A blaze changed NYC
146 killed in 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire honored
Descendants of workers who perished 112 years ago in one of the city’s worst fires gathered at the site on Friday to remember the victims of a blaze now credited for sparking a labor reform movement across the nation.
A plaque marks the Greenwich Village building that was once home to Manhattan’s Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, a job site that bustled with young immigrant workers.
The work day at the factory on the building’s 8th, 9th and 10th floors was almost over when fire broke out on the 9th floor on March 25, 1911, killing 146 of the factory’s 500 employees.
Those who weren’t killed by smoke or fire after being trapped behind locked doors perished as they leapt from topfloor windows, or were crushed to death by a stampede of panicked co-workers.
“I had two great aunts in the fire who were at the factory that fateful day: Rosie Weiner, who died in the fire, and Katie Wiener, who survived,” said Suzanne Pred Bass, a board member of the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition.
Bass’ group has been behind the planning of a memorial, which will be completed in October and rise nine stories.
Girls as young as 14 perished in a horrific fire that would mark a turning point in labor conditions. The building still stands on Washington Place, currently housing New York University classrooms.
Relatives of fire survivor Joseph Zito came to the event from Atlanta, New Jersey and Texas.
“He was one of the two passenger elevator operators,” said Zito’s great-granddaughter, Jane Fazio-Villeda, 60, of Hopatcong, N.J. Zito ran the elevator as many times as he could to evacuate as many workers as possible, she said.
“People started jumping on the top of the car and it weighed it down until it couldn’t rise anymore,” Fazio-Villeda said.
Her sister, Marybeth Fabio, 58, said their mother had a family heirloom that kept the memory alive.
“We had a pair of scissors from the fire, and every time she pulled them out of the drawer to cut something she would tell us the story,” Fazio said.
Attendees held blouses, or shirtwaists, with names of the deceased, which were read out loud. A white carnation was placed for each at the corner of Greene Street and Washington Place.
Members of FDNY Ladder 20 raised a ladder to the sixth floor of the 10-story building, illustrating the limitations of equipment in 1911. Workers on the upper floors were forced to choose between jumping or burning alive.