Transcript from 1911 Triangle Factory Fire Survivor Oral Histories
excerpt from http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/primary/survivorInterviews/oralhistories.html
Max Hochfield, interviewed January 20, 1957
Hochfield: As I recall, the fire started on the eighth floor. Just about the time when the
machines - five o'clock - at that time you worked Saturday 'til five o'clock. Just as the
machines stopped. And then the - I - I never waited for the elevator because the elevators
were too crowded. And most of the time because they got stuck.
Now, my sister, she knew that her - that her boyfriend was waiting for her downstairs, so she
went into the dressing room. I suppose she wanted to - you know, like [inaudible] or put some
- I don't know whether they used lipstick at that time. I don't remember.
Female Voice: Freshen up.
Hochfield: [inaudible]. And I went over - I went over to the elevator. I heard some noise. So I
thought to myself I guess - I guess the elevator is out of order again. And I - I walked down the
stairs, from the ninth and the eighth floor. When I - when I went down I saw the entire eighth
floor is aflame. Nobody there. And when I looked out the window I saw girls - men - people
with - walking down the . . .
Female Voice: Fire escape.
Hochfield: . . . the fire escape. Then I stopped to look and I - I didn't know - I didn't know what
- whether - this is the first time I saw a fire in this country. I was only three months in this
country. I came in December. That was January, February, March 11, 1920 [sic] . . .
Female Voice: 1911.
Hochfield: 1911. March 25, 1911.
Now, I wanted to go back and get my sister. But while I turned back, there was a fireman
right - right there and he grabbed me by my, by my shoulder. He says, "Why are you going
in? Where are you going to go?"
I says my sister is up there. I want to go back to save my sister.
He says, "You better go down if you want to save your life."
So I went down - of course, I couldn't - I went down on the seventh floor. And on the seventh
floor I stopped. I couldn't go back. And I didn't because the flames was - were all over, you
know. In fact that I couldn't pass anymore. But I stopped on the seventh floor and I watched
the girls go by. Most of them were girls. And I didn't see my sister. But then some more firemen
came up and they told me to walk down. And when I came down I saw - quite a number of
people jumping from the windows.
Q: Was your sister one of those who jumped?
Hochfield: No. My sister - my sister was burned to death. I - and she was so badly burned that
we couldn't recognize her. It seems that [inaudible], her boyfriend, did recognize her.
Dora Maisler, interviewed April 12, 1957
Q: Perhaps you better tell us right from the very beginning, what were you doing when you
were first - became aware of the fire?
Maisler: I was changing my skirt.
Female Voice: Do you remember about what time of day it was?
Maisler: Five o'clock. I didn't even lose time to open my drawer and take my pay. I left the
pay there. [inaudible].
Q: So what happened? You were changing your skirt?
Maisler: I was changing my skirt and I saw the fire. And I wanted to help and he said no, so I
was holding my skirt . . . .
Q: Who said no?
Maisler: The machinist.
Q: Now, did you - went, you saw those buckets of water and you tried to put out . . . .
Maisler: I was going to. He wouldn't let me. And I - and I was the [inaudible] and I was near to
the door. So I got out all of them out.
Q: What did the machinist say to you?
Maisler: [Speaks a foreign phrase]. [Ganz sehr...?]
Q: He talked to you in German.
Maisler: In German. Yes. I imagine he must have been a German.
Q: So then you went to the door. Now, was that the - the door of the elevator?
Maisler: The door of the elevator.
Q: Well, how about the locked doors? Where were they?
Maisler: Well, they were on the - in the back. With the - the stairs. The only time that we used
to have the - the locked - the - the stairs doors open, was when we worked overtime.
Q: So was there an elevator boy there or how - how does the elevator . . . ?
Maisler: There were four elevators in the whole building: two freight and two front elevators.
So going up to work they used to take us, up. But down, we never - we never had a chance
to - everybody had to walk.
Female Voice: You mean you had to walk down from the eighth floor every day?
Maisler: No, no. We used to wait for the freight elevator in the back.
Female Voice: Freight elevators.
Q: Oh, the two freight elevators. You couldn't use the front.
Maisler: The freight elevators, yes.
Q: And this was the front elevator that you went . . . ?
Maisler: Yeah, I went down to the front elevator because I worked in the front.
Q: So how did it happen that the elevator was there?
Maisler: They didn't - they didn't even know that there was a fire. They were playing craps
downstairs. And it was cold yet in the - in the room there.
Q: And the elevator . . . .
Maisler: So what I did is I - when they were really screaming and burning, so I held them out
and I pushed everybody back and I - and I raised my - with my foot I broke the - the window.
You know, there was a window in the door. And that was the time he came up. And by the
time he made - he only made one trip because everybody, maybe a hundred of them,
wanted to get in.
Q: And you said . . . .
Maisler: They were stairs - they were - I was on the floor. They - I was making room.
Q: You said something before about their tearing your clothes off.
Maisler: Well, they - they wanted to - they think I - I have a better chance to - to get out.
Female Voice: You were the first one . . . .
Maisler: I was the first one at the door knob. I don't know where I got the strength to move out
to the door knob. They couldn't put me - they tore off the clothes and they couldn't - and
then - then I finally got downstairs. And that was [inaudible]. They were jumping already and
all that. So some man took off his overcoat and he gave it to me.
Q: Well, why wasn't the elevator able to go up again to get the other people?
Maisler: The - the cables broke. They were burning already.
Q: Oh, the cable broke while you were going down?
Maisler: Yeah.
Q: Well what happened? How did you stop?
Maisler: I stopped the boys - I couldn't stop. They couldn't - they couldn't make it any more.
Q: How did the elevator stop? Did it . . .
Maisler: They went down to stop at the basement.
Q: It crashed down to the basement.
Maisler: Yes. Yes.
Q: Then how did you get out from the basement?
Maisler: I don't remember. I guess we were carried out. But that's what they made, just one
trip.
Pauline Pepe interviewed March 19, 1986
Pepe: I never want - I don't know what - I used to sew a lot of things but I never thought - but
my friends encouraged me. The people around the neighborhood. Says, "Oh, come on. We
have a good time. We have lunch together." We used to bring our lunch. We used to walk
and laugh. Coming in, oh, we had such a good time.
That was a terrible thing. And when we got down, we saw the three flights burning. I said,
what good - were we up there? We couldn't imagine we - the three flights were - the wind
was blowing all up and everything was caught.
David: Umm.
Pepe: From one - one, two, three - the three flights, the office and everything were burning.
Three flights all burning.
Daughter: Eight, nine, and ten it must have been.
Pepe: Oh, and . . .
Q: Right, right.
Daughter: Yes, it was eight, nine, and ten.
David: Yeah, that's right.
Daughter: Cause it started on the eighth.
Pepe: Yeah. They - he - they had a big office upstairs and that's where they had all the . . .
Q: What was it like out on the street? What - when the firemen let you go out from the
building.
Pepe: Oh, my God, we never thought we were up there. We were all very nervous and
crying. My God. I was cold. I had no coat or nothing. Some man was very nice; he took us in
the car. He asked where we were going.
Q: So you didn't stay there? You went straight home? So they did let you . . .
Pepe: Oh, straight home. We were - they were glad to take us home. The firemen. Sure.
Daughter: What was - what was going on downstairs when you came down? What did you
see when you came down from . . . ?
Pepe: The people. There all - all bodies - oh, oh, oh, it was terrible. We got sick. We had - we
had to - the man took us away right away. You know, they - some of them went down with
those who - you know those little glasses?
David: Yeah. The [inaudible] lights.
Pepe: They went right through that. Can you imagine?
Q: And you saw that? You saw, like, the broken glass.
Pepe: The people - oh, when I think of all those girls getting engaged to be married, oh, I felt
terrible. [Slightly tearful.] That was a sight to see.
David: Because you know, a lot of laws were passed after the Triangle fire . . .
Pepe: Oh, yeah, I know it. You know why? There was no . . .
David: . . . that could improve conditions.
Pepe: . . . no balconies.
David: Fire escapes.
Pepe: If there were balconies, that wouldn't have happened.
David: Right.
Pepe: We would go by there and wonder how those girls did it. I don't know how they had
the courage to throw themselves down. I couldn't do it.
Cornell University, . "Remembering the 1911 Triangle Factory Fire." Survivor Oral
Histories.
Cornell University-ILR School, n.d. Web. 13 Nov 2012.
<http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/primary/survivorInterviews/oralhisto ries.html>.