What you may not know is the amazing stories - some only recently uncovered, about this monumental blaze that forever changed our nation and its fire service.
The fire, which resulted in the fourth highest loss of life from an industrial accident in U.S. history, was described years later by eyewitness Louis Waldman:
Word had spread through the East Side, by some magic of terror, that the plant of the Triangle Waist Company was on fire and that several hundred workers were trapped. Horrified and helpless, the crowds — I among them — looked up at the burning building, saw girl after girl appear at the reddened windows, pause for a terrified moment, and then leap to the pavement below, to land as mangled, bloody pulp. This went on for what seemed a ghastly eternity. Occasionally a girl who had hesitated too long was licked by pursuing flames and, screaming with clothing and hair ablaze, plunged like a living torch to the street. Life nets held by the firemen were torn by the impact of the falling bodies.
The emotions of the crowd were indescribable. Women were hysterical, scores fainted; men wept as, in paroxysms of frenzy, they hurled themselves against the police lines.
From the ashes and grief however, much was learned and changed by America's fire service...
On this centennial of the tragedy, the Los Angeles Fire Department is pleased to direct you to captivating content and detailed accounts of the fire and its aftermath produced by the Kheel Center at Cornell University:
Submitted by Brian Humphrey, Spokesman
Los Angeles Fire Department
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