Triangle fire documentary full of emotion

THE DOCUMENTARY "Triangle: Remembering the Fire"

WHEN|WHERE Monday at 9 p.m. on HBO

WHAT IT'S ABOUT One hundred years ago Friday, 146 garment workers were killed in the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire -- a tragedy that led to the creation of labor laws that in time would even inspire the New Deal. The fire at the Asch (now Brown) building off Washington Square changed not only New York, but in some ways the world. HBO's look back largely forgoes the antecedents and aftermath in favor of memories. Those who died left behind loved ones, and their stories of that day have passed down from one generation to the next.

Suzanne Pred Bass had two great-aunts who worked on the ninth floor; one, Rosie, 20 and engaged to be married, perished that Saturday afternoon.

Vincent Maltese lost his grandmother, Catherine, who was 39, and two aunts, Lucia, 18, and Rosaria, 14. "I have the three [death] certifications and they say 'charred.' "

Erica Lanser's great aunt, Fannie, 21, was a foreman who made sure co-workers got on the one operating elevator before she did. There are also recollections from the great-granddaughters of the factory owners.

MY SAY "Everybody needs his memories," Saul Bellow famously wrote in "Mr. Sammler's Planet." "They keep the wolf of insignificance from the door." These particular memories -- so vivid they could be describing something that happened 10 years ago as opposed to 100 -- accomplish exactly that. It's one thing to read about the fire, or walk by the still-standing Brown Building, or to watch another documentary about a long-ago tragedy. It's another thing entirely to listen to a living person with a direct link.

BOTTOM LINE The wolf of insignificance has never really threatened the Triangle shirtwaist victims, but documentaries like this one ensure that it will remain banished.

GRADE A