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TheMonarch Underwear Company fire occurred inManhattan, New York City at 623Broadway on March 19, 1958. Twenty-four people were killed in aloft fire, betweenHouston Street andBleecker Street[1] and fifteen more were injured. Six of the injured were hurt when they leaped from the building and missed fire nets. The conflagration began in the third floor textile printing plant of an edifice in which the workrooms of several businesses were located. Ten corpses were found underneath work benches of the Monarch Underwear Company, on the fourth floor.[2] The fire started at 4:30 p.m. and lasted one and a half hours. It began in a processing oven of the S.T.S. Textile Company.[1]
The building was located a few blocks from Washington Place, near Greene Street, the former locale of theTriangle Shirtwaist Company.[2] TheTriangle factory fire of March 25, 1911, killed one hundred forty-five persons.[1]
On March 20, 1958New York City MayorRobert F. Wagner Jr. asked for legislation to prevent fires like the one at 623 Broadway. Wagner andNew York City Fire Commissioner Edward F. Cavanaugh both stated that the structure did not violate fire and building codes. Wagner called on theNew York City Council to enact necessary ordinances quickly. Among those he suggested were the installation of automaticfire sprinkling systems, the building offireproof partitioning walls in lengthy rooms, the construction of full ceilings in loft buildings,and making it mandatory that each worker be given afire drill.[3]