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| Firefighters putting out the fire at 29 Washington Place |
New Yorkers are marking the 100th anniversary of the worst industrial accident in city history - Triangle Shirtwaist fire - with a ceremony, U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Sen. Charles Schumer will be among the speakers at Friday's ceremony honoring the workers who died March 25, 1911.
On March 25, 1911, 146 people, mostly young women immigrants, were killed when fire broke out at the Triangle Waist Factory in the Asch Building, a ten story structure at 29 Washington Place in Greenwich Village and today the Triangle Shirwaist Factory fire is known as one of the worst industrial disaster in American history.
“The memory of the 146 people who lost their lives in the Triangle Shirtwaist fire stands as a reminder that legal protections and workplace safety standards were won through a long struggle for social justice and at great human cost. Tragically, a century later, many of my colleagues in government seem to have forgotten the lessons of that unspeakable disaster. Over the last decade progress has slowed and, in many states, workers' rights have been seriously weakened”, written by NY State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in a Daily News editorial today
