Dr. Fishback has detected little impact of factory safety laws like those passed after the Triangle fire, and other researchers agree.

Also, the Triangle fire involved a large industry; many of the horrific labor practicies that surfaced at Triangle were known to exist in other companies.

Professor Jackson said there were important differences between yesterday's fire and the Triangle fire.

In recent years, some right-wing commentators have challenged the significance of the Triangle fire, attributing subsequent improvements in working conditions and wages to voluntary, market-based decisions.

The improvements that have been made in wages and working conditions tempt us to think of the Triangle fire as something out of the distant past.

Hardly anyone who has ever heard the story of the Triangle fire can forget the details.

Historians have suggested that the Triangle fire is better remembered because the poor immigrant women who died were the clear victims of exploitative owners at a time of intense labor struggle.

The Triangle fire occurred at a time of intense labor struggle, especially in the garment trades.

Perhaps the real question is not why the Slocum fire is so little known but why the Triangle fire became a legend.

In Ain Gordon's play Birdseed Bundles (2000), the Triangle fire is a major dramatic engine of the story.