The construction of the building contributed to the spread of smoke and fire, and only 1 fire escape was present, a problem since the building had a raised basement which made the second floor as high off the ground as a normal third floor. The OLA school was apparently a fire trap but was in compliance with state law as it had been exempted from modern fire safety measures because of a “grandfather clause” in the state fire codes for schools. The kindergarten and 1 st Grade classes were held in a separate building from the rest of the school, and that building was not involved in the fire. The school was part of a parish church that included the main church, a rectory, and a convent as well as the school. This section of Chicago, sometimes referred to as “Austin,” was a mostly Catholic area. The student body was comprised of 1600 students and the school situated on the city’s West Side, formerly mostly Irish, but transitioning to mostly Italian with other European immigrants (such as German and Polish) in the preceding decades. Digging DeeperĪ typical Catholic grade school, OLA held classes from Kindergarten through the 8 th Grade. Is a disaster such as Our Lady of the Angels Fire an act of a vengeful God? Was the tragedy merely God allowing people to make their own decisions which turned out to be bad for all those kids? Were people in Chicago being punished for something they did wrong? Was the catastrophe part of a Divine plan, part of a “big picture” too big for mere humans to understand? Or was the terrible loss of life not incidental to anything related to religious factors? We are pretty sure people are willing to debate all these theories and debate them fiercely. On October 13, 2013, we ran an article titled “10 Religious Activity Disasters (What Do They Mean?)” discussing the glaring topic of why bad things happen to good people. The sole bright side of the tragedy was that the shocking death toll and subsequent enormous publicity resulted in many safety reforms for American schools. Operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, the school became instantly infamous as the leading headline in the United States and around the world.
On December 1, 1958, a terrible fire roared through a Chicago parochial school called Our Lady of the Angels, ultimately resulting in the deaths of 92 children and 3 of the nuns on staff.
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