Big Apple History . New York Living . The Triangle Tragedy


	Police with bodies of workers killed in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

Thousands of pounds of highly flammable fabric, rags, and rubbish lay piled on the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in Greenwich Village. And to prevent workers from taking breaks or stealing fabric, the doors to the fire escapes were kept locked.

It was all a recipe for disaster. And at 4:45 P.M. on March 25, 1911, disaster struck.

A single spark, maybe from a match or cigarette, caught somewhere, and within minutes, fire -- feeding on the fabric and rags -- raced through the building. Hundreds of workers, mostly young Italian and Jewish women in their teens, were trapped by the 9th floor's locked fire exit.

A few made it to another fire escape in the rear, but it soon collapsed. Workers died in the flames; others tried to slide down the elevator cable, but lost their grip. Dozens of girls -- their dresses on fire -- jumped from the windows.

William Shepard, a local reporter, joined hundreds of horrified spectators on the street below. "I learned a horrible sound," he wrote. "A more horrible sound than description can picture. It was the thud of a speeding, living body on a stone sidewalk."

The fiery spectacle, the young ages of the victims, and the sheer numbers -- 146 dead -- added up to a horrifying tragedy. New Yorkers were shocked, especially after the owners got off scot-free: no jail sentence, no fines, just $75 paid to some of the victims' families. In fact, they had broken no fire safety laws, because there weren't any. To some incensed New Yorkers that was the most shocking thing of all.

Soon, an amazingly diverse coalition, or political grouping, came together to demand an investigation into the city's thousands of factories. The message got through to City Hall and, most surprisingly, Tammany Hall, the political machine that elected most of New York's officials since the 1860s and was known for being corrupt. For decades, Tammany leaders had resisted factory investigations and reforms of almost any kind. They didn't want outsiders poking into the city's business.

But the shock of the Triangle fire was too great. A New York State Factory Investigating Commission was founded. Headed by two Tammany politicians -- State Senator Robert Wagner and State Assembly Speaker Al Smith -- it spent three years touring, interviewing, and holding public hearings.

In the end it made 60 recommendations -- most of which were quickly adopted. Among other things, the commission called for automatic sprinklers in buildings over seven stories high, doubling the number of fire inspectors, a 54-hour workweek for women, and new regulations on lighting, ventilation, washrooms, and dangerous equipment.

Illustration: Courtesy of the Tamiment Institute Library, New York University.