“TWA Reservations, Sheila speaking.” “I want to fly from Cincinnati to St. Louis next Saturday. Do you have something leaving around 11AM?” As I checked the OAG, Official Airline Guide, for connections for her, this being pre-computers, she asked where I was located. I let her know that I was in Chicago. She told me it was just on the news that some crazy person in Chicago was going down State Street setting fires to department stores. I joked about being next, because we were in an office above the Montgomery Ward’s Department Store on State Street. I set up her round trip reservations and arranged for the tickets to be mailed to her.
It was soon time for lunch. As I was descending in the elevator, an alarm went off. When I exited at the first floor, the alarms became louder. Ward’s customers started dashing out of the store. Fire engines soon surrounded the building. No one was coming out on the State Street side. I was worried about my co-workers. How were they going to get out safely?! In about 10 minutes, I had my answer. They had exited through the Dearborn side of the building. Phew!
The supervisors told us we were not allowed to go home. We needed to be back in front of the building in one hour. Everyone headed to the lakefront to enjoy the relaxing view. Soon we returned to the building. We were told to wait some more. Finally, the fire was out. The building was soggy and smoky, but we were told we had to go back to work. No one else was allowed back in. We had to show our TWA employee badges to be admitted to the building.
It was dark, no electricity. We had to climb 10 flights of stairs to get to the office. We sat in the smoke, under dripping ceilings, answering calls “TWA Reservations. Due to a SMALL fire in the building, we are without electricity. Our phones are operating on battery power. Please call back in 2 hours.” Many people objected, but soon reluctantly hung up. We were lying. It was a major fire!
The lights went on, later, and I finished my shift. I found out that the fire had started up again in one part of the building. It was so great to safely get out of that soggy smokebox and into fresh air outside.
I was only 21 years old and naïve. I didn’t realize that I had a right to refuse to go back into that dangerous building. They were risking our lives. TWA could have put on a recording that said the same things we 500 agents were stating. It was obviously dangerous since they didn’t allow Ward’s employees back in, or First National Bank’s office employees to return to their 11th floor office.
They eventually caught the pyromaniac. I don’t recall why he targeted department stores.
Whenever alarms go off now, wherever I am, I’m outta there!
Beth's Class 