Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire - wikipedia Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire Coordinates : 40 ° 43 ′ 48 '' N 73 ° 59 ′ 43 '' W ﻿ / ﻿ 40.730085 ° N 73.995356 ° W ﻿ / 40.730085 ; - 73.995356 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire Date March 25, 1911 ( 1911 - 03 - 25 ) Time 4 : 40 PM ( Eastern Time ) Location Asch Building, Manhattan, New York City Deaths 146 Non-fatal injuries 71 The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911 was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city, and one of the deadliest in US history. The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers -- 123 women and 23 men -- who died from the fire, smoke inhalation, or falling or jumping to their deaths. Most of the victims were recent Italian and Jewish immigrant women aged 16 to 23 ; of the victims whose ages are known, the oldest victim was Providenza Panno at 43, and the youngest were 14 - year - olds Kate Leone and `` Sara '' Rosaria Maltese. The factory was located on the eighth, ninth and tenth floors of the Asch Building, at 23 -- 29 Washington Place in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan. The 1901 building still stands today and is known as the Brown Building. It is part of and owned by New York University. Because the owners had locked the doors to the stairwells and exits -- a then - common practice to prevent workers from taking unauthorized breaks and to reduce theft -- many of the workers who could not escape from the burning building simply jumped from the high windows. The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies ' Garment Workers ' Union ( ILGWU ), which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers. The building has been designated a National Historic Landmark and a New York City landmark. Contents 1 Fire 2 Aftermath 3 Consequences and legacy 4 Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition 4.1 Centennial 4.2 Permanent memorial 5 In popular culture 6 See also 7 References 8 External links Fire A horse - drawn fire engine en route to the burning factory The Triangle Waist Company factory occupied the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors of the 10 - story Asch Building on the northwest corner of Greene Street and Washington Place, just east of Washington Square Park, in the Greenwich Village area of New York City. Under the ownership of Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, the factory produced women 's blouses, known as `` shirtwaists. '' The factory normally employed about 500 workers, mostly young immigrant women, who worked nine hours a day on weekdays plus seven hours on Saturdays, earning for their 52 hours of work between $7 and $12 a week, the equivalent of $171 to $293 a week in 2016 currency, or $3.20 to $5.50 per hour. As the workday was ending on the afternoon of Saturday, March 25, 1911, a fire flared up at approximately 4 : 40 PM in a scrap bin under one of the cutter 's tables at the northeast corner of the eighth floor. The first fire alarm was sent at 4 : 45 PM by a passerby on Washington Place who saw smoke coming from the eighth floor. Both owners of the factory were in attendance and had invited their children to the factory on that afternoon. The Fire Marshal concluded that the likely cause of the fire was the disposal of an unextinguished match or cigarette butt in the scrap bin, which held two months ' worth of accumulated cuttings by the time of the fire. Beneath the table in the wooden bin were hundreds of pounds of scraps which were left over from the several thousand shirtwaists that had been cut at that table. The scraps piled up from the last time the bin was emptied, coupled with the hanging fabrics that surrounded it ; the steel trim was the only thing that was not highly flammable. Although smoking was banned in the factory, cutters were known to sneak cigarettes, exhaling the smoke through their lapels to avoid detection. A New York Times article suggested that the fire may have been started by the engines running the sewing machines. A series of articles in Collier 's noted a pattern of arson among certain sectors of the garment industry whenever their particular product fell out of fashion or had excess inventory in order to collect insurance. The Insurance Monitor, a leading industry journal, observed that shirtwaists had recently fallen out of fashion, and that insurance for manufacturers of them was `` fairly saturated with moral hazard. '' Although Blanck and Harris were known for having had four previous suspicious fires at their companies, arson was not suspected in this case. The building 's south side, with windows marked X from which fifty women jumped Sixty - two people jumped or fell from windows `` The Washington Place Fire '' An eyewitness account 00 : 08 : 09 Problems playing this file ? See media help. A bookkeeper on the eighth floor was able to warn employees on the tenth floor via telephone, but there was no audible alarm and no way to contact staff on the ninth floor. According to survivor Yetta Lubitz, the first warning of the fire on the ninth floor arrived at the same time as the fire itself. Although the floor had a number of exits, including two freight elevators, a fire escape, and stairways down to Greene Street and Washington Place, flames prevented workers from descending the Greene Street stairway, and the door to the Washington Place stairway was locked to prevent theft by the workers ; the locked doors allowed managers to check the women 's purses. The foreman who held the stairway door key had already escaped by another route. Dozens of employees escaped the fire by going up the Greene Street stairway to the roof. Other survivors were able to jam themselves into the elevators while they continued to operate. Within three minutes, the Greene Street stairway became unusable in both directions. Terrified employees crowded onto the single exterior fire escape, which city officials had allowed Asch to erect instead of the required third staircase. It was a flimsy and poorly anchored iron structure which may have been broken before the fire. It soon twisted and collapsed from the heat and overload, spilling about 20 victims nearly 100 feet ( 30 m ) to their deaths on the concrete pavement below. Elevator operators Joseph Zito and Gaspar Mortillalo saved many lives by traveling three times up to the ninth floor for passengers, but Mortillalo was eventually forced to give up when the rails of his elevator buckled under the heat. Some victims pried the elevator doors open and jumped into the empty shaft, trying to slide down the cables or to land on top of the car. The weight and impacts of these bodies warped the elevator car and made it impossible for Zito to make another attempt. William Gunn Shepard, a reporter at the tragedy, would say that `` I learned a new sound that day, a sound more horrible than description can picture -- the thud of a speeding living body on a stone sidewalk ''. Even once firefighters arrived, their ladders were only long enough to reach as high as the sixth to seventh floors. A large crowd of bystanders gathered on the street, witnessing 62 people jumping or falling to their deaths from the burning building. Louis Waldman, later a New York Socialist state assemblyman, described the scene years later : One Saturday afternoon in March of that year -- March 25, to be precise -- I was sitting at one of the reading tables in the old Astor Library.... It was a raw, unpleasant day and the comfortable reading room seemed a delightful place to spend the remaining few hours until the library closed. I was deeply engrossed in my book when I became aware of fire engines racing past the building. By this time I was sufficiently Americanized to be fascinated by the sound of fire engines. Along with several others in the library, I ran out to see what was happening, and followed crowds of people to the scene of the fire. A few blocks away, the Asch Building at the corner of Washington Place and Greene Street was ablaze. When we arrived at the scene, the police had thrown up a cordon around the area and the firemen were helplessly fighting the blaze. The eighth, ninth, and tenth stories of the building were now an enormous roaring cornice of flames. Word had spread through the East Side, by some magic of terror, that the plant of the Triangle Waist Company was on fire and that several hundred workers were trapped. Horrified and helpless, the crowds -- I among them -- looked up at the burning building, saw girl after girl appear at the reddened windows, pause for a terrified moment, and then leap to the pavement below, to land as mangled, bloody pulp. This went on for what seemed a ghastly eternity. Occasionally a girl who had hesitated too long was licked by pursuing flames and, screaming with clothing and hair ablaze, plunged like a living torch to the street. Life nets held by the firemen were torn by the impact of the falling bodies. The emotions of the crowd were indescribable. Women were hysterical, scores fainted ; men wept as, in paroxysms of frenzy, they hurled themselves against the police lines. The remainder waited until smoke and fire overcame them. The fire department arrived quickly but was unable to stop the flames, as there were no ladders available that could reach beyond the sixth floor. The fallen bodies and falling victims also made it difficult for the fire department to approach the building. Bodies of the victims being placed in coffins on the sidewalk People and horses draped in black walk in procession in memory of the victims Aftermath Although early references of the death toll ranged from 141 to 148, almost all modern references agree that 146 people died as a result of the fire : 123 women and 23 men. Most victims died of burns, asphyxiation, blunt impact injuries, or a combination of the three. The first person to jump was a man, and another man was seen kissing a young woman at the window before they both jumped to their deaths. Bodies of the victims were taken to Charities Pier ( also called Misery Lane ), located at 26th street and the East River, for identification by friends and relatives. Victims were interred in sixteen different cemeteries. Twenty - two victims of the fire were buried by the Hebrew Free Burial Association in a special section at Mount Richmond Cemetery. In some instances, their tombstones refer to the fire. Six victims remained unidentified until Michael Hirsch, a historian, completed four years of researching newspaper articles and other sources for missing persons and was able to identify each of them by name. Those six victims were buried together in the Cemetery of the Evergreens in Brooklyn. Originally interred elsewhere on the grounds, their remains now lie beneath a monument to the tragedy, a large marble slab featuring a kneeling woman. Consequences and legacy The company 's owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, who survived the fire by fleeing to the building 's roof when the fire began, were indicted on charges of first - and second - degree manslaughter in mid-April ; the pair 's trial began on December 4, 1911. Max Steuer, counsel for the defendants, managed to destroy the credibility of one of the survivors, Kate Alterman, by asking her to repeat her testimony a number of times, which she did without altering key phrases. Steuer argued to the jury that Alterman and possibly other witnesses had memorized their statements, and might even have been told what to say by the prosecutors. The prosecution charged that the owners knew the exit doors were locked at the time in question. The investigation found that the locks were intended to be locked during working hours based on the findings from the fire, but the defense stressed that the prosecution failed to prove that the owners knew that. The jury acquitted the two men of first - and second - degree manslaughter, but they were found liable of wrongful death during a subsequent civil suit in 1913 in which plaintiffs were awarded compensation in the amount of $75 per deceased victim. The insurance company paid Blanck and Harris about $60,000 more than the reported losses, or about $400 per casualty. In 1913, Blanck was once again arrested for locking the door in his factory during working hours. He was fined $20. Rose Schneiderman, a prominent socialist and union activist, gave a speech at the memorial meeting held in the Metropolitan Opera House on April 2, 1911, to an audience largely made up of the members of the Women 's Trade Union League. She used the fire as an argument for factory workers to organize : Tombstone of fire victim Tillie Kupferschmidt at the Hebrew Free Burial Association 's Mount Richmond Cemetery I would be a traitor to these poor burned bodies if I came here to talk good fellowship. We have tried you good people of the public and we have found you wanting... We have tried you citizens ; we are trying you now, and you have a couple of dollars for the sorrowing mothers, brothers and sisters by way of a charity gift. But every time the workers come out in the only way they know to protest against conditions which are unbearable, the strong hand of the law is allowed to press down heavily upon us. Public officials have only words of warning to us -- warning that we must be intensely peaceable, and they have the workhouse just back of all their warnings. The strong hand of the law beats us back, when we rise, into the conditions that make life unbearable. I ca n't talk fellowship to you who are gathered here. Too much blood has been spilled. I know from my experience it is up to the working people to save themselves. The only way they can save themselves is by a strong working - class movement. Others in the community, and in particular in the ILGWU, drew a different lesson from events. In New York City, a Committee on Public Safety was formed, headed by eyewitness Frances Perkins, to identify specific problems and lobby for new legislation, such as the bill to grant workers shorter hours in a work week, known as the `` 54 - hour Bill ''. The committee 's representatives in Albany obtained the backing of Tammany Hall 's Al Smith, the Majority Leader of the Assembly, and Robert F. Wagner, the Majority Leader of the Senate, and this collaboration of machine politicians and reformers -- also known as `` do - gooders '' or `` goo - goos '' -- got results, especially since Tammany 's chief, Charles F. Murphy, realized the advantage to be had from being on the side of the angels. The New York State Legislature then created the Factory Investigating Commission to `` investigate factory conditions in this and other cities and to report remedial measures of legislation to prevent hazard or loss of life among employees through fire, unsanitary conditions, and occupational diseases. '' The Commission was chaired by Wagner and co-chaired by Al Smith. They held a series of widely publicized investigations around the state, interviewing 222 witnesses and taking 3,500 pages of testimony. They hired field agents to do on - site inspections of factories. They started with the issue of fire safety and moved on to broader issues of the risks of injury in the factory environment. Their findings led to thirty - eight new laws regulating labor in New York state, and gave them a reputation as leading progressive reformers working on behalf of the working class. In the process, they changed Tammany 's reputation from mere corruption to progressive endeavors to help the workers. New York City 's Fire Chief John Kenlon told the investigators that his department had identified more than 200 factories where conditions made a fire like that at the Triangle Factory possible. The State Commissions 's reports helped modernize the state 's labor laws, making New York State `` one of the most progressive states in terms of labor reform. '' New laws mandated better building access and egress, fireproofing requirements, the availability of fire extinguishers, the installation of alarm systems and automatic sprinklers, better eating and toilet facilities for workers, and limited the number of hours that women and children could work. In the years from 1911 to 1913, sixty of the sixty - four new laws recommended by the Commission were legislated with the support of Governor William Sulzer. As a result of the fire, the American Society of Safety Engineers was founded in New York City on October 14, 1911. The last living survivor of the fire was Rose Freedman, née Rosenfeld, who died in Beverly Hills, California, in 2001 at the age of 107. She was two days away from her 18th birthday at the time of the fire, which she survived by following the company 's executives and being rescued from the roof of the building. As a result of her experience, she became a lifelong supporter of unions. Remember the Triangle fire Coalition Logo The Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition is an alliance of more than 200 organizations and individuals formed in 2008 to encourage and coordinate nationwide activities commemorating the centennial of the fire and to create a permanent public art memorial to honor its victims. The founding partners included Workers United, the New York City Fire Museum, New York University ( the current owner of the building ), Workmen 's Circle, Museum at Eldridge Street, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, the Gotham Center for New York City History, the Bowery Poetry Club and others. Members of the Coalition include arts organizations, schools, workers ' rights groups, labor unions, human rights and women 's rights groups, ethnic organizations, historical preservation societies, activists, and scholars, as well as families of the victims and survivors. The Coalition grew out of a public art project called `` Chalk '' created by New York City filmmaker Ruth Sergel. Every year beginning in 2004, Sergel and volunteer artists went across New York City on the anniversary of the fire to inscribe in chalk the names, ages, and causes of death of the victims in front of their former homes, often including drawings of flowers, tombstones or a triangle. Centennial Hilda Solis, the American Secretary of Labor, seen on the overhead screen, speaking at the Centennial Memorial ; the Brown ( Asch ) Building is on the far right. The commemoration drew thousands of people, many holding aloft shirtwaists with the names of the victims as they listened to speakers. From July 2009 through the weeks leading up to the 100th anniversary, the Coalition served as a clearinghouse to network some 200 activities as varied as academic conferences, films, theater performances, art shows, concerts, readings, awareness campaigns, walking tours, and parades that were held in and around New York City, and in cities across the nation, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, Boston and Washington, D.C. The ceremony, which was held in front of the building where the fire took place, was preceded by a march through Greenwich Village by thousands of people, some carrying shirtwaists -- women 's blouses -- on poles, or wearing sashes commemorating the names of those who died in the fire. Speakers included the United States Secretary of Labor, Hilda L. Solis, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the actor Danny Glover, and Suzanne Pred Bass, the grandniece of Rosie Weiner, a young woman killed in the blaze. Most of the speakers that day called for the strengthening of workers ' rights and organized labor. At 4 : 45 PM EST, the moment the first fire alarm was sounded in 1911, hundreds of bells rang out in cities and towns across the nation. For this commemorative act, the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition organized hundreds of churches, schools, fire houses, and private individuals in the New York City region and across the nation. The Coalition maintains on its website a national map denoting each of the bells that rang that afternoon. Permanent memorial The Coalition has launched an effort to create a permanent public art memorial for the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire at the site of the 1911 fire in lower Manhattan. In 2012, the Coalition announced a national design competition for the memorial, and formed a design search committee, with representatives from Workers United, New York University, the New York City Fire Department, the Kheel Center for Labor - Management Documentation & Archives, Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, Manhattan Community Board 2, family members of the victims, historians, and community members. On December 22, 2015, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that $1.5 million from state economic development funds would be earmarked to build the Triangle Fire Memorial. Plans for the memorial include steel panels that wrap around the building, as well as upper and lower panels that will list the names of the victims and tell the story of the fire. A reflective steel beam will extend from the corner of the building to the eighth floor, the place of origin for the fire. In 2011, the Coalition established that the goal of the permanent memorial would be : To honor the memory of those who died from the fire ; To affirm the dignity of all workers ; To value women 's work ; To remember the movement for worker safety and social justice stirred by this tragedy ; To inspire future generations of activists In popular culture Films and television The Crime of Carelessness ( 1912 ), 14 minute Thomas A. Edison, Inc. short inspired by the Triangle Factory fire, directed by James Oppenheim Children of Eve ( 1915 ), written and directed by John H. Collins With These Hands ( 1950 ), directed by Jack Arnold The Triangle Factory Fire Scandal ( 1979 ), directed by Mel Stuart, produced by Mel Brez and Ethel Brez In the 1981 film American Pop, Zalmie 's mother dies in the fire. Those Who Know Do n't Tell : The Ongoing Battle for Workers ' Health ( 1990 ), produced by Abby Ginzberg, narrated by Studs Terkel Episode 4 of Ric Burns ' 1999 PBS series New York : A Documentary Film, `` The Power and the People ( 1898 -- 1918 ) '', extensively covered the fire. The Living Century : Three Miracles ( 2001 ) premiered on PBS, focusing on the life of 107 - year - old Rose Freedman ( died 2001 ), who became the last living survivor of the fire. American Experience : Triangle Fire ( 2011 ), documentary produced and directed by Jamila Wignot, narrated by Michael Murphy Triangle Remembering the Fire ( 2011 ) premiered on HBO on March 21, four days short of the 100th anniversary. A door knob from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory is an artifact in the TV series Warehouse 13, making an appearance in episodes `` Past Imperfect '' and `` The 40th Floor '' ( 2011 ). The character Millie in the Hulu TV series Deadbeat died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. In Season 6, Episode 1 of Veep, Selina Meyers calls her foundation offices the `` Triangle Shirtwaist offices ''. Music `` Dos lid fun nokh dem fayer '' ( `` The Song from after the Fire '' ) by Yiddish lyricist Charles Simon, 1912. `` My Little Shirtwaist Fire '' by Rasputina, from their 1996 album Thanks for the Ether. `` The Triangle Fire '' by The Brandos, from their 2006 album Over The Border. `` Sweatshop Fire '' by Curtis Eller, from his 2008 album Wirewalkers and Assassins. `` Washington Square '', by Si Kahn, from his album Courage Theatre and dance In Ain Gordon 's play Birdseed Bundles ( 2000 ), the Triangle fire is a major dramatic engine of the story. The musical Rags -- book by Joseph Stein, lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, and music by Charles Strouse -- incorporates the Triangle Shirtwaist fire in the second act. In March 2012, the modern dance concert One Hundred Forty - Six by Denise J. Murphy explored the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire through movement, text, video, photography and original music. Scintille ( `` Sparks '' ) is a 2012 Italian political play by Laura Sicignano which centers on the fire and the circumstances surrounding it. Triangle, a stage musical with music by Curtis Moore, lyrics by Thomas Mizer, and book by Thomas Mizer, Curtis Moore and Joshua Scher, deals with the Shirtwaist Factory fire on the 100th anniversary of the tragedy through the eyes of a scientist whose laboratory is located in the Asch Building. The play was premiered at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, California on July 2, 2015. Literature Triangle : The Fire That Changed America by David Von Drehle, 2003 Triangle, a 2006 novel by Katharine Weber, tells the story of the last living survivor of the fire, whose story hides the truth of her experience on March 25, 1911, raising the questions of who owns history and whose stories prevail. Margaret Peterson Haddix 's 2007 historical novel for young adults, Uprising, deals with immigration, women 's rights, and the labor movement, with the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire as a central element. Esther Friesner 's Threads and Flames deals with a young girl, named Raisa, who works at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory at the time of the fire. Deborah Hopkinson 's 2004 historical novel for young adults, Hear My Sorrow : The Diary of Angela Denoto. Mary Jane Auch 's 2004 historical novel for young adults, Ashes of Roses tells the tale of Margaret Rose Nolan, a young girl who works at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory at the time of the fire, along with her sister and her friends. The comic book The Goon issue # 37 tells the story of a similar fire at a girdle factory that takes the lives of 142 women who worked there. After the fire, the surviving women attempt to unionize and the Goon comes to their aid after union busters try to force them back to work. Author Eric Powell specifically cites the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire as an inspiration for the story. Vivian Schurfranz 's novel Rachel, from the Sunfire series of historical romances for young adults, is about a Polish Jewish immigrant girl who works at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory at the time of the fire. In issue # 28 of the comic `` The Dreaming '', The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory ( and the fire specifically ) is featured heavily. Robert Pinsky 's poem Shirt describes the fire. `` Mayn Rue Platz '' ( My Resting Place ), a poem written by former Triangle employee Morris Rosenfeld, has been set to music, in Yiddish and English, by many artists, including Geoff Berner and June Tabor. In Alice Hoffman 's novel The Museum of Extraordinary Things, the fire is one of the main elements of the plot. `` Afterlife '', a 2013 short story by Stephen King, centers around Isaac Harris in Purgatory talking about the fire. In a section of Edward Rutherfurd 's novel New York, a protagonist 's sister, from an Italian immigrant family, dies after jumping from a window to escape the fire. Sholem Asch 's 1946 novel East River tells the story of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire through the eyes of Irish girl who was working at the factory at a time of the fire. See also Death portal Disasters portal New York City portal Fire portal Organized labour portal 2012 Dhaka fire, a similar fire in a garment factory in Bangladesh 2013 Savar building collapse -- the deadliest garment - factory accident in history International Women 's Day List of disasters in New York City by death toll List of fires Occupational Safety and Health Administration Rhinelander Waldo, N.Y.C. Fire Commissioner in 1911 References Notes Jump up ^ `` Sweatshop Tragedy Ignites Fight for Workplace Safety '' on the American Postal Workers Union website Jump up ^ `` Triangle Shirtwaist Fire ''. Jewish Women : An Historical Encyclopedia on Jewish Women 's Archive Jump up ^ Stacy, Greg. `` Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Marks a Sad Centennial ''. NPR.org via Online Journal ( March 24, 2011 ) Jump up ^ Diner, Hasia R. `` Lecture : The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and the Shared Italian - Jewish History of New York '' Italian - American Magazine ( March 16, 2011 ) Jump up ^ Von Drehle, David. `` List of Victims ''. Triangle : The Fire That Changed America. Retrieved November 28, 2012. Jump up ^ `` 23 Washington Place, Manhattan '' New York City Geographic Information System map ^ Jump up to : Lifflander, Matthew L. `` The Tragedy That Changed New York '' New York Archives ( Summer 2011 ) Jump up ^ Gale Harris ( March 25, 2003 ). `` Brown Building ( formerly Asch Building ) Designation Report '' ( PDF ). New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. Jump up ^ `` Complete Transcript of Triangle Fire ''. Cornell University ILR School DigitalCommons@ILR. November 1, 1911. p. 22. Retrieved March 21, 2011. Jump up ^ von Drehle, p. 105 Jump up ^ CPI Inflation Calculator United States Bureau of Labor Statistics ^ Jump up to : von Drehle, p. 118 Jump up ^ Stein, p. 224 ^ Jump up to : von Drehle, pp. 162 -- 163 Jump up ^ Stein p. 33 Jump up ^ von Drehle, p. 119 Jump up ^ von Drehle, p. 131 Jump up ^ von Drehle, pp. 141 -- 2 Jump up ^ Lange, Brenda. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, Infobase Publishing, 2008, page 58 Jump up ^ PBS : `` Introduction : Triangle Fire '', accessed March 1, 2011 Jump up ^ Hall, Angus ( ed. ) ( 1987 ) Crimes of Horror Reed Editions. p. 23 ISBN 1 - 85051 - 170 - 5 Jump up ^ von Drehle, pp. 143 -- 4 Jump up ^ von Drehle, p. 157 Jump up ^ von Drehle, p. 126 Jump up ^ `` The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire ''. Retrieved 2015 - 06 - 10. Jump up ^ Shepherd, William G. ( March 27, 1911 ). `` Eyewitness at the Triangle ''. Retrieved September 2, 2007. Jump up ^ Waldman, Louis ( 1944 ). Labor Lawyer. New York : E.P. Dutton. pp. 32 -- 33. ASIN B0000D5IYA. Jump up ^ Staff ( March 26, 1911 ) `` 141 Men and Girls Die in Waist Factory Fire '' The New York Times. Accessed December 20, 2009. Jump up ^ Staff ( March 26, 1911 ). `` New York Fire Kills 148 : Girl Victims Leap to Death from Factory '' ( reprint ). Chicago Sunday Tribune. p. 1. Retrieved October 3, 2007. ^ Jump up to : Berger, Joseph ( February 20, 2011 ). `` 100 Years Later, the Roll of the Dead in a Factory Fire Is Complete ''. The New York Times. Retrieved February 21, 2011. ^ Jump up to : von Drehle, passim Jump up ^ Staff ( March 26, 1997 ) `` In Memoriam : The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire '' The New York Times Jump up ^ `` The Triangle Factory Fire ''. The Kheel Center, Cornell University. Jump up ^ `` 98th Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire ''. New York City Fire Department. Jump up ^ `` Labor Department Remembers 95th Anniversary of Sweatshop Fire ''. U.S. Department of Labor. Jump up ^ Stein, passim Jump up ^ von Drehle, pp. 271 -- 83 Jump up ^ von Drehle, pp. 155 -- 7 Jump up ^ Stein, p. 100 Jump up ^ Dwyer, Jim ( March 31, 2009 ). `` On Staten Island, A Jewish Cemetery Where All Are Equals In Death ''. The New York Times. Jump up ^ `` HFBA Timeline ''. Retrieved March 26, 2009. Jump up ^ `` Evergreens Cemetery ''. Retrieved May 28, 2009. Evergreens Cemetery reports that there were originally eight burials, one male and six females, along with some unidentified remains. One of the female victims was later identified and her body removed to another cemetery. Other accounts do not mention the unidentified remains at all. Rose Freedman was the last living survivor of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. ( 1893 -- 2001 ) Jump up ^ Swanson, Lillian ( April 8, 2011 ). `` A Grave Marker Unveiled for Six Triangle Fire Victims Who Had Been Unknowns ''. The Jewish Daily Forward. Jump up ^ Stein p. 158 Jump up ^ von Drehle, p. 220 Jump up ^ Hoenig, John M. `` The Triangle Fire of 1911 '', History Magazine, April / May 2005. Jump up ^ Schneiderman, Rose. `` We Have Found You Wanting '' ( reprint ). Jump up ^ Jones, Gerard ( 2005 ). Men of Tomorrow. New York : Basic Books. ISBN 0 - 465 - 03657 - 0. Jump up ^ Downey, Kirsten. The Woman Behind the New Deal. Nan A. Talese, 2009 pp. 33 - 36 Jump up ^ Staff ( October 11, 1911 ) `` Seek Way to Lessen Factory Dangers '', The New York Times Jump up ^ `` Robert Ferdinand Wagner '' in Dictionary of American Biography ( 1977 ) Jump up ^ Slayton, Robert A. ( 2001 ) Empire Statesman : The Rise and Redemption of Al Smith New York : Free Press. ISBN 0684863022 Jump up ^ Staff ( October 14, 1911 ) `` Factory Firetraps Found by Hundreds '' The New York Times Jump up ^ Greenwald, Richard A. ( 2005 ) The Triangle Fire, the Protocols of Peace, and Industrial Democracy in Progressive Era New York Philadelphia : Temple University Press, p. 128 Jump up ^ Staff ( March 19, 2011 ) `` Triangle Shirtwaist : The birth of the New Deal '' The Economist p. 39. Jump up ^ `` At the State Archives : Online Exhibit Remembers the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire '' New York Archives ( Summer 2011 ) Jump up ^ American Society of Safety Engineers ( 2001 ). `` A Brief History of the American Society of Safety Engineers : A Century of Safety ''. Retrieved March 20, 2011. ^ Jump up to : Martin, Douglas ( February 17, 2001 ) `` Rose Freedman, Last Survivor of Triangle Fire, Dies at 107 '' The New York Times ^ Jump up to : Greenhouse, Steven. `` City Room : In a Tragedy, a Mission to Remember '' New York Times ( March 19, 2011 ) Jump up ^ Jannuzzi, Kristine. `` NYU Commemorates the 100th Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire ''. NYU Alumni Connect ( January 2011 ) on the New York University website Jump up ^ Solis, Hilda L. `` What the Triangle Shirtwaist fire means for workers now '' Washington Post ( March 18. 2011 ) Jump up ^ `` Chalk website ''. Streetpictures.org. March 25, 1911. Retrieved August 7, 2013. Jump up ^ Molyneux, Michael ( April 3, 2005 ) `` City Lore : Memorials in Chalk '' The New York Times Jump up ^ Fouhy, Beth. `` NYC marks 100th anniversary of Triangle fire '' Associated Press ( March 25, 2011 ) on MSNBC.com Jump up ^ Safronova, Valeriya and Hirshon, Nicholas. `` Remembering tragic 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist inferno, marchers flood Greenwich Village streets '' New York Daily News ( March 26, 2011 ) Jump up ^ `` Bells '' on the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition website Jump up ^ Swanson, Lillian. `` Paying Tribute To the Fire 's Pained Legacy '' The Jewish Daily Forward ( March 4, 2011 ) Jump up ^ Saulnier, Beth. `` Mass Appeal '' Cornell Alumni Magazine ( March / April 2011 ) Jump up ^ Greenhouse, Steven. ( December 22, 2015 ) `` $1.5 Million State Grant to Pay for Triangle Fire Memorial '' The New York Times Jump up ^ `` Memorial to honor Triangle Shirtwaist fire victims ''. Retrieved 2017 - 09 - 05. Jump up ^ The Crime of Carelessness on IMDb Jump up ^ IMDb : Children of Eve ( 1915 ) Retrieved July 10, 2012. Jump up ^ With These Hands on IMDb, accessed February 18, 2011 Jump up ^ `` Triangle Factory Fire Scandal ( TV 1979 ) ''. Retrieved February 18, 2011. Jump up ^ `` Those Who Know Do n't Tell ''. Retrieved February 18, 2011. Jump up ^ `` Triangle Fire ''. Retrieved February 19, 2011. Jump up ^ `` Yiddish Penny Songs : Dos lid fun nokh dem fayer fun di korbones fun 33 Washington Place ''. Jump up ^ Lefkowitz, David. `` OOB 's DTW Runs Out of Birdseed, April 2 ''. Playbill.com Jump up ^ `` One Hundred Forty - Six : A Moving Memorial to the Victims of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire '' on the Remember the Triangle Fire website Jump up ^ `` Sparks '' Theatro Cargo Stagione 2015 / 16 website Bibliography Argersinger, Jo Ann E. ed. The Triangle Fire : A Brief History with Documents ( Macmillan, 2009 ). xviii, 137 pp. Stein, Leon ( 1962 ). The Triangle Fire. Cornell University Press. ISBN 0 - 8014 - 8714 - 5. von Drehle, David ( 2003 ). Triangle : The Fire That Changed America. New York : Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN 0 - 87113 - 874 - 3. Further reading Auch, Mary Jane ( 2002 ). Ashes of Roses. Henry Holt Books for Young Readers. ISBN 0 - 8050 - 6686 - 1. Chernoff, Alan. `` Remembering the Triangle Fire 100 years later ''. CNN / Money ( March 25, 2011 ) Haddix, Margaret Peterson ( 2007 ). Uprising. Simon & Schuster Children 's Publishing. ISBN 978 - 1 - 4169 - 1171 - 5. Kolen, Amy ( Spring 2001 ). `` Fire ''. The Massachusetts Review. 42 ( 1 ) : 13 -- 36. JSTOR 25091716. Sosinsky, Leigh ( 2011 ). The New York City Triangle Factory Fire. Charleston, South Carolina : Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978 - 0 - 7385 - 7403 - 5 External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. General Chronology of events `` Triangle Factory Fire '', Cornell University Library List of names of victims at Cornell University Library site Triangle Fire Open Archive Booknotes interview with David Von Drehle on Triangle : The Fire That Changed America ( October 5, 2003 ) Triangle Fire -- An American Experience Documentary Contemporaneous accounts `` Eyewitness at the Triangle '' 1911 McClure Magazine article ( see pages 455 -- 483 ) Trial Complete Transcript Of Triangle Trial : People Vs. Isaac Harris and Max Blanck `` Famous Trials : The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Trial '' 1912 New York Court record ( see pp. 48 -- 50 ) Witnesses Who Testified at the Trial Articles `` Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Building '', National Park Service `` Remembering the Triangle Fire '', The Jewish Daily Forward `` Coming Full Circle on Triangle Factory Fire '', The Jewish Daily Forward `` The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire : The fire that changed America '', Failure magazine New York, NY Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Disaster, Mar 1911 at GenDisasters.com. Remembering Triangle, Jacobin Magazine Memorials and centennial Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition 1911 -- 2011 Conference : `` Out of the Smoke and the Flame : The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and its Legacy '' CHALK : annual community commemoration `` City of Memory : Bell Ringing on the Triangle Fire '' Rosenfeld 's Requiem, a poem about the victims of the fire by Morris Rosenfeld first published in The Jewish Daily Forward on March 29, 1911 Triangle Returns. Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, March 22, 2011 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire&oldid=806633494 '' Categories : 1911 disasters in the United States 1911 fires 1911 in New York ( state ) 1911 industrial disasters 20th century in New York City Building fires in New York City Burials at Mount Zion Cemetery ( New York City ) Fire disasters involving barricaded escape routes Garment industry disasters Greenwich Village History of labor relations in the United States Industrial fires Industrial fires and explosions in the United States Italian - American culture in New York City Italian - American history Jewish - American history Jews and Judaism in New York City March 1911 events Organizations based in New York City Progressive Era in the United States Hidden categories : Coordinates on Wikidata Articles with hAudio microformats Talk Contents About Wikipedia Català Dansk Deutsch Ελληνικά Español Esperanto فارسی Français Gàidhlig 한국어 Bahasa Indonesia Italiano עברית 日本 語 Português Русский Suomi Svenska ไทย Türkçe Українська 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 23 October 2017, at 06 : 53. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: what caused the fire in the triangle shirtwaist factory
Answer: a fire flared up at approximately 4:40 PM in a scrap bin under one of the cutter's tables at the northeast corner of the eighth floor