FDNY Commemorates the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
March 23, 2016
Wednesday, March 23, FDNY commemorated the 105th Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in Greenwich Village. Following the 1911 fire, new legislation was created to help ensure workplace and home safety, there were sweeping New York State inspections and investigations of factories, and FDNY began teaching fire safety and prevention, conducting fire drills in factories throughout New York City.Learn More About FDNY's Fire Safety Education Program
“So many lives were lost – senselessly – in one tragic fire. Because of the comprehensive Fire Prevention laws born from this fire, we are far safer today,” said First Deputy Commissioner Robert R. Turner II. “We are safer because of the work done by so many in the Fire Department since that terrible day and because of the efforts by countless others in the labor movement to improve the safety of workers in every field.”
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On Saturday, March 25, 1911, a fire started at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company’s factory on the top floors of the building on Washington Place. The fire spread quickly, fueled by paper sewing patterns and shirts hanging above the sewing tables. More than 700 people were working in the building, mostly young, immigrant women, many of whom were unable to escape because of blocked exits and unsafe fire escapes. Some jumped from windows in an attempt to escape the consuming heat and flames. Despite being extinguished quickly, 146 people died in the conflagration.
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During the ceremony, the names of those who died in the fire were read aloud and carnations were laid in their memory at the corner of Washington Place and Greene Street as a bell tolled for each of the 146 victims. Ladder Company 20 raised its ladder to the 6th floor of the building, the level a 1911 apparatus would reach. The FDNY Fire Safety Education Unit taught participants and passersby about being FDNYSmart in memory of the victims.