Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

The worst factory fire in the history of New York City. It occurred on 25 March 1911 in the Asch building at the northwest corner of Washington and Greene streets, where the Triangle Shirtwaist Company occupied the top three of ten floors; five hundred women were employed there, mostly Jewish immigrants between the ages of thirteen and twenty-three. To keep the women at their sewing machines the proprietors had locked the doors leading to the exits. The fire began shortly after 4:30 p.m. in the cutting room on the eighth floor, and fed by thousands of pounds of fabric it spread rapidly. Panicked workers rushed to the stairs, the freight elevator, and the fire escape. Most on the eighth and tenth floors escaped; dozens on the ninth floor died, unable to force open the locked door to the exit. The rear fire escape collapsed, killing many and eliminating an escape route for others still trapped. Some tried to slide down elevator cables but lost their grip; many more, their dresses on fire, jumped to their death from open windows. Pump Engine Company 20 and Ladder Company 20 arrived quickly but were hindered by the bodies of victims who had jumped. The ladders of the fire department extended only to the sixth floor, and life nets broke when workers jumped in groups of three and four. Additional companies were summoned by four more alarms transmitted in rapid succession.

A total of 146 women died in less than fifteen minutes, more than in any other fire in the city except for that aboard the General Slocum in 1904. Although there was widespread revulsion and rage over the working conditions that had contributed to the fire, many defended the right of shop owners to resist government safety regulation, and some in government insisted that they were at any rate powerless to impose it. The owners of the company were charged with manslaughter and later acquitted but i 1914 were ordered by a judge to pay damages of $75 each to the families of twenty-three victims who had sued. The Factory Investigating Commission of 1911 gathered testimony, and later that year the city establish department additional powers to improve factory safety. The event crystallized support for efforts to organize workers in the garment district and in particular for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. It remains one of the most vivid symbols for the American labor movement of the need for government to ensure a safe workplace.

Leon Stein: The Triangle Fire (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1962)

Gus Johnson: The Fire Buff's Handbook of the New York Fire Department, 1900-1975 (New York: Fire Department of New York, 1977)

Donald J. Cannon

The Encyclopaedia of New York City