In Retrospect: Chicago School Inferno
Unless you are from Chicago or you know someone from there, you might not have heard of a tragedy that happened in one of the schools there 50 years ago. In December 1, 1958, a fire ravaged Our Lady of Angels School. The Daily Herald carried this feature today:
Now consider what that experience might have been like for an 11-year-old, someone who didn’t sign up for duty. Who was armed only with a rosary and prayer. Who was only waiting out the last minutes of a long Monday at school to go play in the snow before it got dark. And only then can you begin to appreciate what it must have been like 50 years ago today for the students of Our Lady of the Angels School in Chicago.
On a raw winter’s afternoon Dec. 1, 1958, fire roared through the Catholic grammar school, claiming the lives of 92 children and three nuns.
The 48-year-old school was a tinderbox. Wood throughout, much of it heavily varnished. No automatic alarms to the fire department. No sprinkler system. The building didn’t meet the codes of the day, but its deficiencies had been grandfathered into compliance because the school was old. It was built in 1910, when horse-drawn steam pumpers were still all the rage.
After what happened way back in ’58, radical changes were implemented in school fire safety standards. The tragedy was so big that its effects rippled throughout the country. Now, in this modern day and age, we can learn some things from what happened when the school children of today weren’t even born yet.
The people who survived that fire have experiences to share – one common thing that they have been saying is that many of them didn’t know what to do. And for me, this is the important thing that we should make sure of today. We have to be certain that our kids in school know what to do in case of a fire – in case of any emergency for that matter.
True, we have our school safety drills. They are mandated by law and they are conducted on a regular basis. However, this does not ensure that the kids actually pay attention. It does not ensure that the kids would actually know what to do in case an emergency arises. Part of that responsibility, I believe, also lies in the hands of parents and caregivers. We have to do our part in educating them in these matters. And letting them know about stories like this one is part of that.
Don't miss another post -- subscribe by email or RSS today!
Posted on December 1st, 2008 by Deborah J Thomas
Filed under: Administrators, Building safety, Disasters, News, Parents, People Involved, School Safety Issues, Students
Leave a Reply