Statue honoring victims of Our Lady of the Angels fire returns to site of blaze

Members of the Chicago Fire Department dismount the Blessed Mother statue from a firetruck in front of the newly renovated Mission of Our Lady of the Angels’ Outreach Center in the Humboldt Park neighborhood. The Blessed Mother statue — which serves as a memorial for the victims of the 1958 fire at Our Lady of the Angels School, where 92 children and three nuns died and hundreds were injured — was blessed and installed at the outreach center Tuesday. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)

Leo Sorce was just 13 years old when he stood across the street watching flames rip through Our Lady of the Angels School in the winter of 1958.

He recalled being surrounded by dozens of his classmates who laid on the ground dying — if not already dead — but he said his inability to remember details of the carnage in front of him was a gift from God.