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TRAGIC SCHOOL FIRE CLAIMS 92 DEAD—A flash fire spread through Our Lady of the
Angels grammar school (above) on the northwest side of Chicago and cost the lives of 89 pupils
and three nuns, Dec. 1. One hundred others were injured, many seriously. The tragedy, which
occurred twenty minutes before closing time, was the third worst school fire in the United States
in the last 100 years. Firemen are shown working in intense smoke to bring the fire under con
trol. This is a wirephoto.—(NC Photos).
A. C. SAMFORD, President & General Manager
JAMES H. SAMFORD, Ex, Vice Pres.
TONY YAICSH, Vice Pres.
A. C. SAMFORD, JR., Vice Pres.
J. T. ANDERSON, Sec. & Tress.
A. C. Samford
INCORPORATED
CONTRACTORS
AND ENGINEERS
P. 0. Box 1229
Albany, Georgia
Phone HEmlock 2-7431
ID-49
Archbishop Meyer Offers Requiem Mass
Children Throughout Chicago
Archdiocese Praf For Pupils,
Nuns Dead In Disastrous Fire
(N.C.W.C. NEWS SERVICE)
CHICAGO — School children throughout the Chicago archdiocese joined in praying for the
repose of the souls of 89 fellow pupils and three nuns who died (December 1) in a fire at Our Lady
of Angels School here.
The children attended special Masses in their parishes and received Communion at the re-
THE BULLETIN, December 13, 1958—PAGE 3
quest of Archbishop Albert G.
Meyer of Chicago.
The Archbishop asked them
also to pray for other children
and nuns injured in the blaze,
third worst school fire in the
United States in the last 100
years.
At the same time prayers of
thanksgiving were offered
throughout the Chicago area for
the fact that some 400 children
were rescued from the burned-
out section of the school build
ing by nuns, priests and fire
men.
Archbishop Meyer offered Re
quiem Mass in Chicago’s North
west Armory for the children.
On the previous day (December
4) he officiated at a Requiem
Mass for the three nuns in Our
Lady of Angels. Flags on all
public buildings in the city were
flown at half-mast until after
the services.
Archbishop Meyer issued a
statement in which he expressed
his sympathy to the bereaved
families of the dead and injured
children.
“Words cannot express the
profound sense of grief which
overwhelms us at a time like
this,” the Archbishop said. “Our
only recourse is to God in the
spirit of faith and of submission
to His holy will.”
Archbishop Meyer said he was
offering his private Masses “for
all the dead and for the inten
tions of the living, praying God
to give us the strength and re
signation that can come only
from Him.
“We ask our blessed Savior
and Our Lady of Sorrows to
grant us this grace, begging
them to look down with pity
upon us in our hour of great and
indescribable sorrow, as we
strive with their help to unite
ourselves to their sufferings on
Calvary.”
Msgr. William E. McManus,
archdiocesan superintendent of
schools, issued a statement in
which he paid tribute to the he
roism of the three nuns who
died in the blaze.
He said they had proved them
selves to be “dedicated to their
children to the very end.”
The dead children — 55 girls
and 34 boys — ranged in age
from 9 to 15. Almost 100 other
children and nuns were hos
pitalized with burns, bruises and
broken bones, and shock.
The first box alarm was turn
ed in at 2:42 p. m., just 18 min
utes before school was to let
out at 3. Within minutes flames,
smoke and heat filled the build
ing. Upstairs corridors in the
two-story building were made
all but impassable.
The U-shaped brick building
had one metal fire escape. Fire
Marshal Robert Quinn said an
inspection of the school only a
week before showed that satis
factory fire precautions ' had
been taken. He said that the
school was “as safe as any in
Chicago.” About 1,500 persons
were in the school when the
blaze broke out.
Our Lady of the Angels
School is staffed by Sisters of
Charity of the Blessed Virgin
Mary and nine lay teachers. It
is located on Chicago’s west side
in a middle class residential dis-
t r i c t of one-and-two-family
frame houses.
Two of the three nuns who
died in the fire were former
Chicagoans. They were Sister
Mary Clare Therese, whose par
ents live in Cut Off, La.
Sister Seraphica, who has a
brother in Peoria, 111., taught
for all of her 25 years of convent
life at the Annunciation parish
school here, and at Our Lady of
the Angels. She celebrated her .
silver jubilee as a nun last Sep
tember.
Sister Canice entered the con
vent. in 1933.
Dozens of incidents of heroism
and tragedy occurred during the
disaster. A nun who declined to
give her name told attendants at
St. Anne’s Hospital that she felt
“untold strength” as she went
up and down stairs to the sec
ond floor three times, carrying
and leading children to safety.
Mrs. Eda Shanahan, one of the
lay teachers, talked soothingly
to her class, trapped by smoke
and heat inside a second-story
classroom. She kept her children
calm until Father Charles Hunt,
an assistant at Our Lady of the
Angels, and James Raymond, a
janitor, got a ladder in position
outside a window of the room.
Many children crowded onto
window ledges and jumped or
fell to the pavement 25 feet be
low. Others tried to find their
way through the smoke-darken
ed corridors, grasping the habits
of nuns who were leading them
or the clothing of classmates.
Some children were trampled in
the panic. Others, terrified, re
fused to move.
Firemen found 24 children
dead in one classroom alone, ap
parently smothered by the
smoke. Some still sat at their
desks, geography books open at
the day’s lesson.
Nine - year - old Margaret
Chambers had stayed home
from school in the morning with
a cold, but insisted on returning
in the afternoon. She was one of
the children who died.
Huge crowds of fi antic par
ents and passers-by rushed to
the scene, impeding ambulances
trying to reach the school. Mo
thers pleaded with police and
firemen to let them enter the
burning building to search for
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their children.
Archbishop Meyer arrived
early. He and Mayor Richard J.
Daley of Chicago stood side by
side, watching. Tears streamed
down the Archbishop’s cheeks.
Later he went to the Cook
(Continued on Page 4)
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