A catastrophic fire swept through the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory 100 years ago today. By the time it was over, 146 people had died. Many lay dead on the sidewalks off Washington Square in the middle of New York's Greenwich Village, having thrown themselves out windows to escape the flames. Many of the terrified victims — mostly young garment workers, as young as 14, and nearly all Italian or Jewish immigrant women — were engulfed by the devastating flames, unable to escape through the stairways that had been padlocked by the factory owners, and trapped beyond the reach of the firefighters' ladders.
The horrendous event was witnessed by thousands of bystanders, and it is nearly impossible to overstate the fire's profound impact in igniting multiple movements for reform — from the labor movement to the New Deal — fueling efforts to advance women's rights and to enact regulations requiring safe working conditions and the right to collective bargaining. It was a rallying cry that helped lead to universal suffrage and the ongoing fight for dignity for immigrant workers.
Many of those who witnessed this tragic event a century ago never forgot — not only the sound of the screams or the smell of the smoke — but the fact that the owners of the business had violently fought the garment workers' efforts to organize. Just two years earlier, the owners hired thugs to beat up the young women when they demonstrated in support of such modest improvements as sprinklers and unlocked stairwells. Following the tragic fire, efforts to seek justice from the courts were also stymied when the factory owners were acquitted of manslaughter: They had broken no laws because none existed to protect workplace safety in 1911.
via www.aclu.org