Chapter I: March 25, 1911
It was near closing time on a Saturday at the Triangle Waist Company. The factory had 600 workers, mostly young woman and girls, recent Italian and Jewish Immigrants who spoke little or no English. These girls, Annies and Idas and Vincenzas and Esthers, might have been looking forward to the end of their long work week when the fire broke out.
The fire spread rapidly, igniting the scraps of fabric and other waste scattered around the workplace. Survivors reported that the flames leapt out from under the tables where they were sewing.
Many of the workers discovered they had no way out. The building's internal fire escape quickly filled with smoke. The freight elevator broke, and many girls, in their fear and confusion, fell down the empty shaft.
Workers on the ninth floor tried to open the door to the fire escape but could not do so. Their employers admitted they often locked the doors to prevent pilferage.
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