"Then known as Rose Rosenfeld, Freedman was two days short of her 18th birthday when the fire erupted. She escaped by trailing company executives up to the 10th-floor roof, where firefighters pulled survivors to safety, according to The New York Times. In later years, she described turning down what she said were efforts by the factory's owners to pay for her silence, choosing instead to become a lifelong witness to what happened inside those upper floors."
"The fire killed 146 garment workers and ripped through the upper stories of the Asch Building at 23-29 Washington Place in Greenwich Village, now known as the Brown Building, according to research from Cornell University's Kheel Center. Many of the dead were young immigrant women who found themselves trapped by locked exits and flimsy fire escapes that failed under pressure. The shock of the tragedy helped spur a burst of city and state safety regulations that reshaped how factories and office buildings were designed and run."
Rose Freedman, then Rose Rosenfeld, was nearly 18 when the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire began on March 25, 1911, and escaped by following company executives to a 10th-floor roof where firefighters rescued survivors. The blaze killed 146 garment workers, many young immigrant women trapped by locked exits and collapsing fire escapes in the Asch (Brown) Building. Freedman refused alleged hush-money offers and spent decades speaking at rallies and memorials to preserve victims' memory and press for safer workplaces. The disaster prompted major city and state safety regulations. Freedman later worked in insurance until age 79 and died in Beverly Hills on February 15, 2001, at 107.
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