Our Lady of the Angels OUR LADY OF THE ANGELS

Our Lady of the Angels Chance Skeen Mohave Community College FSC 242

Our Lady of the Angels Our Lady of the Angels On December 1, 1958, one of the worst school fires in the history of the United States took place in Chicago, Illinois. Our Lady of the Angels was a Catholic school that was the learning center for

more than 1600 children, ranging from kindergarten all the way to the 8th grade. The school was a two story, type III ordinary construction building, which means the exterior of the school was built with brick or masonry and the interior was predominantly constructed out of wood and other combustibles. While the building was complaint with the fire laws governed at the time, the school was still extremely unprepared for any fire that may occur. The second story windows were a staggering 25 feet from the ground due to the 12 foot high ceilings, which prevented them from being a secondary exit for children and teachers that may be trapped inside. With only one way out for its occupants, the stage was set for a tragic fire that took the lives of 95 people on that fateful day almost 55 years ago (OLAfire). Event Description The fire broke out in a cardboard trash container in the basement of the building sometime between 2:00 and 2:30 P.M. For 15 to 30 minutes, the fire burned undetected at the base of the northeast stair well. The stairwell began to fill with super-heated gasses and smoke from the fire which began to smolder. The heat grew too intense for the window at the top of the stairwell, which caused it to shatter, supplying the smoldering fire with a fresh supply of oxygen. The first floor of the north wing was protected from the fire with a thick heavy wooden door that sat at top the stair well where the fire was burning. On the second floor, however, there were no such door to prevent the smoke and other hot gases from rushing down the halls, thus the fire, and its super-heated gasses and smoke were free to move at their own will on the second floor (OLAfire).

Our Lady of the Angels By the time the students and their teachers realized there was a fire, it was too late. Their sole means of egress on the second floor was blocked by the advancing fire. The students and teachers

gathered in their rooms by the windows hoping the fire department was there to help rescue them from the second story. As they stood there looking out the window and realizing there was nobody to help them, some of the teachers huddled up the children in circles and began to pray. When the smoke and heat began to overcome them, they began to crowd around the windows until they were forced to either jump or be pushed out the windows and down 25 feet to the crushed rock gravel below. As fire fighters started to arrive and began assisting the students and faculty, what they encountered was sheer chaos. Children trying to get a gasp of fresh air were being pulled back into the smoke filled rooms by other students fighting their way to the three foot high window sills. Many of which were still too high for some of the little ones to climb over and get into the reach of the fire fighter who were assisting as many children as they could down the ladders. The fire fighters below began to watch in horror as the rooms continued to fill with more and more frightened children. Then all of a sudden the rooms began to explode with fire killing the ones still trapped inside (OLAfire). The fire department units began to arrive as little as four minutes after being called; however, they were met by a fire that was raging out of control because it had been burning for 30 to 45 minutes with zero suppression efforts prior to the notification. More time was lost due to the fact that the fire crews were dispatched to the Rectory around the corner from where the fire actually was burning. They lost valuable time trying to reposition their trucks and hose lines to combat the blaze at the actual location. The windows that were on the south side of the north wing over looked a courtyard which provided the fire departments with a great area for the units to stage. The only problem was the courtyard was surrounded by a 7 foot high iron picket fence with a gate that was padlocked shut. Fire crews were forced to use valuable time beating and the gates with sledge hammers to gain access to the

Our Lady of the Angels inferno. Even with all the delays and setbacks, the fire fighters were still able to rescue 160 children

from the fire. Sadly enough, however, there were children that were not able to make it out before they had succumbed to the fire. Some of the children that had been caught in the blaze were burnt so bad that as the fire fighters picked them up their bodies broke apart. After the fire was extinguished the death toll was a grim 95, with 92 of them being children and 3 being teachers/nuns (OLAfire). Building Flaws Our Lady of Angels was built in 1910. From 1910 to 1958, the building had been remolded several times. The school had a north wing and a south wing. In 1951, an annex was built in between the two wings, forming a U shape with a narrow fenced courtyard that separated them. The schools exterior was constructed of brick. The inside was built almost completely out of wood. The roof, walls, floors, doors, and stairs were all made out of wood while the floors, stairs, and doors were coated with years of generous coats of petroleum based varnish. The second story windows sat 25 feet from ground level and had a 3 foot window sill. The school also had an English style basement which had windows that sat just above ground level (Warnes). Each classroom door had a glass transom above it that provided ventilation for the classrooms but also a path for smoke and fire to travel. The school had one fire escape for its occupants. The buildings lacked a sprinkler system, fire resistive doors, and stairwells. The school had two unmarked fire alarm switches which were both in the south wing. In the north wing there were four fire extinguishers, but all of them were mounted seven feet off the ground virtually out of the reach of teachers and certainly the children. The school also lacked an automatic alarm system and no direct fire alarm connection to the local fire departments (Warnes).

Our Lady of the Angels Our Lady of the Angels was a clean and well maintained school, but that didnt come without some flaws that proved to help fuel the fire. There were no metal lockers for children to hang their

coats, so in hallways were filled with hooks for the children to hang their winter wear. There were also no class size restrictions; at any one time there could be 60 to 65 children in a classroom that was built to accommodate only half of that capacity (Warnes). Changes to Code Shortly following the fire that had claimed the lives of 92 innocent children and 3 teachers, Fire Commissioner Quinn of Chicago mandated that fire fighters be posted at all schools that were considered to be in bad condition. Quinn also spearheaded the push for the regulations that now require all public buildings to have sprinkler systems and alarm boxes. After the findings of the fire were released, the NFPA, Mayor Richard J. Daley, The Chicago City Council, and The Cook County coroners jury amended the citys building codes. All schools that contained wooden floors and joists and that were two stories or more were required to have automatic sprinklers installed. Going with the recommendations of the Cooks County coroners jury, the Chicago City Council mandated exterior alarm boxes be installed, and the use of monthly fire drills to be witnessed by members of the fire department (Groves). The impact of the fire was not only felt in Chicago but also in New York City, where Fire Commissioner Edward Cavanagh ordered the immediate inspection of more the 1500 of the citys schools. Days after the fire in Chicago, eighteen schools were shut down for safety violations in the New York City area due to the fire inspections ordered by Cavanagh (Groves). The fire also inspired The Los Angeles Fire Department to set a series of fires and run tests on the effectiveness of enclosing stairways, and partial sprinkler systems versus complete sprinkler systems.

Our Lady of the Angels With more than 150 fires set in a sequence of tests the findings further proved that partial sprinkler systems were dramatically less effective in preventing the spread of fire in buildings. Another finding from the tests ran by LAFD was that the spread of smoke in the building was the leading cause for the deaths in structure fires (Groves). Conclusion

Five decades later the effects of that fire in Chicago are still felt today. Building code regulations, such as the interior finish of walls mandated by codes set by the NFPA, the enclosing of stairwells in public buildings, and the minimum number of required exits in buildings, are all enforced by local fire departments today. A boy confessed to setting the fire by throwing a cigarette into a trash bin. He later changed his story and said that it was not him because he was more worried about confessing to his parents then to the police. The boy was also responsible for setting a number of other fires in apartment buildings in the neighborhood. Even with the boys confession and recanted statement and the information he gave the police about the fire origin, no one was arrested. To this day, the cause of the fire is still labeled as undetermined (Groves).

Our Lady of the Angels References

Groves, Adam. Our Lady of the Angels School Fire: 50 Years Later. 1 December 2008. 19 November 2013 <http://www.fireengineering.com/articles/print/volume-161/issue-12/features/our-lady-of-theangels-school-fire-50-years-later.html>. OLAfire. Our Lady of the Angels (OLA) School Fire, December 1, 1958. 2001. 19 November 2013 <http://www.olafire.com/FireSummary.asp>. Warnes, Kathy. December 1, 1958: The Day Chicago Cried with Our Lady of the Angels. 9 August 2012. 19 November 2013 <http://searchinghistoricalhorizons.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/december-11958-the-day-chicago-cried-with-our-lady-of-the-angels/>.