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Causes And Prevention Of The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

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How would you prevent a factory fire? The Triangle Shirtwaist fire killed 146 people. Max Blanck and Issac Harris employ young and teenage girls. Many of them were immigrants. This tragic fire took place in New York, in 1911. The owners are to blame for the deaths of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire because they promoted an unsafe working environment, also, never cared about the employees' health, and only made money for themselves. The owners, Max and Issac, did not care for their workers' safety. To start, Max Blanck and Issac Harris promoted an unsafe environment. For example, the “employers often locked doors” (Marrin 7). The employers and people in charge of the factory and company were not prepared. This situation differs from the current times. In these past years, workplaces are better prepared for these situations. Even though it could be the employees’ fault, Blanck and Harris could have prevented the number of deaths. To conclude, Blanck and Harris did not prepare for the many people who passed away in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. …show more content…

To illustrate, they paid the factory workers eight dollars a week, "workers like Katie made about eight dollars a week" (Lewis and Hanna 6). It is not surprising to see that even though the company owners were wealthy the people behind the money-making were underpaid. This is similar to most major companies; their workers are either paid minimum wage or very little. Even though a large number of employees could be at fault, Blanck and Harris are mostly to blame because they had the funds to raise the wages but did not. In conclusion, due to low wages workers protested for fair

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They weren't forced into having fire safety laws or fire drills so that didn't help either. So why was Isaac Harris charged with murder? The Triangle Factory had a few errors in

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Remembering the Triangle Shirtwaist fire Disaster hit March 25, 1911 at 4:40 pm at the Triangle Shirt Waste Factory when it caught on fire by a cigarette bud or burning match. The employees were mainly young women and girls of Italian and Jewish decent and 146 died that day. The workers wanted out of the building but one of the doors was locked in the stairwell. Speculation was that Isaac Harris locked the door. Some of the women and girls jumped off the building and out the windows to trying to survive which was interfering with the firemen trying to put out the fire.

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Most of the people who were working in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory were on a strike before the fire for working rights and safety precautions. If the owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory followed the safety precautions the strike was proposing, the fire could have been prevented, and would have saved many lives. According to source 5, the doors were locked, long wooden tables became obstacles, and boxes crowded the exit. All of that could have easily been prevented. Also, higher class people were also involved in the strike which made it bigger and more popular to people.

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For this assignment, I reviewed the Great Fire of Chicago that occurred on October 8, 1871. A man-made hazard that has a lot of similarities to this fire would be the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. This fire happened on March 25, 1911, and was one of the most notorious industrial fires that have occurred in the United States. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire happened in the Asch Building located in downtown Manhattan. There were around 230-275 workers distributed throughout two floors when the fire broke out at quitting time.

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On March 25, 1911, a fire started at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory that claimed the lives of one hundred and forty-six workers. As a result of the fire, trials and debates occurred that contended the factory owners right to control their business against their duty to implement safe working conditions for their employees. Despite the trial resulting in no charges for the business owners the triangle fire is responsible for stricter safety codes and brought attention on the labor movement. In order to fully understand the changes that resulted because of the shirtwaist fire, you must first know what life was life prior to the fire.

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Despite the death and destruction it caused, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire ultimately benefited America by opening the eyes of mistreated factory workers and inspiring them to fight for better working conditions. Though it was unbeknownst at the time, the fire would inspire mistreated workers to rise out of the ashes and work tirelessly not for a factory, but for their own wellbeing. The history, the fire, and the trial that are all connected to the Triangle Shirtwaist Company are the events that led to the exploration for better working conditions. While we may not wish to remember all of the suffering the conflagration caused, we see its imprint it left on society whenever we see someone at work. This just imprint is one of safety.

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On March 25th, 1911, a fire started in New York City, becoming the deadliest fire in New York City’s history. The workers who worked at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory on the 9th floor were locked in the building. In total 147 people died in the fire. The Factory Owners should bear responsibility for the fire.

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Could the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory have been prevented? I am not going to answer that question just yet. Without assessing all of the information to prevent the making of unfounded accusations. First things first you may be asking yourself what a Triangle Shirtwaist is. A triangle shirtwaist is a type of blouse that many women wore in the early 1900's.

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The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire was a devastating fire that killed 146 girls in New York City (Leap for Life, Leap for Death). At this time, citizens of New York were furious and demanded that the government do something to prevent future tragedies. The government responded and the reforms that the government made, it changed the future of New York industry. The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, one of history’s deadliest fires, came as a result of outrageously unsafe working conditions, led to a high death toll and injury total, but, ultimately resulted in reforms that helped safeguard future factory workers.

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The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire was a deadly blaze that ended the lives of 146 garment workers in New York City in the year 1911. Many of those who perished were Jewish and Italian immigrant women, trying to make a living working at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory. Many died in a very violent fashion. As described by one observer, “Jumping from ten stories up! They are going through the air like bundles of clothes and the firemen can’t stop them and the policeman can’t stop them and nobody can help at all” (Klein, 2001, pg. 498).

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ER #3 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Emily Refici SUNY American History Mrs. Paventi Liverpool High School The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, a catastrophic event that occurred in 1911, remains an important moment in American industrial history. This tragedy, which claimed the lives of 146 garment workers, predominantly young immigrant women, highlighted the dangerous working conditions they faced in the rapidly growing garment industry of the time. Laissez-faire - a political French expression referring to governments' resistance to meddle with the functioning of the market economy, is illustrated in this as there was no government involvement concerning worker safety. The disaster served as a wake-up call for the need to prioritize

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Workers worked around ten to twelve hours a day in frequently unsafe conditions which would often lead to deadly accidents (Library of Congress). One of the most prolific accidents in the U.S. industry because of unsafe work conditions was the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. According to History.com, the factory employed 600 teenage girls who did not speak English to work twelve hours a day, every day. There was only one operable elevator and the fire escape was so narrow that it would have taken hours for all the workers to use it (History.com). The owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, refused to install sprinkler systems and other safety measures, hence making the factory completely unsafe (History.com).

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In addition, the fire also had a lasting impact on the insurance industry. Companies began to recognize the need for employers’ liability insurance to cover the costs of workplace accidents (McEvoy, 1995). As a result, new policies were introduced to protect both employers and employees in the event of an injury. The lasting impact of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire is clear; it led to the establishment of laws that protect workers and the introduction of insurance policies that provide compensation for workplace

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The detrimental Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire is considered to be one of the most tragic disasters in history. On March 25th, 1911, a fire broke out and killed 146 garment workers who were mostly women. These women worked countless hours with low wages and inhumane working conditions in a factory. Even though this event was tragic, the triangle shirtwaist fire helped to shape the new world for the better. The multitude of workers trapped within the inferno to their demise was the final straw for the mistreatment of America’s workers.

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In April 2013, Matthew Yglesias, an American Economics Journalist proposed the people of Bangladesh would not appreciate having stronger safety standards in their country because it would cause undue harm economically. He asserts Bangladesh should have different lower standards for safety because they are a poorer country. Most of the people involved in the New York tragedy of 1911 also known as the Triangle Fire, would not agree with Matthew Yglesias on his assertion that lower economic status would be an indication of lower safety standards in factories. Namely, the workers, the union leaders, the progressive reformers and the political leaders would all vote for higher standards commiserate with the United States. The only ones who would not argue with Yglesias are the owners of the Triangle Factory with their vested interest, their own problems of multiple fires and accusations of safety neglect.

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