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Labor Leaders, Students Mark Anniversary Of Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- One hundred five years ago this coming Friday, a devastating fire marked a turning point for working conditions across the country.

As WCBS 880's Alex Silverman reported, labor leaders, workers and students gathered Wednesday to mark the anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory disaster.

Sally Moses held a red shirtwaist-like flag over her head. A white sash across it had a name, Sarah Brennan.

"Sarah was 17," Moses said.

She was one of 146 people who died in the 1911 fire.

The Triangle Shirtwaist factory was located in a still-standing building at Green Street and Washington Place, a short distance east of Washington Square Park. The fire broke out on the eighth floor of the building at 4:45 p.m. – just 15 minutes before closing time, CBS New York's Jesse Zanger recalled in a 2011 article.

According to an account in the New York Times, Max Rother and Max Burnstein were in the room when the fire broke out in the loft-like space. The two hurled pails of water on the fire, but were too late. The clothesline hanging above the workers had lit up, and started raining burning clothes down on them. The scraps on the floor and in the baskets caught right away. The fire spread wide almost immediately.

Panicked workers bolted for the exits. Initially, some managed to escape into the elevator. But it was so packed it failed immediately, making just one trip down to street level before conking out. One worker – 20-year-old Cecilia Walker – jumped to the elevator cable and slid down from the 8th floor. She suffered burns on her hands and bruises. Another man – Samuel Levine – told the Times he was sliding down the cables when the bodies of six girls came hurtling past him. One of the bodies thudded into him, and he tumbled from the cables. He survived only because he landed on the body of one of the dead girls.

Meanwhile, a flimsy fire escape on the side of the building quickly buckled under the weight of escapees and fell away. As the fast-moving blaze raged, young workers plunged from the sky in an awful rain -- many of them on fire.

It was all over in just 30 minutes.

"Many burned alive in the mere half hour that it took for the fire to engulf this facility, and many jumped to their deaths," said state Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon.

Fifty bodies were also found immolated on the 9th floor, while the street outside was a scene of unparalleled carnage.

But change happened swiftly afterward.

"Within three years, more than 36 new laws were enacted in the city and state of New York," Reardon said.

It was a model for workplace safety that spread across the country. But many said it should not have happened at all.

"This fire could have been prevented," said Robert, an eighth grader who attended the event Wednesday with his class from Huntington. "I'm here to honor those people."

The building that housed the Triangle Shirtwaist factory is now owned by NYU.

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