8 APRIL 29, 2021 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Triangle Fire Memorial Association commemorates 110-yearold
fatal fi re with memorial at Christ the King High School
BY GABRIELE HOLTERMANN
EDITORIAL@QNS.COM
@QNS
The Triangle Fire Memorial
Association commemorated
the 110th anniversary of the
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
with a memorial at the Constance
Del Vecchio Maltese Art Center
at Christ the King High School on
March 25.
Of the 500 garment workers, 146
workers — including 123 mostly
Jewish and Italian immigrant women
and girls — died in the inferno. The
factory, owned by Max Blanck and
Isaac Harris, was located on the
eighth, ninth and 10th floors of the
Asch Building, at 23–29 Washington
Pl. The doors to the stairways and
exits were locked — back then, a
common practice to prevent theft
and unauthorized breaks. But it was
a death sentence for the workers who
were unable to escape the deadly
flames and who either jumped to
their death or perished in the fire.
According to court testimony, a
cigarette, carelessly thrown into
a fabric scrap bin, ignited the fire.
Water buckets, commonly used for
extinguishing fires in garment factories,
were empty.
Three of the victims were state
Senator Serphin Maltese’s grandmother
Caterina and his two aunts,
Lucia and 14-year-old Rosarea, one
of the youngest victims. His late
wife, painter Constance Del Vecchio
Maltese, memorialized the women in
a painting whose death certificates
list them as “charred.”
Maltese explained that he founded
the group with his brother Vinny
and family members of the other
victims in the early 1950s. Every
year, the association holds a memorial
for those who died, trying to
ensure that the same thing never
happens again.
“Unfortunately, in third-world
countries, and even here in the United
States too oft en, similar occurrences
have taken place. And we should do
all in power, not only to remember
the victims but to make sure that the
same tragedy never occurs again,”
the former senator said.
This year’s memorial was held via
Facebook live and Zoom because of
the COVID-19 pandemic. Maltese,
who also serves as the chairman
of the Triangle Fire Memorial
Former state Senator Serphin Maltese honored those lost in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.
Photo By Gabriele Holtermann
Association, expressed his gratitude
to the volunteers of the association
and the staff of Christ the King High
School for putting the ceremony
together despite the pandemic.
Michael Ouellette, a social studies
and science teacher at Christ the
King High School, confessed that he
knew little about one of the deadliest
fires in the United States before he
began teaching at the high school.
However, as he began to understand
the unique link between Christ the
King, Maltese and the Triangle Fire
Memorial Association, he said it
was essential to pay attention to the
event every March 25 and teach his
students about the deadly inferno.
“The idea that doors, stairwells
and exits were blocked preventing
many, many workers from escaping
and causing them to jump from high
windows gives us pause to wonder
and question the concern, or lack
thereof,of the company’s owners
Max Planck and Isaac Harris, immigrants
themselves, for their fellow
immigrant worker employees, who
toiled six days a week, 52 hours a
week for perhaps a couple of dollars
an hour by today’s wages,” Ouellette
said.
He described that the main stairway,
which allowed some to escape,
soon became unusable and that employees
crowded onto the single exterior
fire escape. It collapsed, and
victims fell 100 feet to their death.
Even though the fire department
arrived relatively quickly, firefighters
could not stop the flames since
their ladders only reached up to the
seventh floor.
“We will be vigilant, seeking
out opportunities to foster the
safety and health and the hopes
and dreams of workers and laborers,
and especially present and future
immigrant populations. For I’m sure
there are few in this room, who can
claim to have not come from ancestors
who came to America to pursue
the American dream,” Ouellette
underlined.
Other honorees included Jason
Green, fire chief of the DeWitt Fire
district; Holly Maltese, the niece of
Senator Maltese and great-niece of
Lucia and Rosarea Maltesewho is
an elementary school teacher who
teaches the Triangle Shirtwaist
Factory Fire; Robin Berson, a board
member of the Remember the Triangle
Fire Coalition; James McGill,
a descendant of Catarina, Lucia and
Rosaria Maltese; and Nechemia
Aaron Oberstein, a retired New York
City ESL teacher.
The fire sparked a movement for
stronger workplace safety regulations
in NY state and the modernization
of labor laws.
2022
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