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The school was a two story structure built in 1910 but remodeled
and added to numerous times in the intervening years. While legally
in compliance with the fire safety laws of the time, the school was
woefully unprepared for any kind of fire. There was only one fire
escape, no sprinklers, no automatic fire alarm, no smoke or heat
detectors, no alarm connected to the fire department, no
fire-resistant stairwells and no fire-safe doors from the
stairwells to the second floor. While the building's exterior was
brick, the interior was made almost entirely of combustibles -
stairs, walls, floors, doors and roof - all wood. The floors had
been coated and re-coated many times with flammable petroleum based
waxes. There were NO fire alarm switches in the north wing, and
only two in the entire school, both located in the south wing.
While there were four fire extinguishers in the north wing, they
were mounted 7 feet off the floor, out of reach for many adults and
virtually all of the children. The single fire escape was near one
end of the north wing but to reach it required passing through the
main corridor, which became filled with suffocating smoke and
superheated gases. With its 12-foot ceilings, the school's second
floor windows were a daunting 25 feet from the ground, should
someone decide to jump. Thus, the scenario for a tragedy was
set.
The fire started in the basement sometime between 2:00 and 2:20
that cold December afternoon, in a cardboard trash barrel at the
foot of the northeast stairwell. The fire burned undetected for an
estimated 15 to 30 minutes, gradually filling the stairwell with
super hot gases and smoke. In the intense heat, a window at the
foot of the stairwell shattered, giving the smoldering fire a new
supply of oxygen. The wooden staircase itself burst into flames
and, acting like a chimney, sent super hot gases, fire and smoke
swirling up the stairwell. The first floor landing was equipped
with a heavy wooden door which effectively blocked the fire and
heat from entering the first floor hallway. But the second floor
landing had no doors - the fire, smoke and heat were free to roam
the second floor halls at will. As the fire was climbing
(consuming) the stairway, a pipe chase running from the basement to
the cockloft above the second floor false ceiling gave the
superheated gases a direct route to the attic, where the
temperature rapidly rose higher and higher until it finally reached
ignition temperature. Almost as though planning a coordinated
attack, the fire swept through the halls of the second floor in the
north wing of the school, and flashed through the cockloft above
the classrooms. By the time the students and their teachers in the
second floor classrooms realized there was a fire, their sole
escape route (the center hallway) was all but impassable. For 329
children and 5 teaching nuns, the only remaining means of escape
was to jump from their second floor windows to the concrete and
crushed rock 25 feet below, or to pray for the fire department to
arrive and rescue them before it was too late. Recognizing the trap
they were in, some of the nuns encouraged the children to sit at
their desks or gather in a semi-circle and pray. And they did -
until the smoke, heat and flames forced them to the windows. But
there were no firemen to rescue them. Some began jumping - others
fell or were pushed.
Finally, firefighters arrived and began rescuing children from
the second floor windows, but the hellish conditions in some of the
classrooms had become unbearable, and children were stumbling,
crawling, clawing and fighting their way to the windows, trying to
breathe and escape. Many jumped, fell or were pushed out before
firefighters could get to them. Some were killed in the fall, and
scores more were injured. Many of the smaller children were trapped
behind the frantic crowds at the windows, blocking any chance to
escape through a window. Many of the little ones who managed to
secure a spot at a window were then unable to climb over the
three-foot-high window sills, or were pulled back by others
frantically trying to scramble their way out. Helplessly,
firefighters watched in horror as classrooms still filled with
frightened children exploded in flames, instantly killing those who
remained.
The first fire department units had arrived within four minutes
of being called, but by then the fire had burned unchecked for as
long as 30 minutes and was raging out of control. Also, they were
delayed upon arrival because they had been incorrectly directed to
the Rectory around the corner, and lost valuable minutes
repositioning their trucks and hose lines after realizing the true
location of the fire. The south windows of the north wing
overlooked a small courtyard surrounded by the school on three
sides, and a seven foot iron picket fence on the fourth side. The
gate in the fence was locked -- firefighters could not get to the
children at the south windows without first breaking through the
gate. They spent a valuable minute or two battering the iron gate
with sledge hammers and a ladder, before it finally gave way.
Between the delayed discovery and reporting of the blaze, the
fire-friendly school and the misdirection of the fire units, the
firefighters arrived too late. Although they rescued more than 160
children from the burning inferno, many of the children they
eventually carried out of the school that day were dead. Some of
the bodies were so badly burned that they literally broke into
pieces when firemen attempted to pick them up.
Eighty-seven children and three nuns died on December 1, 1958 as
a result of the Our Lady of the Angels fire. Three more critically
injured children died before Christmas followed by two more in
1959, the last one on August 9. In the end, 92 children and 3 nuns
perished, bring the ghastly death toll to a staggering 95.
Our Lady of the Angels school passed a fire department safety
inspection only weeks before the fire, because the school did not
have to comply with all fire safety guidelines due to a
grandfathering clause in the 1949 standards. Existing schools were
not required to retrofit the safety devices that were required in
all newly constructed schools. In the only positive outcome of the
tragedy, sweeping changes in school fire safety regulations were
enacted nationwide, no doubt saving countless lives in subsequent
years.
Was It Arson?
Although the cause has never been officially determined, all
indications point to arson. A boy (age 10 at the time, and a fifth
grader in room 206) later confessed to setting the blaze, but
subsequently recanted his confession. He was more afraid of
confessing to his mother and step-father than to the police.
The boy confessed to setting numerous other fires in the
neighborhood, mostly in apartment buildings. In his confession, he
related details of the fire's origin that had not been made public
and that he should therefore not have known. While there was strong
evidence that he was indeed the culprit, neither he nor anyone else
was ever prosecuted, at least in part because the catholic judge in
the case felt he should protect the Church.
Officially, the cause of the fire remains unknown.