Video: 'Remembering the Triangle Shirtwaist fire'

(Saturday, March 25, 1911, approximately 4:40 p.m. local time; during the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire) — 146 people, mostly young female immigrants, were killed today when fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan.

It was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of New York City, and one of the deadliest in U.S. history.

The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers — 123 women and girls and 23 men — who died from the fire, smoke inhalation, or falling/jumping to their deaths.

Most of the victims were recent Italian and Jewish immigrant women and girls aged 14 to 23; of the victims whose ages are known, the oldest victim was 43-year-old Providenza Panno, and the youngest were 14-year-olds Kate Leone and Rosaria “Sara” Maltese.

Video: 'The Triangle Fire'

The factory was located on the 8th, 9th, and 10th floors of the Asch Building, at 23–29 Washington Place, near Washington Square Park.

Because the doors to the stairwells and exits were locked (a then-common practice to prevent workers from taking unauthorized breaks and to reduce theft), many of the workers could not escape from the burning building and jumped from the high windows.

The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU), which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers.