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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: Andy Lego On: 12/11/2002 ID: 22
Enrolled on 12/1/58? Present on 12/1/58? Injured? Age Grade Classroom Teacher
Yes Yes No 12 7 208 Sister Mary St. Canice
Every year about this time I search the web for anything about the OLA fire and several weeks ago I found this website.

I haven't suffered the personal loss that so many have nor was my family destroyed. My father kept me isolated from what happened after the fire but I still carry it. Here are some ramblings I'll call my story.

I was in Room 208 and I think the first desk in the window row or the one right next to that. Philip Tampone sat next to me, but I was closer to window. I recall Phil wore glasses with chrome or some sort of reflective arms. Phil didn't make it. My mom took me to his wake at the Lupo funeral home on Chicago Ave.

The classroom doors were closed and the doors were rattling. Sister thought the 8th graders were lined up in the hall and that they were leaning against the door. Sister told someone to go the door and tell the 8th graders to move away. Whoever tried to open the door couldn't. It seems to me that either Sister told someone else to try or tried herself to open the door. That's about the time the smoke started oozing in quickly around the doors. I think Sister told the taller boys to open the windows as the smoke began to fill the room then told us to sit and pray. A boy whose name I remember as Mike (found out later it was Mike Nagle .. he passed away about 8 years ago) said something like "I'm getting out of here." Somehow, I leaned over a window ledge (I was very short then) and saw flames shooting from the stairwell landing window. I've always been terrified of heights but I crawled out onto (I heard the sound of glass breaking behind me) and over the window ledge and wound up hanging there for what seems like a very long time but was probably a few seconds. I let go but didn't fall very far as I landed first on the roof of the outside entrance to the basement chapel and then rolled off that to the ground. Jimmy Krajewski hit the ground about the same time I did. I learned later that both his legs or ankles were broken. I sprained my left ankle..that was it. When I was still a boy, I often wondered why I was so lucky because of the hole in the roof over where my desk was.

The first thing I did after getting on the ground was run into the grocery store across the alley and call my parents. I remember the first ladders being brought up to the building as I was running to the store. Mom told me years later that my dad ran all the way to the school. We lived in the 1200 block of Pulaski then and that's easily a mile or a bit more from the school. I know I ran around looking for my brother who was in 2nd grade on the first floor on the Iowa St. side of the school. I eventually found him or he found me. Somehow, we wound up in someone's house toward the north end of Avers. I don't remember much else after that. Dad took us home when he found us and wouldn't let us go near the school until after Christmas. I went there anyway.

After the fire there were the bus rides to Help of Christians for half day sessions and I was in the group sent to finish out the year at Orr school on Keeler (or was it John Hay school on Laramie Ave?). My parents bought a house out of the parish in the 1400 block of north Kildare the following April. OLA wouldn't let me finish 8th grade the next year because of that so I attended Sts. Cyril and Methodius school at Kildare and Walton.

I attended OLA from 2nd through 7th grades and classes in the north wing of the school just twice. The first time was 5th grade and Room 210 with Sister Mary Albia (I'll never forget her). The second was 7th grade and Room 208. My best friend back then was Gary Wassinger. Gary's sister was in Room 210 at the time of the fire and I know she was burned some but got out safely down a ladder. The fire has stayed with her these many years and with Gary. He was in the south wing in Sister Andrienne's room.

As the years have passed the fire has come back to me in a few unique ways. Our family doctor was a Dr. Olechowski, Janet Olechowski's uncle. During the late '70's and early '80's I was living and working in the Dallas area and found Michelle McBride's book quite by accident in an obscure bookstore. Sometime in the spring of '96 I stopped at the Barnes and Noble bookstore across Rte. 83 from Oakbrook Centre for no reason I can remember and found Cowen & Kuenster promoting their book. I had no idea the book had been published. I bought the book that day with their autograph and finished reading it that evening. I spoke with them after their presentation and they told me about a group known as 'Friends of OLA' that was driven by Joseph Maffiola's younger sister, Linda. She was three at the time of the fire but founded and drove the group because her childhood and family were destroyed by the fire. I recall going with the group to the mass grave in Hillside in December of that year for a memorial service. I lost track of them as I was travelling quite a bit then. Sometime in the late 90's I came across a website that was offering a music cd dedicated to the fire victims. The proceeds went to some fireman's fund.

I remember the tragedy but I also remember the happier times of a young boy in a city neighborhood in the '50's. Those also stay with me. There were the years as a patrol boy at the Division and Hamlin intersection and the years as an altar boy. In third grade, Sister Andrienne was to have been the teacher but I remember her introducing Miss Tristano as our teacher. That must have been her first year at OLA. All I can remember of her is her legs .. and I was in 3rd grade ... ooboy

I can recall Sister Andrienne picking me and one or two others out of class one day and dragging us upstairs to her class and making us read aloud from the big blue American history book. I think it was to show her class that 3rd graders could read better than her class was.

We lived at 1231 N. Pulaski back then and directly across the street from the Crystal Bakery.

Andy Lego - Hoffman Estates, IL
ajlego@yahoo.com


Posted by: Patti On: 12/10/2002 ID: 21
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before
This story has been deleted.


Posted by: Anna On: 12/9/2002 ID: 20
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No After n/a
I first learned of the OLA fire on a NIGHTLINE or 20/20 documentary. I didn't get a chance to see the whole thing and so I didn't get all the info that I wanted unfortunately I'd never heard of the OLA fire. I just recently saw something on cable that said in loving memory of those who perished during the fire at Our Lady of the Angels. I immediately went on the internet and found this site along with four others that gave info on all the things that happened during that time. It was such a sad time. This was a time that I can't even imagine seeing that I have a 3 year old son and the articles that I've read stated that the smaller children were the ones mostly left behind. I don't know if the actual building is still standing or where exactly it was but I do want to send out my condolences to the families of the victims and to say that you're all in our prayers.


Posted by: Joseph DiPiazza On: 12/8/2002 ID: 19
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before Madison, Wisconsin
I attended Holy Redeemer School in Madison many years ago. It too was a fire trap with wood floors (well oiled of course), transoms, etc... I remember the Sister's telling us to behave or what happened at OLA could happen to us. Talk about being scared. When I would think about this at school I was paralyzed with fear. What were they thinking?? This is something I will never forget. God Bless the children that lost their lives at Our Lady of the Angels and every other Catholic School child in the midwest that also suffered because of that fire.

Joe DiPiazza

Madison, WI


Posted by: Tom On: 12/2/2002 ID: 18
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before northern Ohio
My memories of our grade school teachers’ reactions to this tragedy and the impact it had on the students and atmosphere at the parochial school I was attending in northern Ohio persist to this day. The times and climate in parochial schools were different in 1958 than they are today. The nuns were rigid, demanding, and masterful at controlling the 45+ students in each classroom. We had 1600 students spread over three buildings. My third grade class was on the third floor of “The Guardian Angel” building built in 1900. It was full of wood transoms, stairs, floors,wainscotting, etc. and every bit a firetrap as Our Lady of the Angels. Our nuns’ knee jerk reaction to this tragedy was horrific and pervasive. They constantly and tersely reminded us to, “be in a state of grace,” “God could take you at any moment”, and many of the victims “died at their desks, their hands folded in prayer”. An additional trauma was the incessant fire drills which required leaving our desk without a coat, and being forced onto an exterior iron fire escape, during howling December snow storms so that “the same thing did not happen to us.” I remember clutching the fire escape and looking down three stories through the spacers at the sidewalks below. A coal-fired boiler fueled the furnaces and periodically the smoke would waft across the window. This went on for weeks in the winter of 1958.The tension and stress were enormous. Believe it or not this building is still in use. Based on my own experiences at some distance from Chicago, I simply cannot imagine the pain and suffering endured by those closest to this terrible event. I think and pray for them often. I think that this tragedy had an enormous impact on an entire generation of parochial school attendees


Posted by: Mary On: 12/1/2002 ID: 17
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before 1245 NORTH LaSALLE ST.CHICAGO
I did not attend OLAS School.

I attened BEN FRANKLIN.But I remember that tragic day they let us leave school early.The teachers didnt tell us why we were being dismissed early.I was eight years old. Can anyone tell me if this is the same School that was close to Ben Franklin or not? This has been on my mind a lot lately and I was young I cant remember a lot about it. There was a catholic school around the corner from Ben Franklin.Just wanted to say my my thoughts and prayers are with the familes of this tragady.If anyone would like to share A copy of the docamentry that was shown on television I would like to have a copy .I am 53 years old now and I live in ALABAMA we get one Chicago Station and that is WGN channel 9 it did not carry the special..

Mert35754@yahoo.com


Posted by: Greg Boyle On: 11/29/2002 ID: 16
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before Midland, Michigan
Hello, my freinds. I was only two years old when "OLA" became more than just initials for a school. Eleven years later, I was attending school as an eight-grader in Midland, Michigan at one of the towns' two Catholic shcools, Saint Brigids. The other school, Blessed Sacrament, was a newer-style single-floor school, while Old Saint B. was built early in the 20th century, a two-and-a-half story brick building along with an addition built on in the late 1940's (Gee, do we see a pattern developing here?) We had the normal fire drills that everyone here is familiar with: Stand up beside your desk, file to the door, and down both sides of the good ol' wooden staircases to the ground floor. In the fouth grade, we thought we heard the fire alarm go off, so the teachers in the newer end of the building (You know, the one WITH the fire escape) start us out of the classrooms, and it turns out the "fire alarm" was a city worker with a jackhammer (Go figure!) outside the school, cutting into the sidewalk. Red faces on our parts! Four years later, as an Eight Grader, in the OLD part of the school...Yeah, you're right, the part with NO fire escapes....One rainy, cold afternoon, after lunch and recess, the fire alarm goes off. "What is THIS?!?" was the thought of the moment, for we only prepared for the unthinkable in warm, dry weather. We did as we were told, fall in for the drill, open the door to leave, and..."What's that smell?" "Is that smoke?" "SMOKE?!?" Needless to say, we cleared the top floor (Where else would we be at, ask any fireman!) in record time, and went to the church. Then the sirens. "What in the WORLD IS GOING ON?!?" Us children had no idea, but I'm POSITIVE the nuns and preists had only ONE thing on there minds...Our Lady of the Angels. We were allowed to go back into the school later for a rather disjointed remainder of the day. I remember some of the boys in my room opening the windows with the long poles (Any of you who went to the old-law type schools know what I mean) to let the smoke smell out, while other boys were trying to shut them again saying it would make the fire get worse....Funny, considering the danger was over, but, hey, we were just stupid kids..... Later, we found out a boy from my class, R.(for the sake of legal purposes) had set a fire in the waste basket in the Boy's room next to the boiler room in the basement. I would be willing to believe, in the days before P.C., he got a beating that lasted him 'til he graduated High School! In the years following, I learned of Our Lady of the Angels, and contrasted it to our situation. OUCH! Doing research at the Public Library, I found the Midland Fire Department Cheif was interveiwed by the Midland Daily News on December 2nd, 1958 saying tha "such a thing could not happen here". Riiiiight......And this was 11 years later, with most things in place that were at OLA, and we had all the same negatives working against us. Ten minutes of going undiscovered may have made a repeat of OLA, maybe not. Why? Hindsight may be 20/20, so now as an adult, I can see how money can get in the way of things, and how someone will ALWAYS think, "Oh, that will NEVER happen to MY little Johnny/Janie!" Maybe you can't keep lighters/matches away from kids. Maybe there will be a cure for the common cold. Maybe it will NEVER happen, so why worry? Why.....I remember in the early 1980's, my wife-to-be and I passed by Saint Brigids, or rather, what was left. It was in the process of being torn down. The old shool, which bore more than a passing resembelnce to the old OLA, was replaced with a NEW Saint Brigids school complex....with more than just a LITTLE resemblence to the NEW OLA. I do hope I haven't bored you all by being so long-winded! My prayers are with all of you. Take care, and make sure you remember to tell your family that you love them. Regards, Greg Boyle.


Posted by: Dennis O On: 11/24/2002 ID: 15
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before Milton, Massachusetts
I have the deepest sympathy and empathy for both the victims and survivors of this terrible tragedy. I was in the first grade of a Catholic school in Massachusetts when our nuns showed us the newspaper headlines about the fire in Chicago. The nuns blamed the children for panicking, not knowing the full details. This disaster gave me nightmares as a child because I thought my school was equally dangerous. Only years later, after studying the history of this fire and reading "To Sleep with the Angels," did I fully understand that my newer school had all of the fire safety standards which were missing at Our Lady of the Angels. I visited the rebuilt school last year and I corresponded with the authors of "To Sleep With the Angels," congratulating them on their superb book. I think the Archdiocese of Chicago deserves most of the blame for the suffering which transpired on December 1, 1958, and during the years that followed. Even if a young boy with pyromaniac tendencies may have provided the ignition to this fire, a safe building would have allowed adequate time for the students inside to escape safely. The Chicago fire department did all it possibly could under the circumstances. My thoughts and prayers go out to the survivors and their families, and to all those whose lives were blemished. If anyone wishes to contact me, my e-mail is DennisJOBrien@yahoo.com.


Posted by: Bill V. On: 11/19/2002 ID: 14
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No Before Somerville Massachusetts
I remember the day like it was yesterday when Sister Maureen Joseph, my first grade teacher, was telling us about the fire at Our Lady of the Angels. I was attending a Catholic School in Somerville Massachusetts. The news really affected me. I remember feeling totally helpless. I still have that feeling today when I think of the fire. I had nightmares for weeks after the fire and to this day I still think of the tragedy often. Whenever I hear fire engines off in the distance or when there is a chill in the fall air I am reminded of the fire.


Posted by: Anonymous On: 11/14/2002 ID: 13
At OLA on 12/1/58? Born before or after 12/1/58? Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No After n/a
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