The
Monarch Underwear Company Fire occurred at 623
Broadway (Manhattan) on March 19, 1958. Twenty-four people were killed in a
loft fire, between
Houston Street (Manhattan) and
Bleecker Street (Manhattan) 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. 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.