The Day Chicago Cried Pt 2

     When the roof collapsed, the force knocked the two hose teams out of the hallway and down the front stairs and most of the firemen on the ladders were knocked out of the windows. The hosewteams recovered and fought their way back into the second floor hallway.Forcing the fire back and out through the giant hole in the roof. The fire was quickly extinguished, but sadly, it was too late for the victims trapped in the classrooms. A ladder company leiutenant was credited with saving 10 children before the roof collapsed, said later that he could only see around two feet into the room, but could see the faces of the paniced children under the window. He grabbed whatever he could arms , belts, hair, whatever and swung the kids backwards to the ladder, hoping they caught the ladder, if not, well he didn't have time to look. As the fire banked down to the floor, he could see a horrific sight, a sea of childrens faces screaming for help. Knowing he could not get them all, he saw a young girl take a running start and crawl over the heads of her struggling classmates to reach the window. H e lunged in to grab her just as her clothes burst into flames. He pulled her out and swung her to the ladder. She missed and fell where several firemen broke her fall and put her out. She thanked them and passed out. She survived. The Lt. reached back into the window but the roof collapsed, knocking
him off the ladder. His turnout gear smouldering and burned on the face and hands, he was led away from the building.
     After driving the fire out of the hallway, firemen made their way into the classrooms. The horrific scenes affected many of them for the rest of their lives. In one room the teacher lay over a pile of students near the windows as if trying to protect them, in another 29 kids died sitting at their desks, in the other kids were found huddled near their dead teacher at the front of the room.
Mayor Daley arrived and insisted upon being shown the classrooms. When the fire was out, he was taken upstairs by the fire comissioner. After seeing each classroom he was near collapse, and was escorted from the building. Pale and shaken he was heard to say "I will make sure that this will never happen again." He was escorted away, and didn't look back.
     There were several laws enacted in the wake of the disaster..sprinkler systems became a requirement..ther school had none. All vertical stairways need to be enclosed with fireproof material, fire alarms must be, accessable and also notify the fire dept automatically, and fire doors cannot be blocked or covered are just a few of the new laws that came about after the fire.
     A few years later, a young man , who was caught setting another fire, confessed to setting the school fire. He told them the exact spot where he started it and how. Investigators found that he knew unrealised details and he was seen in the` school baseme`nt before th`e fire started. He was never charged.