From “Stewart Hicks”. ( Nebula )
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In December 1958, a fire broke out at *Our Lady of the Angels School* in Chicago. Within minutes, the building was consumed, and 92 children along with 3 nuns tragically lost their lives. It remains one of the deadliest school fires in U.S. history. Yet, out of this disaster, came some of the most sweeping changes to building codes, fire safety standards, and school practices ever enacted.
This video uncovers what really happened that day: the overcrowded classrooms of the Baby Boom, the flammable stairwells that acted like chimneys, and the lack of alarms, sprinklers, and evacuation training that turned a small spark into a catastrophe. We’ll also trace how this event transformed school design across the country—introducing mandatory fire drills, teacher-led evacuations, and new safety codes that have saved countless lives ever since.
By revisiting this story, we explore bigger questions about how society responds to tragedy, why outdated buildings are often given dangerous “grandfather clauses,” and what this history means for school safety today.
If you want to understand why every student practices fire drills, why stairwells are enclosed, and why alarms are linked directly to the fire department, it all goes back to this moment in Chicago.
Special Thanks:
– Producer: Evan Montgomery
– 3D Modeling: Daniela Osorio Sanudo
– Filming Location: SOM (www.som.com)
Sources:
– Chicago Fire Department. *Official Investigation Report: Our Lady of the Angels School Fire.* Chicago Fire Department Archives, December 1958.
– Cook County Coroner’s Office. *Inquest Proceedings: Our Lady of the Angels School Fire Victims.* Cook County Archives, December 1958–January 1959.
– Illinois State Fire Marshal’s Office. *Investigation Report: Fatal Fire at Our Lady of the Angels School.* Springfield, IL: State of Illinois, 1959.
– National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). “Report on the Fire at Our Lady of the Angels School, Chicago, Illinois, December 1, 1958.” *NFPA Quarterly* 52, no. 3 (1959): 210–258.
– *Chicago Tribune.* “92 Die in School Fire; Hundreds Flee Blazing Building.” December 2, 1958, pp. 1, 4–5.
– Chicago Sun-Times. “Children Die in School Fire Trap.” December 2, 1958, pp. 1–3.
– Life Magazine. “Tragedy in Chicago: The School Fire.” December 15, 1958, pp. 26–33.
– Time Magazine. “Death in Room 211.” December 15, 1958, pp. 18–19.
– Cowan, David, and John Kuenster. *To Sleep with the Angels: The Story of a Fire.* Updated edition. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2003.
– Raymond, Michele McBride. *We Remember: Survivors’ Stories of the Our Lady of the Angels Fire.* Chicago: Academy Chicago Publishers, 2003.
– Thompson, Richard A. “The Impact of the Our Lady of the Angels Fire on School Safety Codes.” *Building Research & Information* 28, no. 4 (2000): 251–263.
– Fitzgerald, Maurice P. “School Fire Safety: Lessons from Our Lady of the Angels.” *Fire Engineering* 112, no. 3 (March 1959): 184–187.
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__About Me__
Stewart Hicks is an architectural design educator that leads studios and lecture courses as an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He also serves as an Associate Dean in the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts and is the co-founder of the practice Design With Company. His work has earned awards such as the Architecture Record Design Vanguard Award or the Young Architect’s Forum Award and has been featured in exhibitions such as the Chicago Architecture Biennial and Design Miami, as well as at the V&A Museum and Tate Modern in London. His writings can be found in the co-authored book Misguided Tactics for Propriety Calibration, published with the Graham Foundation, as well as essays in MONU magazine, the AIA Journal Manifest, Log, bracket, and the guest-edited issue of MAS Context on the topic of character architecture.
__Contact__
FOLLOW me on instagram: @stewart_hicks & @designwithco
Design With Company: https://designwith.co
University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture: https://arch.uic.edu/
__Attributions__
Stock video and imagery provided by Getty Images, Storyblocks, and Shutterstock.
Music provided by Epidemic Sound and includes music from Chromatic by Tom Fox
https://www.youtube.com/@tomfoxcatalog"
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