Fire struck Our Lady of the Angels School in Chicago in 1958. 95 people died (92 were children). Many school code requirements were born from this tragedy. I have mentioned this fire and others many times to new firefighter students. It was only recently I dug into the story to learn more. The building was built and maintained to codes of the time. Only one fire exit was required and they had the required number of fire extinguishers. But the fire extinguishers were mounted several feet above the floor and made getting to them very challenging. The structure itself had a raised basement, there were large steps leading into the main floor of the building and the second floor window sills were as high as 25’ above concrete or crushed rock pathways below. It was a challenging rescue situation. The fire began in the older north wing between 2:00 p.m. and 2:20 p.m. Classes were to be dismissed at 3:00 p.m. Ignition took place in a cardboard trash barrel a few feet from a lower stairwell. The fire smoldered for approximately 20 minutes filling the stairwell with smoke that would later become thick, black, and tarry. There were also pipe chases in the building contributing to the fire spread to other floors. At approximately 2:25 p.m., three eighth-grade girls noticed the fire upon returning from an errand. Only one would make it out alive. They encountered thick grayish smoke and notified their teacher in room 211. The smoke was then too bad to exit and the same conditions were occurring in the entire second floor. Another teacher tried to activate the local alarm, but it did not sound. There was no fire alarm to alert occupants. There was no way to automatically call the FD, who was summoned by an emergency call from the nearby rectory building. Once a window broke out in a stairway from the heat, conditions changed and the fire flashed over and started to consume everything. Glass transom windows above the interior doors failed and smoke and flames poured into each classroom. It is reported there were 329 children and five teaching nuns trapped. Hopes of rescue soon faded. Those able to get to a window were forced to jump to certain injury or death. Some of the younger children were seen at the windows but they were too short to climb over the window sill. Smoke and flamed consumed them.
So what have we done about this? The fire service and building officials have created codes and processes for life safety. Required inspections have prevented other large loss of life fires. Lots of work continues to be done. We have proven codes and evacuation drills save lives. In MN, code requires occupied schools to hold fire drills on average once per month. Due to safer buildings and systems, the requirements have been scaled back but now school lockdown drills take their place. This is all in the effort to save lives. I encourage you to visit Wikepedia online and search for Our Lady of the Angels School fire. It is about a 15 minute read but you will gain an appreciation for codes we now have. I cannot imagine what a tragedy this would have been. Let’s do what we can to prevent needless loss of life.
Be Fire Safe!
Scott Carriveau