is somthing I wrote maybe a couple weeks ago when I discovered this site while looking at youtube videos. "I am John Jajkowski, and I went to OLA. I was in room 212. I wanted to be a preist. But someone, an arson set fire to my school December 1st, 1958. Because of OLA's highly flamable insides, the fire claimed not just mine but 91 of my schoolmates and 3 of our teachers. The fire burned unnoticed for almost 30 minutes! I was scared, as were my other classmates in room 212. When it was over a fireman brought my lifeless limp body out of my school. The picture made headlines, but that didn't change the fact that I am gone. But I'm with God, and all is well. I wacth over my family, and friends. December 1st, 1958. The day Chicago cried."


Posted by: Scott G. On: 4/10/2012 ID: 585
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No After n/a
I went to a Catholic grade school in Brookfield, Illinois, in the late 70s. Whenever anyone dared misbehave during a fire drill, the nuns were intone, "Remember Our Lady of Angels." The lay teacher in sixth grade told us the story, and I remember her eyes tearing up.
I teach a college class in crowd behavior, and this topic has proved to fruitful for the students who researched it, especially the themes of panic, discharge, and leadership (or lack therof). One student even posited an interesting hypothesis that at the time of the fire, the students may have even though they had entered hell, and given the empahsis on hell in pre-Vatican II Catholicism, perhaps there is some truth to this statement, even without direct testimony.
I read the Cowan book in 2005 and remember trying to suppress sobs on the bus.
One more point of reference: I was born at St. Anne's Hospital four years after the event. I remember the order of nuns, the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ, that ran the hospital, as I was also a patient there for two weeks in 1976, suffering from pneumonia.


Posted by: Mary S. On: 4/5/2012 ID: 584
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before Alive, living near Halsted and Garfield Blvd.
I had completely repressed my memories of the fire until I was teaching in the Catholic school in Chicago I'd attended as a child. During my grade school days,I panicked every time we had a fire drill, or air raid practice. Fearing death, my heart would pound and I fought the tears of panic, praying and waiting for the end of the drill and a return of routine. I never connected the dots between my panic and the radio reports. In 1978,as a teacher during a fire drill, I suddenly remembered the day of the fire.

I have images of it being a cold, dark afternoon with my mother and I in the kitchen, mom talking on the phone with her sister. The radio was tuned to WGN and as she listened to the reports, I knew something was really wrong and I was hiding under the kitchen table having to be near my mom. That is the only time I remember seeing my mom cry as she heard those reports detailing the fire's horror and deaths of nuns and children. The events of that day traumatized me for many, many years.

I so look forward to reading "To Sleep with Angels." As the begining of this site stated, the effects of that day were felt around the world by many, many people. My sympathy and prayers are extended to all families still deeply affected by the loss of that day.


Posted by: L.S. On: 1/29/2012 ID: 583
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before Gladys and Cicero, Chicago
I was in 4th grade at Resurrection School, in a 4th floor classroom. Remember seeing it on the news and being almost too young to comprehend the horror. Out of state relatives kept calling because they weren't sure which Catholic school we went to. Resurrection immediately put in sprinklers and fireproof doors at the stairwells and better windows. It's criminal that it took this tragedy to effect those simple changes that could have saved so many at OLA. God bless all of those families more closely touched. You at least know that other children were made safer because of it.


Posted by: Neal Donham On: 1/11/2012 ID: 582
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before racine ave in chcago
I'm almost 58 now and live in a small town in Washington state.I have 3 kids,my youngest is 21 and is dating a fellow trying to become a fireman.One day we were talking about reading books and he mention a book he though I would enjoy. The book is To sleep with the Angels.Growing up in the Chicagoland area I can remember my parents talking about the fire at that school,but life went on and it was soon forgotten until I READ THIS BOOK.My prayers go out to all involved in that fire.We cannot always understand Gods wisdom,but we can see God working throught people as there helping other people.The story of this fire as deeply touched me and it is sometime I don't think I'll ever forget.God bless


Posted by: Susan Osada On: 1/5/2012 ID: 581
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before Elmhurst, IL
I was born on May 9, 1954, in Hinsdale, IL, and at the time of the OLA fire I was just over 4 1/2 years old. I'm sure that most "adults" living at that time would have poo-pooed the fact that a "little kid" like me could absorb and remember so much at that age - - but I do, indeed, clearly remember the entire event.

When the fire happened, my family was living in Elmhurst, IL and it was the "golden age" of television and family life. Dad worked, Mom stayed home, and the wonderful invention of "television" was used to keep the young ones entertained. I watched shows such as "Romper Room", "The Howdy Doody Show", and "Kukla, Fran and Ollie", and they stay with me today.

I'm not sure what "childrens' show" was playing on television that afternoon, but I definitely was watching WGN-TV that day. I clearly remember that I was not happy that "my show" was suddenly interrupted by "big people" who came onto the screen and said that there was a fire in a school and children and nuns and teachers had been injured. Then, more “big people” adults came on the TV and said to us little people that this was really a bad thing, and that children might be dead.

I remember first being sad that I couldn't watch my show anymore. Then, the cameras and the new thing, "news helicopters", were showing scenes that my young and tiny brain had trouble processing. I wasn't even old enough to be in SCHOOL (still an alien concept to me yet), and suddenly these children were DEAD (a big question mark, which I was trying to process in my head) and the adults were showing this on "television", which up until that time was merely fantasy in my life.

It suddenly became very real; what was on the television was real, and it was not a "story" anymore. I remember asking my Mom (and my Dad, when he came home from work):

"Why did those children died in a fire?"

“They are really little like me. This is sad, why did those children die?”

"Will *I* die in a fire, too?"

"If there's a fire, will you save me, Mommy and Daddy?"

"What if no one could save me, or my friends?"

“I don’t want to go to kindergarten school, I might die in a fire and no one could save me.”

"Do you really want me to go to school, what if I die in a fire at school?"

With complete confidence, my parents reassured me that what had happened would never happen to me, or my little sister, or my friends. I trusted them then, and realized in later life that they were right ... it was something that would never likely touch me directly. However, they understood that compassion for the children and their families (as well as compassion for all people and beings on earth) was something that I should carry with me throughout my life.

Soooooo ... here I am, 53 years later, as I prepare to turn 58 on my next birthday. Mom is dead and cremated and buried off the shore of Lake Michigan ... and Dad is still with me. The pictures from that day in December, 1958, have haunted me for all of my life. That day in December, 1958, was the day that I realized I was not the sole person in the universe, but a small part of something larger. It was a new day, a new chapter, a new beginning of my existence. I realized, from that tiny time, that I was not invincible, that I was vulnerable, that I had no control over what happened to me, that day, or on any other day.

To this day, I sob every time I see the photo of John Jajkowski, Jr., being carried, lifeless, from OLA. I grieve for all that the parents and families lost, and what the survivors lost. I grieve for what may have been, that never was.

I grieve for those who could never share their loss with others, as I grieve in the fact that certain OLA families have chosen to not show/share the photos of their living and breathing children (especially Christina Vitacco ... for some reason, her story touches me on a personal level … I will never understand why the family would not want a photo tribute to their beautiful daughter to be displayed on the OLA site - and, as complete disclosure, I have no first-hand knowledge of the family, and no knowledge as to why they have chosen to disallow others from seeing their beautiful daughter's photo to be displayed, nor why the family has decided to prevent we, who are among the living, to share in the pain of letting them know that others here would love their daughter who perished, as much as the family members loved Ms. Vitacco in life, and also in death).

However, on an upbeat note: every time I read or see or hear about an update on the OLA school and parish, I am given new hope that really, in the long run, everything is right with the world, and that there is a positive ending to this tragedy and other tragedies as well.

Thank you for listening to me, and thanks to all the OLA survivors and their families for sharing this part of your life with all of us. Thank you, each and every one of you. You are inspirational as you live your lives, overcome the obstacles, and show us how each of us can draw on your strength and knowledge and the guts to keep on keeping on!

Sincerely,

Susan Osada
Currently living in
Buffalo Grove, IL


Posted by: Mary On: 12/26/2011 ID: 580
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No After n/a
I entered first grade at St George Catholic School in Kenosha, WI in 1966. This was a full 8 years after the fire but the impact was so far reaching, even then. My teacher, a nun named Sr. Josephe was so moved by the tragedy that she made sure fire safety was taught to us all. We had weekly fire drills and we prayed for the OLA victims and their families every morning. Just prior to my starting 1st grade, our school tore down the old two story wooden building and put up a new brick two story with multiple exits, fire doors and a central alarm linked to the fire department. Clearly as a result of the tragedy in Chicago. Perhaps it can be some comfort that those who perished did not die in vain. Their tragic end spurred valuable changes to many schools and made schools safer for so many more children.