The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire happened on a Saturday inside the Asch Building in what is now Greenwich Village. Multiple tenants occupied the twelve floors of the building adjacent to Washington Place and Green Street. It was about 4:30 p.m. when a blaze shot up from beneath one of the cutting tables. The sewing machines occupied the majority of the work space. A man employed as a cutter may have carelessly discarded a match used to light a cigarette. The bins underneath the tables were filled with trimmings of lawn, i.e. cotton fabric from which the shirtwaists, or blouses, were made.