Those of you who are present and past Chicago residents are aware of the fire that destroyed Our Lady of the Angels school, sixty years ago today. In this tragic fire, 92 students and 3 nuns lost their lives, and many others were scarred for life, physically and emotionally. What you may not be aware of is the ripple effect that touched school systems all over the nation. It upended and changed safety standards for schools; and never again has there been a school fire which claimed so many lives.
I was a second grader in the parish grade school in my hometown. I remember the sisters asking us to pray for all those who lost their lives. It left an impression on me; these were kids like me who were just going to school, going about their day. It was the first time I remember realizing how fast life can change, or be lost.
It deeply affected our parents, and the town. The volunteer fire department went over the schools in town with a fine-toothed comb. Everyone was determined that a school fire would not happen in our town. St. Luke's, our parish school, was in pretty good shape. The building was only 5 years old, was a single story, and was constructed mainly of brick and concrete. I think the doors and closets may have been the only wooden objects in the building. It had four entrances. We had numerous fire drills, and practiced many scenarios, such as what would we would do if one of the entrances, or two of them, were blocked. The fire department showed a rather scary safety film which demonstrated what would happen if everyone didn't do their part for fire safety.
The public school system was not in such good shape. There were two modern buildings, such as ours. But one of the buildings was an old red brick, three storied structure, which dated to the early 1900s, similar to Our Lady of the Angels. Much of the interior was wooden. The building was retrofitted with additional exits, and as many safety features as were possible. The third story would no longer be used for classes. It wasn't too many years later when that building, "West Ward", would be mothballed and replaced by a more modern structure.
I retained an interest in the fire. One of the survivors, Michelle McBride, suffered burns over 75% of her body. She wrote a book entitled The Fire That Will Not Die, which I read. I believe the original date of publication was 1979, though I couldn't find a reference verifying that. It was reprinted in 2004. The book was raw and honest, and factual. Sadly, Ms. McBride died in 2001, her life shortened by the effects of her injuries from the fire.
I see in the article linked above that Cardinal Cupich is celebrating a memorial Mass today at Our Lady of the Angels church in remembrance of the tragedy which took so many lives.
Thanks for this, Katherine. I was totally unaware of this tragedy. I would have been ten at the time and in St. Alice grade school. Looking back on it, it probably was a fire trap. Lots of wood paneling in the building and two stories.
ReplyDeleteIt was before my time, both in Chicago and on earth, but I've read about it. A couple of details that have stuck with me: there were many parents in the neighborhood who were aware that the blaze was happening, and were frantic about their children. A number of them brought ladders from their homes to try to mount their own rescues, but none of them were tall enough to reach the windows. The other is that in several classrooms, the bodies of children were found huddled behind the body of the religious sisters who were the teachers. The teachers stood between the children and the flames and protected them as long as they were able.
ReplyDeleteThinking about those details helps cast light on what Sandy Hook must have felt like.
In the accounts I have read, it seemed that the fire was a perfect storm of things gone wrong. Among them were miscommunication with and between fire departments, an outdated building which was legally "grandfathered" from having to conform to then-modern fire safety standards. There was a natural desire of people to hold someone accountable, but it seemed there was enough carelessness and unawareness to spread around. A mentally disturbed student at one point confessed to setting the fire, and then retracted the statement. A judge found the statement not credible; having been coerced from a boy who was ten at the time.
DeleteWhen I read this, the only thing that stirred a memory was the name of the school. If you said "Our Lady of the Angels in Chicago," I would have known something happened there. But the rest of the memory was gone. At the time, though, I was stationed in Germany and only loosely tied to the news cycle. Still, somehow I have some sort of vestigial memory.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how long Sandy Hook, Pulse and Mandalay Bay will remain in living memory. At least 60 years ago, in some places, something was done somewhere. Now it seems that horror is piled on horror but nothing happens except forgetting most of them to make room for the next one. Of course, fire doesn't have its own NRA to make reactions problematical.
The difference between this fire and all the school shootings is that people were collectively able to say "never again", and make it stick. There has never again been a school fire which claimed so many lives. This was done through things which are under their control, such as enforcing and updating safety standards, training, and construction standards. The two things that can't be controlled with school shootings are people who want to harm children, and their ability to access the weapons to do so. At least one of those things should be able to be controlled to a greater extent.
DeleteA footnote to my childhood school building; like a lot of schools built in the '50s it had rows of windows along the outside walls. I'm not sure how much help they would have been in the event of a fire, since the part that opened was a narrow panel hinged on the bottom. But I was a daydreamy kid and spent a lot of time looking out the windows. I was often reminded to "pay attention and quit gazing out the window".
ReplyDeleteThe school is still in use but I noticed that the windows have been made fewer and smaller, in the interest of energy efficiency. And I'm sure it also cut down on distactions. But there's something to be said for natural light. And daydreaming.
I remember the fire very well. I lived about a mile away. I was only about five, but even then I was reading, or at least looking at the papers every day. The photos were quite shocking to a child.
ReplyDeleteThe school looked like all but the most modern in the city at the time. I ended up going to a few Catholic grade schools that had been retro-fitted with the post Angels fire safety requirements. But those schools had narrow wooden stairs, large transoms in the rooms, no fire escapes to the classrooms, no alarm that connected to the fire department, etc. They also had that old Catholic school discipline. If the nuns had told us to stay seated, we would have until we died.
Patrick, I remember some grainy black and white photos in the newspaper. Even those were shocking, or maybe *especially* those were shocking. It just underlined the grimness of the scenario.
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