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Memories of the Heights Fire

Connie Rater Griffith, Class of 1960

When Mike set up this site on Ottumwa Catholic history he sent out an email to former students asking us to contribute our memories of the Ottumwa Heights Academy and College fire. I thought about it but realized that it still upset me to think about it even after all these years so I put it off. But then I got another email from Mike so here are my still very vivid memories from 49 years ago.

I was a sophomore on that beautiful fall day and of course like all other 15 year old girls I did not realize what a great treasure we had in the Heights and the Sisters who taught us. We, as teenagers, were always happy to have a snow day or a field trip or sunbathe behind the Grotto.

On that eventful day of October 8, 1957, I was in my last morning class with Sister Leona on the second floor. It was a class for sophomore girls and it was to help us improve ourselves and to become outstanding young ladies.

Unfortunately I was not feeling well in class, I had a cold, and my cough drops were no longer working. I could not stop coughing and Sister Leona kindly told me to go get a drink of water and then rest in the second floor student lounge until I felt better. So I left class, found a drinking fountain and went to the lounge.

The lounge was empty and I chose a couch that looked out on the great expanse of the beautiful trees and the fall colors. Since the Heights was one of the highest points in Ottumwa, I could see forever. I decided to take a little nap and I hoped when I woke up I would be feeling better. The couch I was on faced the windows with its back to the door. I fell asleep. I was awaken by the fire bells going off. Since it was fire prevention week and we'd had a fire drill ever day that week, I just thought it was another fire drill so I did not get up.

I heard everyone leaving the building and then it was all quite except for the fire bell. I was trying to go back to sleep but the bell kept on ringing. That was strange because the bell was always shut off as soon as the Sisters had made sure everyone was out of the building. About that time I heard someone running in the hall. She ran into the lounge. I could tell it was a Sister because I could hear the rosary beads they wore on their habit

rattling. She could not see me on the couch because I was laying down. I did not sit up because I knew I would be in trouble for not leaving the building. The Sister yelled to someone that the lounge was empty and I could hear them running away. And then the building became very quite except for the fire bell which was still ringing.

At that point I got up and decided I had to leave the building. Because the Sisters were running and yelling I was sure something was very wrong. I walked to the stairs and I heard nothing but the fire bell. It was eerie. The stairs at the Heights were very wide to accommodate the changing of classes and they always were full of students and Sisters coming and going.

If there was a Nun on the stairs she would always say, No running girls, YOUNG LADIES DO NOT RUN, THEY WALK. But this time I, the young lady, decided to run down the stairs and out of the building. I ran out of the back door and around to the front where I saw Sisters kneeling on the grass praying and almost everyone crying.

I walked around to where I could see the front of the building and I saw the roof over the convent wing was in flames. I then saw girls wrapped in blankets coming down the fire escape from the third floor dorm on the student wing side. Many girls were sick with the flu and colds and they had not been in class but in bed too sick to go to class. I just remember having a kind of sick feeling about what I was seeing. The girls from the dorms were in night gowns and pajamas and they looked so sick. They had red noses and their hair was all stuck up and wild from being in bed. Some of them were crying. People were running to them and helping them because some of them were still very ill. There were flames shooting out of the convent wing roof.

By this time we could hear the fire engines and the ambulances coming. People were screaming and crying. The Sisters were praying.

One of the girls, who had just returned to school that day after having her appendix out, was on the ground withering around. She was screaming that her incision had burst open. Some of us tried to calm her down but she was close to being hysterical. Our PE teacher came over and was finally able to get her calmed down. Her incision was fine she was just scared, as we all were.

I looked around for my friends. I knew that they had taken their lunches and gone for a walk to the country club golf course. They were going to eat there since it was such a nice day. I then saw them running in the gate. They told me they had seem the smoke and flames from the golf course and came running back. We just all stood there stunned, watching the fire.

By this time the Sisters were moving everyone to the front gate. The flames and smoke and heat were very bad and burned things were falling out of the sky all around us.

We all went to the gate. People from town were driving out to see the fire. The dorm girls who were sick were being taken to St. Joseph's hospital. Emergency vehicles from surrounding areas were coming and it seemed like anyone who could help was on their way to the Heights.

It was not long before we all realized that the Heights could not be saved.

Every girl who every went to the Heights remembers the beautiful wooden floors that were waxed to a high shine and oiled regularly. The school went up like a tinderbox. To this day I can remember the whooshing sounds and booms from the fire.

After we stood around for a long time we decided that we had to call our parents. Some of the people who lived near the Heights had opened their homes to us to use their phones. All of my group went to the Mc Cloud home. We all knew the family from Saint Mary's and she told us to come in. We must have had a line of about 50 girls waiting to use their phone. I remember Mrs. Mc Cloud had been folding clothes when we all descended on her. She was very gracious and we called our parents.

My Mother was a teacher at Horace Mann school which was near the Heights and I called her there. I was not able to speak to her because she was teaching but I spoke to the secretary and the principle. They were both very concerned and wanted to know if everyone was okay. I said we thought everyone got out safely. They said that the school children had come back from lunch and run into the school and said that the Heights was burning. Mr. Van De Venter, the principal, said the whole school was upset and concerned. I then called my Father but he was not in his office. I told them to tell him that I was fine and everyone got out okay.

I do not remember how I got home that day. I think we were all in kind of a shock. I know that we were all on the phone with our friends that night comparing details.

Looking back at the fire, I realize how incredibly lucky we were that the students and Sisters got out of the building. If that fire had been at night, it would have been so much worse.

There was another tragedy within the tragic Heights fire. Ottumwa had four sisters who had never married and they all lived together in their family home. They went to Sacred Heart Church. They were very active in the Catholic community and of course we all knew them through church and our families.

They had been on vacation and were in a terrible car accident. Three of the sisters were killed and only one sister survived the crash. She was in an out of town hospital recovering from her injuries when she was told the Heights had burned. She immediately told the nurse to call Ottumwa and tell the Nuns to use her family home as a place to stay. She also told the nurse to tell them to use whatever they needed in the house because her sisters would not be needing it anymore.

I remember Sister Muriel telling me how hard and sad it had been for the Nuns to go into that home because they had all known the family but they had to because they needed a place to stay and clothing because they had lost everything in the fire.

Ottumwa families took in the boarding students. My Aunt Ann and Uncle John Rater had a daughter Mary Margaret at the Heights. She was good friends with some of the girls from Hawaii and so they came to their home.

When my cousin got married after college, the Hawaiian parent's sent as a thank you, many beautiful, exotic Hawaiian flowers and orchids to decorate the church with. Saint Mary's never looked more beautiful for any wedding then it did for my cousins wedding.

About a week after the fire, Ottumwa offered the use of the Naval base buildings to the Sisters so they could reopen the school. All of the Sisters and the students worked very hard to clean up the Naval buildings that had only been occupied by pigeons for many years. School districts from all over sent school supplies. Many libraries sent books.

One amusing thing was that the Sisters moved into the Bachelor Officer Quarters to live. Everyone thought that was funny.

That is the end of my memories. In retrospect, all I can say is that, we were all very fortunate and blessed to have escaped what could have been a very deadly fire.

To this day when every I hear a fire alarm, I am the first one out of the building and then I say a prayer.

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