<P> A few blocks away, the Asch Building at the corner of Washington Place and Greene Street was ablaze . When we arrived at the scene, the police had thrown up a cordon around the area and the firemen were helplessly fighting the blaze . The eighth, ninth, and tenth stories of the building were now an enormous roaring cornice of flames . </P> <P> Word had spread through the East Side, by some magic of terror, that the plant of the Triangle Waist Company was on fire and that several hundred workers were trapped . Horrified and helpless, the crowds--I among them--looked up at the burning building, saw girl after girl appear at the reddened windows, pause for a terrified moment, and then leap to the pavement below, to land as mangled, bloody pulp . This went on for what seemed a ghastly eternity . Occasionally a girl who had hesitated too long was licked by pursuing flames and, screaming with clothing and hair ablaze, plunged like a living torch to the street . Life nets held by the firemen were torn by the impact of the falling bodies . </P> <P> The emotions of the crowd were indescribable . Women were hysterical, scores fainted; men wept as, in paroxysms of frenzy, they hurled themselves against the police lines . </P> <P> The remainder waited until smoke and fire overcame them . The fire department arrived quickly but was unable to stop the flames, as there were no ladders available that could reach beyond the sixth floor . The fallen bodies and falling victims also made it difficult for the fire department to approach the building . </P>

What happened to the owners of the triangle shirtwaist factory