03-25-2011, 04:46 PM
this is being commemorated today, 100 years later.
rest of story here:
http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/24/news/Tri...htm?hpt=C1
by Allan Chernoff, CNN Sr. Correspondent March 25, 2011
NEW YORK (CNN) -- As labor unions battle to retain collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin, Ohio and other states, they are marking the centennial of a tragic factory fire that started the movement that first won those rights.
A scene of surreal horror engulfed the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in Manhattan 100 years ago on March 25, 1911 during a disaster that ultimately would lead to better and safer conditions for all working people in the United States.
It was a Saturday afternoon, 4:40 p.m., shortly before closing time. About 500 young, low-paid immigrant garment workers, who labored six-days-a-week, were crammed by their sewing machines and cutting boards, busy creating the popular women's blouses that buttoned down to the waist, known then as shirtwaists.
The exact cause was never pinpointed but historians believe someone dropped either a cigarette or a match. With piles of fabric strewn through the factory floor flames swept through the 8th floor, then to the 9th and 10th floors of the Asch building, what was then considered a modern high-rise structure.
Panic reigned as the inferno spread, plumes of smoke rising skyward. A crush of workers attempted to cram down a narrow stairwell, others ran for the elevator. Survivors would later testify doors to a second stairwell were locked. Scores were trapped near the windows.
Triangle's workers were confronted with a horrifying instant decision -- burn to death or jump. Some didn't even get that choice; they were already on fire when they leaped.
A growing crowd outside watched in disbelief, including United Press correspondent William Shepherd.
"I learned a new sound -- a more horrible sound than description can picture. It was the thud of a speeding, living body on a stone sidewalk," Shepherd wrote. "Up in the [ninth] floor girls were burning to death before our very eyes. They were jammed in the windows.
"Down came the bodies in a shower, burning, smoking-flaming bodies, with disheveled hair trailing upward."
Hook and ladder company 20 rushed the fire department's tallest ladder to the scene where firefighters cranked it to its maximum length. But it was not high enough; the ladder reached only to the 6th floor. Some women leaped towards it only to drop to the hard concrete.
Shepherd reported 62 people jumped to their deaths. Another 50 burned bodies were found on the 9th floor. In all 146 Triangle workers, mostly young, immigrant women -- many just teenagers -- were killed.
One of those who leapt to her death was 19-year old Rose Oringer, who had emigrated from a small town in what is now Ukraine. She earned $10-a-week and was engaged to be married, according to her descendants.
HBO
From left, Max Florin, Fannie Rosen, Dora Evans and Josephine Cammarata were among the final six unidentified victims of the Triangle Waist Company factory fire of 1911.
rest of story here:
http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/24/news/Tri...htm?hpt=C1
by Allan Chernoff, CNN Sr. Correspondent March 25, 2011
NEW YORK (CNN) -- As labor unions battle to retain collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin, Ohio and other states, they are marking the centennial of a tragic factory fire that started the movement that first won those rights.
A scene of surreal horror engulfed the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in Manhattan 100 years ago on March 25, 1911 during a disaster that ultimately would lead to better and safer conditions for all working people in the United States.
It was a Saturday afternoon, 4:40 p.m., shortly before closing time. About 500 young, low-paid immigrant garment workers, who labored six-days-a-week, were crammed by their sewing machines and cutting boards, busy creating the popular women's blouses that buttoned down to the waist, known then as shirtwaists.
The exact cause was never pinpointed but historians believe someone dropped either a cigarette or a match. With piles of fabric strewn through the factory floor flames swept through the 8th floor, then to the 9th and 10th floors of the Asch building, what was then considered a modern high-rise structure.
Panic reigned as the inferno spread, plumes of smoke rising skyward. A crush of workers attempted to cram down a narrow stairwell, others ran for the elevator. Survivors would later testify doors to a second stairwell were locked. Scores were trapped near the windows.
Triangle's workers were confronted with a horrifying instant decision -- burn to death or jump. Some didn't even get that choice; they were already on fire when they leaped.
A growing crowd outside watched in disbelief, including United Press correspondent William Shepherd.
"I learned a new sound -- a more horrible sound than description can picture. It was the thud of a speeding, living body on a stone sidewalk," Shepherd wrote. "Up in the [ninth] floor girls were burning to death before our very eyes. They were jammed in the windows.
"Down came the bodies in a shower, burning, smoking-flaming bodies, with disheveled hair trailing upward."
Hook and ladder company 20 rushed the fire department's tallest ladder to the scene where firefighters cranked it to its maximum length. But it was not high enough; the ladder reached only to the 6th floor. Some women leaped towards it only to drop to the hard concrete.
Shepherd reported 62 people jumped to their deaths. Another 50 burned bodies were found on the 9th floor. In all 146 Triangle workers, mostly young, immigrant women -- many just teenagers -- were killed.
One of those who leapt to her death was 19-year old Rose Oringer, who had emigrated from a small town in what is now Ukraine. She earned $10-a-week and was engaged to be married, according to her descendants.
HBO
From left, Max Florin, Fannie Rosen, Dora Evans and Josephine Cammarata were among the final six unidentified victims of the Triangle Waist Company factory fire of 1911.
