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:

Christine

On:

9/13/2006

ID:

289

At OLA on 12/1/58?	Born before or after 12/1/58?	Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No

I had heard about this tragedy over the years and am searching for information. My estranged father is now very recently deceased and attended OLA. He was 10 yrs old at the time this fire took place. I have just searched out more information and found this site and am wondering more about the 10 yr old boy that was suspected to have caused the fire. Can anyone help? I will continue to read further and perhaps I will find answers.Christine

Posted by:

BOB JOHNCOLA

On:

9/13/2006

ID:

288

At OLA on 12/1/58?	Born before or after 12/1/58?	Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No	Before	921 N AVERS

I LIVED AT 921 N AVERS RIGHT NEXT DOOR TO THE GROCERY STORE JOHN GORSKY IS ONE I REMEMBER .WE USED TO PLAY BACK BY THE SCHOOL IN THE ALLEY A LOST BALL WOULD END UP GOING DOWN THE STAIRS BY THE LUNCH ROOM IF MEMORY SERVES ME RIGHT MY AUNT ROSE HELPED COMFORT CHILDREN THAT GOT OUT THAT DAY SHE ALSO DID A TELEVISED INTERVIEW IF SOMEONE HAS ACCESS TO IT PLEASE POST IT I REMEMBER GRANDMA ROSE AND I AT THE CONVENT ON IOWA ST VISITING THE NUNS THAT HAD PERISHED THERE IS A NEWS PHOTO OF US KNEELING AT THEIR CASKETS . THOSE TWO GALS ARE GONE NOW MY AUNT AN GRANDMA THEY COULD HAVE CONTRIBUTED A LOT TO THIS SAD STORY THEY BOTH LEFT US IN THE MID 90S THAT NEIGHBORHOOD HAD A HORRIBLE TRAGEDY THEN HOWEVER;A LOT OF GREAT FAMILIES FROM THERE LIVE TODAY GOD BLESS.

Posted by:

Joe

On:

9/4/2006

ID:

287

At OLA on 12/1/58?	Born before or after 12/1/58?	Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No	Before	Lincoln and Belmont area

I was in the 1st grade at Burley(?) school. I remember the news breaking in and I seem to remember sirens as fire departments responded from around the city. I also remeber having a fire drill the very next day at school with these words from the teacher after it was over with: "Yesterday it was Our Lady of Angels, today it could have been Burley" These words stick with me 48yrs later. I remeber the pictures in the paper of the firemen carrying out the bodies of those children that had perished. To this day, I say a prayer for them as I pray for my own children's saftey while attending school.

Posted by:

Ellen Cohen Tyack

On:

9/3/2006

ID:

286

At OLA on 12/1/58?	Born before or after 12/1/58?	Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No	Before	8021 S. Phillips Ave, Chicago (South Shore)

On December 1, 1958, I was home sick from school (Edward Coles Elementary) with a cold. I was 12 years old so I was home alone while my parents worked and my older sister was at school (South Shore High School). I was watching television and will never forget when that awful, awful news came on about the fire at Our Lady of the Angels. The television stations carried live newscasts all afternoon. The things I've remembered most were aerial shots of the school on fire and the pandemonium of the people there. I thought that I remembered a covered fire escape chute that could not be used, but there is no mention of it in the diagrams or the news stories I just read. This fire was the worst thing I ever knew about in my young life.
I am crying now as I write this, remembering the horrors of that day. It will stay in my mind forever, along with the death of President Kennedy and the Sept 11 attack on the Twin Towers. Those were the three days in my life that I most wanted and needed my family with me. It has been almost 50 years since the OLA fire, but I have thought about it many times over the years. I am still terrified of being in a fire. My prayers and thoughts today and always are with the victims of the OLA fire and their families and friends.

Posted by:

Mimi

On:

8/16/2006

ID:

285

At OLA on 12/1/58?	Born before or after 12/1/58?	Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No	Before	south side of Chicago

I was in 5th grade at Annunciata parish school at the time of the OLA fire. The impact it made on me lasts to this day. I feared fires in school for the rest of my grade school days. They used to put up posters for "fire prevention" week that had pictures of firemen carrying children and it terrified me to look at them. The sound of the fire alarm was almost the sound of doom to me. And yes, we had countless fire drills in our school after that. When my children were in grade school, I made the fire inspector come out and explain to me that they were safe in the upper floor of a very old school building with no fire escapes. I made him read "The Fire that will not die" and he argued with me that it didn't apply anymore. I never believed him.

That fire reached the souls of every child in parochial school at that time, I'm sure. It remains in mine to this day.

Posted by:

Mike P

On:

8/3/2006

ID:

284

At OLA on 12/1/58?	Born before or after 12/1/58?	Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No	Before	Phila, Pa.

I would like to inform the gentleman who was named after Pope Pacelli,I am a grand nephew of the Pope.If you would like to reach me I'm at mike.naples @comcast.net. Also we had a Parrish in Phila. with the same name as yours, Our Lady of Angels,it was located in West Phila.

Posted by:

B.W.

On:

7/22/2006

ID:

283

At OLA on 12/1/58?	Born before or after 12/1/58?	Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No	Before	Massapequa, LI, New York

My husband and I were talking about some of the things--good and bad that have occured in our lifetimes. We both recollected a terrible
fire that happened when we were young. We did not remember where or when but both remembered seeing sketches on the television set. It
came as quite a shock when I googled what I knew- parochial fire
1950-1965 and came up with the exact date. We were only 9 years old at the time but the tragedy has stayed with us.

After reading about the incident on your website, I am relieved to
hear that drastic changes in fire codes for schools were instituted and as you say probably saved numerous lives in the future.

It is sad when you realize that we'll never know the full potential
of those whose lives were lost.

Posted by:

Scott W. Cullen

On:

7/17/2006

ID:

282

At OLA on 12/1/58?	Born before or after 12/1/58?	Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No	After	n/a

Please don't skip my letter when you see I wasn't (quite) born yet at the time of the fire !
I was born almost 2 years to the day afterwards, on November 30th 1960. I grew up in the south suburbs, Hazelcrest, Park Forest, Chicago Heights. I remember hearing about the fire from the time I was a little boy. Knowing how many children had been lost had a tremendous affect on me, and I think my being born so close to the date of the fire made me very cognizant of it also. In reading through the stories of both the survivors and others It really struck me what a huge impact that this fire had on a whole generation of us not only from the Chicago area, but across the United States and many parts of the world also.
In spite of the horrific tragedy, I believe the Lord has also caused much good to come, in many ways. First of all, it reformed almost all the nationwide school fire codes almost overnight (well, maybe not quite..), which I am sure probably saved many other children's lives, by having sprinkler systems and central station alarms installed at most schools. It brought a tremendous sense of paying attention to fire danger and being observant of one's surroundings to a whole generation of children. It made known just how fast a fire can kill, and brought home the importance of getting out of a building the second you saw any indication of fire. After reading some of these letters, I also believe that this tragedy pushed many of us into public safety careers, Firefighters, Police Officers, Paramedics, Dispatchers, Nurses, Doctors, etc. I started off as a firefighter but have now been a Fire/Medical Dispatcher for 22 years. I love my job, I love being able to help people. I remember thinking when I was very little that this type of incident should never happen to anyone again, especially innocent children. In closing I just want to say to those of you who lost brothers, and sisters, and sons and daughters, and friends :
Know, without a shread of doubt, that heaven is a REAL place, for the scriptures and the word of our Lord Jesus Christ testify that it is, and that children ARE innocent before Him, and that all those little souls went directly from the sufferings of this life, to be in heaven/paradise, with Him. (Luke 23:43). As adults however, we are no longer innocent. All of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So you see, we have a choice. We can admit that we have sinned, and choose to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, as God's perfect remedy for sin..."For by grace are ye saved THROUGH FAITH; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: NOT OF WORKS, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8,9) I pray for all those that have suffered this loss, that you would choose to believe on Jesus, and one day be re-united with those that you loved. Pick up that bible that just sits on the shelf and read Paul's epistles, starting with Romans, and know the love, and the joy, and the power, of the truth...it is up to each one of us to choose...I pray you choose life !

Posted by:

Marti Carroll

On:

7/17/2006

ID:

281

At OLA on 12/1/58?	Born before or after 12/1/58?	Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No	Before	Minneapolis Minnesota

I was 8 years old, living in Minnespolis (after moving from Illinois) and attending Pillsbury Elementary, a big old, high ceiling school with big stairways and oiled wood floors and wainscoating. My grandmother lived at 3219 N. Karlov in Chicago and my aunt lived in Hillside, so we went "home" frequently. My family was of the hide it, don't talk about it mentality, probably to "protect" us. I remember learning about the fire from others and then finding the magazine articles hidden in my parents room. When we went to visit my family in Chicago we went for a drive, we children were not told anything. We drove within a block of OLA and the adults were all looking at the devastated building down the street. As the oldest I had picked up on their conversation and also saw the school. I will never forget. I pray God's blessings and peace upon all of the OLA family. It was so very real to me all of my life. When I read Greeley's book I had to go back and research old magazines through the library and my memories were clearer than the photocopies they provided me with. On December 1, 1965 our home burned in a fire accidently started by my brother. I took the memrories of OLA into that terror, everyone but my father was home at the time of the fire. My brother was badly burned and because of his mental illness my father made us live in the burned house while we fixed it up. A job that was never completed. I am working on reading everything on this site. God keep you safe in his arms,
"chicagoborn"

Posted by:

Dee Whyte

On:

7/15/2006

ID:

280

At OLA on 12/1/58?	Born before or after 12/1/58?	Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No	Before	New York City

I was only 3 years old at the time of the fire and lived in NYC.

I attended St Mark The Evangelist Catholic Elementary School in NYC from 1961 to 1969. Although not as large as OLA (we only had 35 - 40 kids per grade and only eight classrooms) the school was built around 1900 and was red brick faced on a wood frame, with a wood interior that was highly waxed .. a smaller version of OLA. We were taught by the Sisters Of The Blessed Sacrament (S.B.S). Every December we would remember the children and nuns that died in a fire in Chicago. We also had extensive fire drills and other improvements were made to the shcool to enhance fire safety. Those improvements paid off big time in 1969.

In May of 1969, one month before my 8th grade graduation, there was a fire in the school which started in the school's cafeteria that was very smokey. The 8th grade classroom was located directly above the cafeteria and connected to the first grade classroom. The 8th graders were trained to go through the 1st grade class and take a first grader with us. Since the fire was located directly underneath us, we noticed the smoke first. However, the fire alarm rang almost immediately after we became aware of the fire. When the fire alarm rang we immediately went into the 1st grade class and escorted the 1st graders. Because of the OLA fire, our school made vast improvements within the old structure, therefore, the fire was extinguished quickly and none of the over 350 students were injured.

When we returned to school the next day, it reeked of smoke (especially our classroom) but we were all safe and reminded of the OLA fire. Sr. Gabriel stated that we had the angels from the Chicago fire looking over us during our fire. I never forgot that.

By accident I stumbled upon this site in January. I have been reading it off and on for months and have finally read everything on the site and the books "The Fire That Will Not Die" and "To Sleep With The Angels". The latter I have been reading while commuting from NJ to my job in NYC and several of my commuting friends heard of the fire when growing up and are reading the books.It is hard for me to read this site or the books without tears.

May God bless each and every one of you that lived through that awful day or had friends or family die. I was in NYC on 9/11 about a mile from the Twin Towers. Sights and sounds of that day still haunt me and I was 46. To witness such a horror as a child I can only imagine.

December 1st will always be remembered by me and I will keep all of you in my prayers. Love and comfort to you all.

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