NJ Jewish News: Centenary events recall Newark fire ( 4 months before Triangle Shirtwaist fire)

http://njjewishnews.com/article/statewide/centenary-events-recall-newark-fire

Blaze claimed 26 lives, months before tragedy at Triangle factory

by Robert Wiener
NJJN Staff Writer

November 24, 2010

Four months before 146 sweatshop workers perished in a gruesome fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in Manhattan, another devastating blaze occurred in another unsafe garment factory — this one in Newark.

It happened 100 years ago, on Nov. 26, 1910, in a building on the corner of Orange Street and High Street (now Martin Luther King Boulevard). It is still considered the worst fire in Newark history.


After a long delay, firefighters arrive from across the street to battle the Newark sweatshop fire. Photos courtesy Guy Sterling


Like the tragedy at the Triangle plant, the factory happened to be run by Jews and a great many of the victims were Jewish women and girls.

While the Triangle Shirtwaist fire is embedded in the history books as an object lesson in unsafe working conditions and exploitation of working-class women, the blaze in Newark, which claimed 26 lives, has largely been overlooked — until now.

A retired Star-Ledger newspaper reporter who has been living in Newark for the past 25 years is determined to commemorate the event.

Guy Sterling served as a panelist at a Nov. 16 seminar on the tragedy at Drew University in Madison.

And he has helped organize an interfaith memorial service that will take place Friday, Nov. 26, at the corner where the factory stood.


Three young sisters who perished in the fire — Minnie, Tillie, and Dora Gottlieb — are buried beneath a single tombstone in Newark’s Grove Street cemetery, with their last name spelled “Gotlieb.”

FULL story at link.