Union representatives, New Yorkers, and family members of the victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire gathered outside the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory memorial on the corner of Washington Place and Green Street in Greenwich Village on March 24 to remember the 146 victims who perished in one of the deadlifted industrial blazes in the city’s history.
On March 24, 1911, a fire caused by a cigarette carelessly thrown into a fabric scrap bin broke out in the sweatshop that occupied the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors of the Asch building. Water buckets, commonly used these days to extinguish fires, were empty, and soon, the workers, mostly immigrant girls and women, were surrounded by the raging inferno with no chance to escape.
One staircase was padlocked – a common practice in those days to prevent theft and unauthorized breaks – while another staircase had already been engulfed in flames. The one fire escape broke away from the building because it couldn’t hold the weight of the many workers trying to escape. They fell 100 feet to their certain demises while other workers died leaping out of windows, and firefighters could not extinguish the blaze since their ladders only reached the sixth floor.
The sweatshop owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, were put on trial for manslaughter but escaped prosecution. However, the tragedy galvanized America’s labor movement, leading to stronger workplace safety regulations, fair wages, and a series of fire safety regulations designed to prevent such a tragedy from happening again.
The 114th commemoration began with performances by the New York City Labor Chorus and dancers from the University of Delaware before a slew of speakers addressed the crowd. During the commemoration, members of FDNY Ladder 20 raised a ladder to the sixth floor to illustrate how limited the firefighting equipment was in 1911, while an FDNY tolled a bell when the victims’ names were read.
Speakers highlighted the fire’s impact on workplace safety reforms and union movements.
FDNY Commissioner Robert S. Tucker remarked that the fire changed the course of fire prevention and safety in New York City and throughout the country.
“[The fire] led to safety standards for workers and is the reason buildings in our city are designed now to be fire safety,” Tucker said. “In the FDNY, we learn from every tragedy and identify what went wrong, and work hard to make sure it never happens again.”
NYS Commissioner of Labor Roberta Reardon spoke on behalf of Governor Kathy Hochul. Reardon pointed out that the horrific event was a constant reminder of why the protections born from the tragic fire were essential to workers.
“This horrific event fundamentally changed the way we safeguard workers in New York state and indeed across the entire country,” Reardon pointed out. “I am so proud to say that New York boasts some of the strongest workplace protections thanks to the tireless work of our dedicated workers.”
Suzanne Pred Bass is the descendant of 23-year-old Rosie Weiner and Katie Weiner. Rosie Weiner perished in the fire while her sister Katie escaped the raging inferno by grabbing the cable of the last elevator leaving.
Pred Bass told amNewYork Metro that March 24 was a day to remember her great aunts and stand up for workers’ rights.
“The issues that are still with us and still resonate in terms of women’s rights, in terms of immigrant rights, in terms of worker safety across the world, and even in this country, these are still active issues,” Pred Bass elaborated.
8th-grade teacher Kimberly Schiller attended the commemoration with her 10-year-old daughter, Annalee. Schiller is involved with the Triangle Coalition and teaches her students about the tragic fire.
“My students don’t know what happened in the past,” Schiller explained. “They’re tuned doomed to relive it, so it’s my job to remember and honor the victims, but also teach them to be on the lookout for what not to do in the future and to speak up for others that are suffering.”
Dianna Maeurer carried a sashed blouse and wore a memorial sash with the name of Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire victim 18-year-old Fannie Hollander. Maeurer’s grandmother was also a factory worker, and it was important for Maeurer to keep the memories of the victims alive.
“Sadly, a lot of this is still going on around the world,” Maeurer pointed out.
Fannie Hollander’s great nieces, Elizabeth Wissner-Gross and Dr. Loren Green, attend the memorial every year.
Wissner-Gross shared that her grandfather had to identify his sister’s body and always talked about how horrifying it was.
“It’s a very important event. So many laws about the fires in New York and fire safety throughout the United States have resulted from this fire,” Wissner-Gross said.
Her sister, Dr. Green, added, “This changed New York Fire laws and National Fire laws and perhaps International Fire laws. The poor women were locked in the building from the outside. The Jewish and Italian women who died in this fire were all trapped because [the owners] were suspicious that they would take a little piece of fabric.”
