Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire

In the afternoon of March 25, 1911, a fire began on the eighth floor, possibly sparked by a lit match or a cigarette. A New York Times article also theorized that the fire may have been started by the engines running the sewing machines in the building. To this day, no one knows whether it was accidental or intentional. Most of the workers who were alerted on the tenth and eighth floors were able to evacuate. However, the warning about the fire did not reach the ninth floor in time.

The ninth floor had only two doors leading out. One stairwell was already filling with smoke and flames by the time the seamstresses realized the building was ablaze. The other door had been locked, ostensibly to prevent workers from stealing materials or taking breaks and to keep out union organizers.

The single exterior fire escape, a flimsy, poorly-anchored iron structure, soon twisted and collapsed under the weight of people trying to escape. The elevator also stopped working, cutting off that means of escape, partly because the panicked workers tried to save themselves by jumping down the shaft to land on the roof of the elevator.

Sixty-two of the women who died did so when, realizing there was no other way to avoid the flames, they broke windows and jumped to the pavement nine floors below, much to the horror of the large crowd of bystanders gathering on the street level.[4] Others pried open the elevator doors and tumbled down the elevator shaft. Of the jumpers, a single survivor was found close to drowning in water collecting in the elevator shaft.[citation needed] The fallen bodies and falling victims made it difficult for the fire department to reach the building.

The remainder waited until smoke and fire overcame them. The fire department arrived quickly but was unable to stop the flames, as there were no ladders available that could reach beyond the sixth floor. The ultimate death toll was 148, including 141 who died at the scene and seven survivors who later died at hospitals