Angels Too Soon: The School Fire of '58 — A Chicago Stories Documentary

When they showed the photo of a fireman carrying the body of a boy I bursted in tears. You see I was that fireman. Only I was photographed doing the same thing twenty six years later. I was a fireman for thirty three years. And I guarantee every fireman there suffered the rest of their lives because of that fateful day. God bless you all my brothers. I understand.

In 1985 we lost a high school classmate who worked weekends as a security guard at an office building in an arson fire; he got several people out of the building but re-entered to find one more and was overcome by smoke. His name was Steve Wartemann. RIP

I use to have a patient who had a son that passed in the fire. She told me she would follow the fire trucks around town sometimes because she didn’t have anything to do as a housewife. That day she dropped her son off and was on her way to do some errands and was going home and decided to follow the fire trucks and it lead right back to her sons’ school and she found out later he had passed in the fire. Many years later when she was dying, she kept on saying she sees her son waiting for her at the foot of her bed! The grief is unreal and stay with her for over 50 years!

I'm glad they did another version of this story! My father was a student in the neighboring parish of Saint Agatha's, a fifth grader at the time of this fire. He remembers distinctly all the fire trucks rushing down the street towards the fire as he walked home. My mom was a fourth grader at Saint Columbanus on the south side. What's so scary to me is that this could have easily have been one of their schools, as they were built very similarly to Our Lady of the Angels. I'm glad that the story of this horrible tragedy will not soon be forgotten, by those that lived it, knew of it, or people like me, the children that came a generation after and were fortunate enough to attend schools that were finally structurally safe. God bless all the children and the adults involved in this tragedy. He shall wipe away all your tears.

When you lose a child the pain of loss never goes away . You learn to live with the grief . My heart goes out to the children that survived through it .

I and my twin brother were in the fire we survived without injuries Father Joe Ognebiene carried me out of the building my cousin Carol Ann Gazzola died in the fire.

I lost my cousin in this fire in room 208. My Aunt and Uncle were absolutely devastated. My entire family was devastated by the fire. Many friends of my father were lost in the fire. I was born in St Ann’s Hospital and baptized at Our Lady of Angels. So many in the neighborhood had their own theories about how the fire started. The neighborhood knew who started the fire, authorities denied it over and over. My aunts and uncles talked about what they knew vs what was reported. This event wrecked the entire neighborhood, so many mourned for the rest of their lives.

2 of my uncles were some of the first firefighters at this fire. It had a deep profound effect on them both.

I was a freshman in a Catholic high school at this time. They replaced all our wooden lockers and redid the entire science lab, which had had a wooden floor. It was a wake up call for private schools across the country.

This documentary was so moving. All those poor children and their teachers. And the families who lost their children. I just can’t imagine. The survivors showed us how you can go on, and it was impressive to see how many went into healthcare and firefighting. Very moving.

So glad this film showed the importance of future fire safety in schools. Those angels forever changed the lives of other children! 😔

I had a cousin die in the OLA fire and her brother saved because a nun rolled him down a flight of stairs. This destroyed my aunt and uncle. The whole family was never the same. I was only four and don’t remember the whole story. The book To Sleep With The Angels was an excellent read and answered so many questions. My dad went with my uncle to the morgue to identify my cousin. It was one of the few times I remember my dad crying.

That afternoon, when we got home from our own Catholic school, my Mom said that Daddy would be working late that evening. Then she started crying. "There was a fire at a school in the city. Your Dad is taking pictures for the paper ("The New World" (a Catholic weekly). Dad came home after our bedtime, but when we heard his car on the driveway, we ran to meet him. He reached out to hold us all, and Mom reached out to him from behind us. Then he started to cry in great, shaking sobs. I had never seen him cry like that. The next day after school, Mom went over what had happened and made sure we knew that we were safe in our one story cinderblock school. She told us to be patient while Dad was grieving. Dad had told her that this was even worse than anything he'd seen since the war. Years later, Mom said that the evaluation failure was in part due to a young Sister who didn't know what to do, and was waiting for Mother Superior to tell her. (Or, possibly, she was just in shock.) Dad photographed EVERY Catholic event in the Metro. So he was at every parish event related to the fire, every speech by the Cardinal and Mayor, every press conference regarding the OLA fire and its aftermath. The burden of bearing witness so the world could see was also a gift. That mission let him stay at The New World so he could take more pictures of celebrations, than of horror.

I find it immensely heartbreaking that I've never heard of this tragedy before you posted this. 😢

My aunt was a Pharmacist at St Ann's Hospital when this happened. She told stories about the kids being brought in and the phone calls to area Hospitals for pain meds because they ran out.

I live in central Illinois and I was 11 years old when the fire happened. I will never forget watching the news and seeing the little bodies covered with blankets. My mother could not stop weeping especially when they showed a little girl that looked a lot like me. It still brings tears to my eyes even all these years later.

I was taught by nuns from 1969 to 1976. They were stone cold serious about fire drills. When I first learned about OLA’s fire, it all made sense.

You can see how terrible the trauma has been for the survivors, even all these years later. This is why counselling is so important.

Amazing documentary! I remember this fire like it was yesterday. My cousin was in 8th grade and jumped out of the window for safety. All of my uncles split up and went from hospital to hospital to find him. My dad and another uncle left the ER to go to the morgue when they walked past my cousin who had pushed aside because he wasn't so bad. He was burned but alive!

Thank you for this documentary. My Father, Uncle and two Aunts were in the fire. My father and Aunt were in the same room. (211) my father jumped out the window, (survived) Nancy Rae hid in the closet with two other girls. She didn’t survive. My uncle who is still living, still remembers the day as if it was yesterday. 😔