March 25, 1911

[honeychile]

We're just past the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. I saw a documentary on it, and learned more than the Pavlovian "Triangle Shirtwaist Factory = bad news" response. For more information than most want, try The Triangle Fire put together by students at Cornell. A total of 146 people died in 18 miinutes, and in the documentary, death certificates were shown as using "charred" as the cause of death in some cases.

[DrPhil]

Thank you for this. It is a much needed reminder of inhumane working conditions in America and internationally. There are still sweat shops. Both immigrants and nonimmigrants who are desperate will work in unsafe conditions.

List of victims from the link honeychile posted:
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglef...ctimsList.html

[honeychile]

IIRC, only one of them is American born, and the victims were as young as 12. The documentary I saw included descendants of the owners of the Triangle Factory, which gave it an interesting twist.

[DrPhil]

It is interesting that they had so much information about each victim.

[agzg]

I believe they just identified the final few recently. So tragic.

[LikeASista]

My heart broke the first time I watched a documentary about this on the History Channel years ago. Just thinking about it brings me to tears somethings. It is the reason fire escapes were created immediately after that. So heartbreaking ...