James Raymond

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James Raymond (1915-1978), was a school custodian in Chicago, Illinois, USA at the Our Lady of the Angels Catholic Church and School from 1945 to 1965. When a fire broke out at the school on December 1, 1958, Mr. Raymond was responsible for saving the lives of the students and teacher in one of the second floor classrooms. Four of his own children in school that day also survived the fire.

James Raymond was born in Holland, Michigan and moved to Chicago in 1938. He married and began his job at the church and school in 1945.

Some feel Mr. Raymond was unjustly blamed for the fire and today there is an effort by survivors of the fire, led by the Friends of OLA organization, to have the Chicago city government pass a resolution proclaiming Mr. Raymond the true hero that he is. Also, there is a scholarship named for James Raymond awarded each year to a child of a Firefighter by Friends of OLA.

[edit] Arson suspected by boy

The cause of the fire was never officially determined, but all indications point to arson. A boy, age 10 and a fifth grader, confessed to setting the blaze in 1962, but subsequently recanted his confession. He was more afraid of confessing to his mother and stepfather than to the police. He also confessed to setting numerous other fires in the neighborhood, mostly in apartment buildings. This boy had been excused from his classroom to go to the boys lavatory about 2:00 p.m. on the day of the fire. This was roughly the time that the fire began to smolder in the bin at the base of the stairwell. A fire investigator later found burned matches in the undamaged sacristy area of a chapel located in the basement of the north wing.

In his confession and lie-detector test, the boy related details of the fire's origin that had not been made public and that he should not have known. While there was strong evidence that he was the culprit, neither he nor anyone else was ever prosecuted, at least in part because the Catholic judge in the case felt he should protect the Church. Officially, the cause of the fire remains unknown. An arson attempt on parish facilities in June, 1958, had burned itself out and nobody was injured.

The boy was, however, sentenced to a juvenille detention facility near Albion, Michigan for setting fires at apartment buildings in the Chicago suburb of Cicero, being released in 1965. He has been reported to have died in 2004.