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Prologue. The Fire.

Yeah. Prologue. The Fire. March 25th, 1911, Washington Square in Manhattan.

Pauline Pepbb arrives at work on the eighth floor of a high-rise building.

She sits at her station, an industrial sewing machine.

Well, it was a very big place.

Oh, my God, I couldn't have... Just a big place with machines and windows, a lot of windows with shades. That's what they had.

This is her voice, recorded years later in an interview.

A lot of young girls. A lot of Jewish young girls were married and engaged.

They were lovely girls.

Pauline was one of hundreds of workers, mostly young women, employed by the Triangle Waste Company.

It made the very popular Gibson girl blouses, fluffy high knack, big sleeves.

They used to have tables full of material, that very fine lingerie, you know,

there's a big beautiful blouses.

The work was constant.

Maximizing the use of space was very important to boosting the profitability of the business,

so the workers were actually working at their sewing

machines shoulder to shoulder. Their forearms were practically brushing each other as they did

their work. Today, we call this kind of place a sweatshop. There were slots in the back of the

...