Paracultural Calendar for March 25 (annual Triangle Factory Fire remembrance)

[Mark Thibodeau]

On this day in *1911*, a fast-moving fire swept through the *Triangle
Shirtwaist Company*, a garment sweatshop located in New York City's Lower
East Side. If any of the hundreds who gathered to watch this drama unfold
were in the mood for carnage, they were in luck. Trapped on the ninth and
tenth floors behind fire exits that were locked shut by the company,
employees - mostly young immigrant women - had two options: either be
burned alive or hurl their bodies down to the pavement below.


*Sophie Salami* and *Della Costello* were the first to leap, and they did
so together, arm in arm. Helpless would-be rescuers watched as a
fifteen-year-old girl, chased by flames, crawled out a window and held on
for long, screaming minutes. When she finally fell to her death, firemen
saw that her hands had roasted through. Three brave laborers in a
neighboring building formed a human chain across which a few women were
able to crawl to safety. These brave men persevered, but their bodies
eventually failed and they, too, fell to their doom.


Sisters, daughters, mothers and grandmothers wrapped rags around their
heads - some making the sign of the cross - and jumped. Up to five at a
time, sometimes holding hands. Witnesses described the infernal sight of
doomed women plummeting, fire streaming back from their hair and dresses,
smashing into - and, in some cases, through - the pavement. Shock-wracked
firemen watched, helpless, as girl after girl ripped through their
outstretched rescue nets as though they were made out of cobweb.


By the time it was over, one hundred and forty-six people were dead. Police
found 25 charred corpses in the elevator shaft. Another two dozen bodies
were found melted against the locked steel door on the ninth floor. Piles
of bodies were found huddled together in cloakrooms and hallways. It was,
up until that time, one of the worst industrial catastrophes ever.


And why did all those people die? Because the factory owners were worried
about their workers using the back way out to steal needles, fabric and
supplies.


If you didn't find the above story depressing enough, check out *this
incredible online resource* <http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/> by
Cornell University for more information, including original newspaper
reports, photographs, and some powerful editorial cartoons about the fire.
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