65th anniversary of Our Lady of Angels school fire remembered

CHICAGO - On this 65th anniversary, survivors and relatives gathered Friday to remember the tragic fire at Our Lady of Angels, a Catholic elementary school in Humboldt Park.

The devastating event occurred on December 1, 1958, claiming the lives of 92 children and three nuns, marking one of the deadliest school disasters in U.S. history.

An online memorial highlights that a significant number of students from the school's 8th-grade class of 1959 managed to escape or were rescued from rooms 209 and 211 during the fire. The impact of the tragedy was profound, especially considering that graduating classes from the years just before 1959 had considerably more students.

The last victim succumbed to injuries in August 1959, two months after the conclusion of the school year.