Lucy Fights the Flames

In 1911 fourteen-year-old Lucy Morelli lives with her parents older brother and several youngers siblings in a crowded apartment in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Lucy dreams of going to college but her Italian immigrant family relies heavily on her income from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory to survive. Lucy finds the factory work boring but the working conditions are better than many other jobs. But when Lucy and her best friend Rosie head to work one Saturday in March everything changes. Fire breaks out in the factory and the doors are locked trapping hundreds of workers inside. Lucy must battle the flames to save her own life – and Rosie’s. Readers can learn the real story of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire one of the deadliest industrial disaster’s in U.S. history from the nonfiction backmatter in this Girls Survive story. A glossary discussion questions and writing prompts are also provided.