American Experience: Triangle Fire

Airs Tuesday, March 27, 2012 at 9 p.m. on KPBS TV

Women sitting at sewing machines in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, with piles of white fabric in front of them. A sign attached to the ceiling at the back says "Fire Escape" and has a hand pointing to a window.

Credit: Courtesy of Brown Brothers

Above: Women sitting at sewing machines in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, with piles of white fabric in front of them. A sign attached to the ceiling at the back says "Fire Escape" and has a hand pointing to a window.

Monday, May 16, 2011

On March 25, 1911, a fire broke out in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York’s Greenwich Village. The blaze ripped through the congested loft; huge piles of trimmings fed the flames. Petrified workers desperately tried to make their way downstairs, but the factory owners kept the doors on the ninth floor locked and the woefully inadequate fire escape soon crumpled.

Bodies of Triangle Fire victims lay where they landed after jumping from the factory; a policeman looks up towards the building.

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Credit: Courtesy of Brown Brothers

Above: Bodies of Triangle Fire victims lay where they landed after jumping from the factory; a policeman looks up towards the building.

Striking shirtwaist makers selling copies of The Call, the New York socialist newspaper.

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Credit: Courtesy of International Ladies Garment Workers Union Archives, Kheel Center, Cornell University

Above: Striking shirtwaist makers selling copies of The Call, the New York socialist newspaper.

Hundreds of horrified on-lookers arrived just in time to see young men and women jumping from the windows. By the time the fire had burned itself out, 146 people were dead.

Less than two years earlier, the workers of the factory had been leaders in an industry-wide strike to protest dismal wages and dangerous working conditions. Despite unlikely support from some of the wealthiest women in the city, including Anne Morgan, most of the workers returned to their shops without having their demands met.

It took the tragedy of the fire and the ensuing public outrage to force government action. The landmark legislation that followed gave New Yorkers the most comprehensive workplace safety laws in the country.

"Triangle Fire" tells the story of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory workers, and the struggle for safe workplace conditions in America.

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Video

Preview: American Experience: Triangle Fire

Watch the full episode. See more American Experience.

Above: It was the deadliest workplace accident in New York City’s history. A dropped match on the 8th floor of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory sparked a fire that killed over a hundred innocent people trapped inside. The private industry of the American factory would never be the same. Learn more about the film "Triangle Fire."

Video

Triangle Fire: Bonus Video: Interview with Kristin Downey

Watch the full episode. See more American Experience.

Above: Author Kristin Downey on the labor rights activist Frances Perkins, who would go on to become the secretary of labor and the first woman in a U.S. Cabinet.

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