24 MARCH 17, 2022 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Recalling the Triangle Shirtwaist fi re and its ties to Queens
BY THE OLD TIMER
EDITORIAL@QNS.COM
@QNS
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
Every year, prior to the COVID-19
pandemic, Christ the King High
School in Middle Village played
host to a commemoration of the Triangle
Shirtwaist factory fi re in Manhattan
— one of the worst tragedies to
hit New York City in the 20th century.
The longtime chairman of Christ
the King’s board of directors, former
state Senator Serphin Maltese,
along with his brothers Vincent
and Andrew, organized the annual
memorial service. The Maltese brothers
lost three members in the tragic
blaze — Caterina, their grandmother,
and Rosaria and Lucia, two aunts.
“We’re hopeful that this is a rejuvenation
of their memory. If we honor
their memory, we’ll ensure that
nothing like that ever happens again,”
Serphin Maltese said during the 2011
ceremony that marked the centennial
anniversary of the horrifi c blaze.
The tragedy occurred on March
25, 1911, 111 years ago this month. The
victims of the tragedy were mostly
immigrant workers who endured
horrific conditions to earn a paycheck
for their families. It was those
horrifi c conditions that wound up
contributing to their deaths on that
fateful day — and spurred a modern
labor movement to ensure future
tragedies could be avoided.
Cemeteries across Queens, including
All Faiths (nee Lutheran) and
Mount Zion Cemeteries in Middle
Village and Maspeth, respectively,
serve as the fi nal resting places for
some of the 146 garment workers who
lost their lives.
Before the horrifi c events of Sept.
11, 2001, the Triangle Shirtwaist factory
fi re was considered by some to
be the darkest day in the history of
New York City.
The terrorist attacks on the World
Trade Center, 20 years ago this September,
and the tragic sweatshop fi re
in 1911 bore one particularly morbid
resemblance.
In both incidents, numerous victims
— trapped by fl ames many stories
above ground and with no path
to safety available to them — chose to
leap to their deaths rather than succumb
to the heavy smoke and fi re that
surrounded them.
Newspaper accounts of the Triangle
Shirtwaist fi re described the
horror and shock expressed by onlookers
as they witnessed body aft er
body fl y out of the upper fl oors of the
factory to the sidewalk below.
Ninety years later, that same
horror and shock was felt by the
thousands of New Yorkers near the
The fi re claimed the lives of 146 garment workers, who perished in the fl ames of the factory, a “sweatshop,”
or who jumped to their deaths to escape being burned alive. Most of the victims were recent immigrant girls,
aged 16 to 23. They died because factory bosses had locked the doors to the stairwells and exits. Today, the
building is occupied by New York University. Photo via The Villager
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