The Day Chicago Cried Pt. 1

     December 1, 1958 was a dark and gloomy day in Chicago. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't the cause of the city's consternation.  The Our Lady of The Angels grade school had approximately 1,200 students crammed into a U-shaped building when it was set ablaze just before the end of the school day.  The fire was started underneath the bottom of an open stairwell at the back of the north wing of the building. The fire travelled up the stairs, bypassing the first floor because the fire door was closed. After burning for approximately 20 minutes, a window near the bottom of the stairwell shattered from the heat. The fire, fed from the inrush of oxygen, rush up to the top of the stairs and out into the hallway of the second floor where 329 students and 6 teachers were finishing their day. The fire aided by the fact that the fire door was propped open, rushed into the hallway and into the area between the roof and the ceilings of the classrooms.
     The teacher in the classroom nearest to the stairway noticed a steady rise of heat in the room an d saw that the paint was starting to bubble on the wall..ordered her kids out of the room and down the twin stair way in the front of the building. Another teacher was leading her kids out at the same time, and she pulled the fire alarm, which didnt work. Three kids panicked and ran back to their classroom. Sending the remainer of the class to the nearby church, she returned to the classroom and dragged two of the three remaining students down the stairs pulling the alarm on the way out. This time it worked, and the entire first floor was evacuated safely.
     By this time, the fire had come through the ceiling in the hallway cutting off any escape from the remaining three classrooms. Feeding on 14 layers of rubberized paint the fire turned the hallway into an inferno , burning at approximately 1200 degrees and creating thick, toxic, coal black smoke. The teachers in the remaining classrooms, realizing that they were trapped, tried to keep their students calm. But all hope was lost when the rooms began to fill with smoke. Several seconds later, the fire broke through the glass over the doors and across the ceiling made of flammable tile. The teacher then ordered the kids "to hit the windows".
     By this time, the fire dept had arrived and called for help immediately. What they saw was kids on the ground, and others jumping from windows on both sides of the building. In other rooms the kids were too small to reach the windows and the teachers were lifting them up onto the sills. Many neighbors of the school had brought their ladders but they were too short to reach the windows. At this point, the kids were jumping two or three at a time from the flaming classrooms. Help began to arrive from all over the city, and the response brought several hundred firemen and pieces of equipment. Soon after the dept arrived, there was a manned ladder at every window, as firemen saved 160 kids in a little over 10 minutes.
     Meanwhile, two hose companies fought their way up the stairway, at the front of the school. Others tried to vent the roof but were stymied by 3 layers of tar and roofing material. 15 minutes after the first truck arrived, the roof collapsed, compressing all of the fire and superheated gas down into the school. The screaming stopped.