The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was big and modern, and the only factory that did not sign onto the Protocol of Peace in 1910. Workers went back to this factory, where they did not have the same labor rights and protections as unionized workers did. Yet they needed to make money to support their families and could find work at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, where their labor was taken advantage of by the greedy, anti-workers rights factory owners who did not care about their safety and paying liveable wages. On the 25th of March, 1911, an unknown spark, possibly from a cigarette, caught fire on the 8th floor of the building and within a few minutes the cloth filled factory was ablaze. The workers, the majority of whom were young Jewish and Italian immigrant women, ran towards the doors to find them bolted shut from the outside. The factory bosses had justified locking the doors as a way to prevent people from stealing cloth or leaving as it was Saturday, Shabbat or the Sabbath for Jewish people.1
Celia Walker Friedman, a clothing examiner at the factory who survived the fire, describes the moment she realized the factory was on fire in an interview with Leon Stein for his book The Triangle Fire originally published in 1962.
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory ablaze as firefighters tried to extinguish the flames, March 25, 1911. (Credit: Kheel Center)
I looked across the shop. In front of me I saw flames on the outside of the windows shooting up. The flames were climbing up from the 8th floor. I was scared and it seemed to me that even before I could move, everybody in the shop started to scream and holler. The girls at the machines began to climb up on the machine tables maybe because it was that they were frightened or maybe they thought they could run to the elevator doors on top of the machines. The aisles were narrow and blocked by the chairs and baskets. They began to fall in the fire.2
The factory floor quickly became a scene of pandemonium as the workers realized the crowded factory was on fire and rushed to escape. Survivor Mary Domsky-Abrams told Leno Stein of the immediate panic and fear the workers felt, “the fire surged through the windows; everyone panicked, ran, screamed, and didn’t know what to do. I became very frightened.”3 The factory negligently had no emergency preparations in place, workers had never practiced fire drills, the building was not outfitted with enough or sufficient fire escapes and all the cloth was very flammable.4 Rose Hauser, another worker who survived and was interviewed by Leno Stein mentioned how quickly the tragic fire spread and how little time the workers had to escape.
The 8th floor had a better chance. The people on that floor saw the fire start and grow and had a little time to do something for themselves. On the 9th floor it was terrible. When we first saw the fire it was already burning all around us. It came in at all the windows, up the elevator shafts and up the stairs. The shutters were rusted in.5
1. Michael Keene, with Hasia R. Diner, “The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire,” Podcast. Talking Heart Island, 2019. https://talkinghartisland.podbean.com/e/the-triangle-shirt-waist-factory-fire-with-hasia-diner/.
2. Celia Walker Friedman, interview by Leon Stein, in person, 1957. Trianglefire.Ilr.Cornell.Edu, 2018. https://trianglefire.ilr.cornell.edu/primary/survivorInterviews/CeliaWalkerFriedman.html.
3. Mary Domsky-Abrams, interview by Leon Stein, in person. Trianglefire.Ilr.Cornell.Edu, 2018. https://trianglefire.ilr.cornell.edu/primary/survivorInterviews/MaryDomskyAbrams.html.
4. Keene, with Hasia R. Diner, “The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.”
5. Rose Hauser, interview by Leon Stein, in person, 1958. Trianglefire.Ilr.Cornell.Edu, 2018. https://trianglefire.ilr.cornell.edu/primary/survivorInterviews/RoseHauser.html.