Child death toll in Little Village fire matches highest in city since 1958

The number of children killed in a Little Village fire early Sunday matches the highest toll in any fire since 92 were killed in 1958 at the infamous fire at Our Lady of the Angels Catholic School.

With the number of deaths reaching 10 Tuesday, the fire’s youth toll has tragically equaled the number killed in fires in 1980 and 1976.

Some of the other fires involving children in Chicago include:

2006: Six children ranging in age from 3 to 14 were killed when a blaze tore through an apartment at 7706 N.Marshfield. The family had been without electricity and were using candles for light, authorities said at the time.

1991: Six kids and four adults were killed in a December blaze, which was sparked by electrical problems at the three-story building at 1509 N. Talman.

1980: An Oct. 28 fire at 1512 E. 65th Pl. killed 10 youngsters ranging in age from 7 months to 17 years. Prosecutors later said Leonard Kidd was angry that his dead father, who owned the building, had not left it to him. Kidd is serving a life sentence for the crime.

Dec. 1976: Another horrific apartment fire, on Christmas Eve of 1976, left 10 kids and two adults dead in the the Pilsen neighborhood. Eight of the children were attending a birthday party in one of the third-floor apartments near where the fire broke out. Authorities attributed it to a barbecue mishap involving lighter fluid.

Sun-Times file

1958: The Dec. 1 blaze at Our Lady of the Angels Catholic School on the West Side drew nationwide infamy after 92 children and three nuns were killed, spurring new regulations on open stairwells and sprinkler systems.

1903: The Iroquois Theater fire downtown killed 602 people, mostly women and children, and hundreds more were burned in what remains the deadliest blaze in city history — with a death toll about twice that of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.