WPCNR WHITE PLAINS VOICE. By Jim Edmiston, Vice President, International Association of Theater & Stage Employees. March 26, 2004: Mr. Edmiston writes WPCNR to recall the horror of the Triangle Building Shirtwaist Factory fire on March 25, 1911, that occurred 93 years ago this week. Mr. Edmiston participated in the remembrance for the 144 young women who died, locked in the factory, by unscrupulous management, their bodies piled at the doors, and notes that the work condition differences between union and non-union workplaces still exist today:
March 25 1911...
On what was reportedly a bright and sunny afternoon on Washington and Green streets a fire broke out in the Triangle Shirt Factory where 144 persons would die as a result of locked exit doors and inadequate fire fighting apparatus. This single event, like no other, transformed the building code of New York city and the free world. Each year, on March 25, a remembrance is held in the honor of those lives lost on that day.
This was a nonunion shop trying desperately to keep the union representatives from talking with the employees and visa versa. The employer locked the doors and nailed the windows shut to prevent any access to union information. Those employees on the upper floors of this commercial building, which stands today, were far beyond the reach of ladder company 20’s tallest ladder in NYC and there was no fire exits or exterior fire escapes.
In homes designed for one family that currently house four, conditions which led to that fire exist today across the country and in the county of Westchester.
My writing is nothing near the caliber of your abilities and I don’t mean to say you have overlooked this anniversary but I think we as a society overlook it as we try and forget that the needs of yesteryear are the needs of today.
The high rise buildings the City of White Plains is continually approving makes me wonder if the Fire engines (some of which are ancient by any measure) of White Plains fire department could ever fight a major fire at any of these towers. Could the water pressure needed to fight a fire ever be maintained during that fight.
I don’t claim to know but yesterday's anniversary makes me wonder about a lot of conditions that exist today that are extremely similar to those conditions which led to the death of 144 immigrant workers on that bright sunny day in March in 1911.
JimE
PS Setting up the stage and participating in the event yesterday ended up being very disturbing to me. Thanks for letting me share my thoughts.
WPCNR EDITOR'S NOTE: FOR HISTORY OF THE TRIANGLE FIRE, CORNELL UNIVERSITY HAS A WEBSITE DEVOTED TO IT AT http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/
Note: WPCNR notes that if you would like more on the history of the Triangle Factory Fire, go to http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/, it has pictures, lantern slides, and extensive background on the union-nonunion issues of that time back in 1911.
