NEW YORK (AP) -- Ninety-two years after a sweatshop fire killed 146 girls and young women and triggered dramatic labor reforms, the factory site was dedicated as a city landmark.
``It was one of the worst industrial disasters, not just in New York City's history but really in the history of the whole country,'' Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at the ceremony Tuesday, when a commemorative bronze wall plaque was unveiled. ``It was horrific and worst of all it was largely preventable.''
The neo-Renaissance-style building in Greenwich Village, which was not heavily damaged in the fire, was named a national historic landmark in 1991 and today houses New York University classrooms.
Early in the 20th century, the top three floors of the 10-story building were home to the Triangle Shirtwaist factory.
At about 4:30 p.m. on March 25, 1911, a fire broke out in the eighth floor cutting room and spread rapidly, consuming thousands of pounds of fabric.
Panicked workers - Jewish, Polish and Italian immigrants, aged 13 to 23 - tried to escape. But some of the doors were locked, a tactic the factory's bosses used to keep employees at their sewing machines. Other exits were blocked and there were no sprinklers.
Within 15 minutes, dozens inside the factory were dead. Stunned passers-by watched as others jumped to their deaths, their skirts ablaze.
The factory fire, the worst of its kind in New York City history, prompted adoption of some of the era's most stringent workplace safety laws and crystallized efforts to unionize garment workers. It also forced lawmakers to begin enforcing strict building codes after years of negligence by corrupt politicians.
``It was sort of a Watergate of the time, a scandal that led to huge changes in the city,'' said Andrew Coe, a contributor and editor of F.D.N.Y.: An Illustrated History of the Fire Department of the City of New York.
Nearly a century after the blaze, it continues to be invoked by labor activists and politicians. That happened last July, when the state Senate approved a bill to allow State University and City University of New York campus stores to refuse to sell clothing produced in sweatshops.
The bill, state Sen. Guy Velella said, was ``built on the foundation of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire tragedy.''
Several hundred people, including students, union workers and firefighters, attended Tuesday's ceremony. In a symbolic gesture, the fire department raised a ladder to just below the fire floors - the highest a ladder was able to extend in 1911.
The names of the victims were read aloud. For each one, a bell was tolled and a white carnation was placed at the base of the building.
Vincent Maltese, 68, who lost two aunts, ages 14 and 18, and a grandmother in the fire, attended the dedication.
``It's only right that we remember,'' said Maltese, a retired court officer from Queens. ``If it hadn't been for people like my family, there would be no protection at all.''
