Causes Of The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Of 1911

Introduction The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911 proved to be the impetus for sweeping change, not just in fire and worker safety, but in labor law and employee rights in general. Prior to the fire, workplace safety was largely focused on the protection of buildings and assets rather than the people who worked in the buildings. The only incentives for greater protections came from reduced insurance premiums, with little or no enforcement on the part of government officials. Following a series of strikes over working conditions, the Triangle fire came at the peak of the fight between companies and laborers. The disaster and resulting loss of life sparked a different kind of fire in the bellies of the public, forcing the government

The factory occupied the eighth, ninth and tenth floors of the Asch Building. At 4:40 PM, shortly before the day’s work was to end, a fire started in an eight floor wastebasket under a cutter’s worktable. Workers used nearby buckets of water to attempt to extinguish the flames, but the fire quickly spread to other wastebaskets and began to climb the walls as it burned through paper patterns. Out of water, the workers attempted to use the water hose in the stairwell but found that there was no water running to the hose. No sprinklers were installed in the building and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory had never had a fire drill. The eighth floor workers made their way down the stairs, but found that the doors were locked and opened inward, forcing them to remain shut as workers pressed towards the exit. After retrieving a key, most of the 180 workers on the eighth floor were still able to escape the blaze. In the rush to escape the eighth floor, a supervisor called the tenth floor to warn them of the fire. All but one of the 60 people on the tenth floor escaped over the roof, aided by several New York University Law students in a neighboring building. Unfortunately, the worker who accepted the call forgot to hang up the phone in her rush to escape and no one was able to alert the 250 workers on the ninth floor.

The last body was removed from the building late that night. Nineteen bodies were discovered on top of the freight elevators, and more than two-dozen were found atop a pile of glass at the bottom of the collapsed fire escape (Berger, March 2011). Six of the victims were so badly burned that they could not be identified until nearly 100 years later - they are buried in the Triangle memorial at the Cemetery of the Evergreens in Brooklyn (Berger, February