# Our Lady of the Angels (school fire) firefighter dies **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 8, 2009, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-lady-of-the-angels-school-fire-firefighter-dies/492331 "2009-04-08T00:09:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-lady-of-the-angels-school-fire-firefighter-dies/492331/1 "2009-04-08T00:09:11Z")
[Our Lady of the Angels firefighter dies](http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/04/our-lady-of-the-angels-firefighter-dies.html) > [@](#): > > Retired Chicago firefighter Richard Scheidt, a subject of one of the grimmest and most iconic newspaper photographs in Chicago history, has died. He was 81. > > On Dec. 1, 1958, a helmeted Scheidt, his face drawn in sorrow, carried the wet, lifeless body of 10-year-old John Jajkowski Jr. from Our Lady of the Angels grade school on the West Side. The fire, one of the worst tragedies in Chicago annals, killed 92 children and three nuns. > > Scheidt died Monday at his home in southwest suburban Oak Lawn, a day after he was brought home from the hospital following a minor stroke a month ago, according to relatives. > > Scheidt, a member of Rescue Squad 1, carried the bodies of 20 children from the school. Jajkowski was the first. > > Scheidt was forever haunted by the memory. In an interview with the Tribune in 1995, in the wake of the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building in which another image of a firefighter cradling a dying child went around the world, Scheidt described the horror of the Our Lady of the Angels School conflagration. > > “It just broke my heart all over again for those poor people, having to pick up those babies,” Scheidt said at the time. “There’s nothing that prepares you for that. Thirty-some years later, I’m not over it yet.” > > … A small version of the photograph mentioned is at the link. A [larger version](http://www.olafire.com/JohnJajkowski.asp) is at the Our Lady of the Angels (OLA) memorial site, along with a picture of John in happier days. As mentioned on that site, “This photograph became the defining image of the Our Lady of the Angels fire, seen around the world, and made into a moving fire prevention poster.” I was reading the [site’s FAQ](http://www.olafire.com/FAQ.asp) about the fire, and I still just…can’t…imagine how awful it must have been for the children, the nuns, the families, the firefighters, the community. It’s so so sad. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-lady-of-the-angels-school-fire-firefighter-dies/492331/2 "2009-04-08T01:23:39Z")
many of the children who survived the fire went on to become members of the fire dept., police dept., and school teachers. it was and still is a horrible, horrible, tragedy. there is a documentry and a book on the fire and its aftermath on the families, and the community. hopefully mr. scheidt is with those he brought out of the school that day, and all his kith and kin. may he have peace. ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-lady-of-the-angels-school-fire-firefighter-dies/492331/3 "2009-04-08T02:29:31Z")
I read a book about the fire once, and it was one of the toughest reads of my life. How the families and the neighborhood moved on from that, I can’t imagine. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-lady-of-the-angels-school-fire-firefighter-dies/492331/4 "2009-04-08T05:07:49Z")
> [@Sarahfeena](#): > > I read a book about the fire once, and it was one of the toughest reads of my life. How the families and the neighborhood moved on from that, I can’t imagine. The neighborhood didn’t, according to that tribute site. On the [page with a map](http://www.olafire.com/VictimsMap.asp) of where the neighborhood is located in Chicago, it says: > [@](#): > > This map shows the locations of homes that lost children to the Our Lady of the Angels fire. The GREEN square is Our Lady of the Angels School. The RED triangles represent those households where a child never came home on December 1, 1958. **How can one neighborhood suffer this kind of unimaginable loss and survive? The answer: it cannot. Within a decade, this once strong and proud neighborhood was virtually destroyed.** Living in Chicago I’d heard about this fire but since I wasn’t born and raised here I didn’t know many details. As I’ve been reading this tribute site I’m finally learning. The tributes to each child are very moving, with memories posted by families and friends. I’d like to read the books you and **rocking chair** have mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-lady-of-the-angels-school-fire-firefighter-dies/492331/5 "2009-04-08T05:35:34Z")
I’m trying to imagine what this [newspaper’s front page](http://www.olafire.com/frontpagephotos.asp), 5 days later, with the pictures of 72 of the (then) 89 victims (three more children died in the hospital after this appeared) did to the people of Chicago. It’s shocking and sobering enough now, but at the time, when everyone was still in shock…wow. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-lady-of-the-angels-school-fire-firefighter-dies/492331/6 "2009-04-08T07:47:06Z")
You don’t have to be from Chicago to imagine the horror. The photograph looks familiar to me. I would have been fifteen at the time and in high school. That is the Chicago fire that everyone should remember. Be at peace at last, Richard Scheidt. ---
**Author:** ![Nightingale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecae2f/32.png) [@Nightingale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightingale)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-lady-of-the-angels-school-fire-firefighter-dies/492331/7 "2009-04-08T12:02:21Z")
The expression on his face is absolutely heartwrenching in that photo. May he rest in well earned peace. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-lady-of-the-angels-school-fire-firefighter-dies/492331/8 "2009-04-08T13:16:44Z")
I was just two when the fire struck. During my childhood, just the mention of this horrible event would reduce people to tears. Utterly devastating. I never saw the map with the homes of the victims identified. It really puts it in a different perspective. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-lady-of-the-angels-school-fire-firefighter-dies/492331/9 "2009-04-08T13:34:50Z")
> [@Sarahfeena](#): > > I read a book about the fire once, and it was one of the toughest reads of my life. How the families and the neighborhood moved on from that, I can’t imagine. I read [this book](http://www.amazon.com/Sleep-Angels-Story-Fire/dp/156663217X/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239197711&sr=8-4)too. Heartbreaking. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-lady-of-the-angels-school-fire-firefighter-dies/492331/10 "2009-04-08T14:49:38Z")
I never knew of this story. I am 41 and grew up in a Philadelphia neighborhood where the Catholic school was the center, much as the Chicago neighborhood, and I find it unfathomable to imagine something like that. I feel punched in the gut. 92 children…from a neighborhood…from the same school. The people who had to go on. Mixed emotions: glad I read this thread, kind of sick to think about it. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-lady-of-the-angels-school-fire-firefighter-dies/492331/11 "2009-04-09T00:14:03Z")
there are 3 books on the fire. to sleep with the angels a very good description of the school, neighbourhood, fire, and families. (in one of those “funny” hmmmm moments, one of the writers was charged with arson, a few years after the book was published.) the fire that would not die this was written by a woman who was badly burned in the fire. it is mostly about her recovery and her search to find meaning for her life. remembrances of the angels written for the 50th anniversary of the fire. all are unforgettable and haunting reads. i got my copy of mcbride’s book from an online used book store. there weren’t many copies made and they were out of print until recently. i sent it on to a fireman in wisconsin about 5-6 years ago, still out of print and hard to find. he said they would keep it in the fire house. anyone, and absoulutly everyone who survives a fire and lives day to day with the damage from burns, truely has in inner strength that is immeasurable. the scars that are left are there so all can see and honour their amazing struggle to survive. they are not horrible or scarry, they are marks of incredible strength of spirit. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-lady-of-the-angels-school-fire-firefighter-dies/492331/12 "2009-04-09T02:53:14Z")
Thanks to Sigmagirl’s link, I see that all 3 books are available at Amazon. I’m going to set aside money from an upcoming paycheck to get them all. Even though the only thing that touches me personally about this is the fact that I live in the same city and went to a parochial school too until the 2nd grade (Lutheran though, not Catholic), the more I learn the more I feel a connection to these children. I don’t know why. Their story is incredibly moving and I’m glad they’re not forgotten. Plus the fact that many of us were safer because of this tragedy, because of the fire safety rules and inspections that were put in place or enforced after it happened, and of course most of us never knew why. Btw, thanks to the mod who fixed the embarrassing typo in my Subject Line! ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-lady-of-the-angels-school-fire-firefighter-dies/492331/13 "2009-04-09T03:19:20Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > The neighborhood didn’t, according to that tribute site. On the [page with a map](http://www.olafire.com/VictimsMap.asp) of where the neighborhood is located in Chicago, it says: Interesting…I hadn’t realized that was part of the aftermath. **Sigmagirl** , To Sleep With the Angels is the one I read, as well. I wanted to mention that the Publisher’s Weekly review on Amazon gets a detail wrong, I think…the nuns didn’t tell the children to pray rather than try to escape in the sense of “don’t worry, god wil save you” Rather, they told them to sit at their desks and pray because there was a raging inferno was right on the other side of their classroom door, and they were up too high to safely jump. The sisters were trying to keep the children calm while waiting for the fire fighters to rescue them, and tragically had no other choice. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-lady-of-the-angels-school-fire-firefighter-dies/492331/14 "2009-04-09T03:23:44Z")
My God. Why did I click on that link? That picture made me burst into tears, right in front of everybody. Dear Lord, what a good man. God speed, Mr. Scheidt.