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Essay On Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

592 Words3 Pages

On March 25, 1911, around 4:40 pm, a fire overtook the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City. 146 workers died; most of them being women. It is remembered as one of the most infamous incidents in American industrial history Max Blanck, and Isaac Harris were the owners of the Triangle Waist Company. They were rich men, and considered as the Shirtwaist Kings. David Von Drehle, journalist, and author of Triangle- The Fire That Put Out America, argues that the fire could have been preventable. Unfortunately, the fire burned for about five minutes before the alarm was sounded. The manager of the factory, Samuel Bernstien, was on the eighth floor when the fire broke out. Bernstien had put out previous fires at the Triangle factory, and they had all been extinguished by hand. But, on this day in March, Bernstien grabbed the hose to extinguish the fire, but no water came out of the hose. As he struggled with getting the water to work, the fire over took many layers of flimsy cotton, and tissue paper making the fire spread. Drehle argues that this was one of the greatest tragedies of the event. Everyone could have possibly been saved, if only the alarm had been sounded immediately. …show more content…

Most of them were new immigrants. Young Jewish women from Eastern Europe and Catholic women from Italy. Von Drehle says in his book, “they were underpaid and overworked, but also independent, resolute and freethinking.” They were alone in the city working six long days a week, and sending all the money back home and keeping nothing for themselves. But, just a year earlier, these women had walked out of their jobs, activating a strike that called for better work conditions. At the back of the book Von Drehle includes a complete list of the victims in the Triangle

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Triangle Shirtwaist Company was a main manufacturer who did not take kindly of the strike. They used police officers, to imprison the female workers on strike, while they paid the government officials to take the other girls away. On March, 25, while the workers worked, a fire began to start in the rag bin. A manager tried to put the fire out, but the fire spread rapidly and the hose did not work, due to the holes punched in the sides(Stein). As the fire escalated, the young women began to panic, and as the young women tried to escape on the elevator, they realized that the elevator could only hold 12 people, and the elevator broke down in the heat and flames.

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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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The triangle shirtwaist company was owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris and was located on the Greene Street in Manhattan. Most of the workers were teenaged girls that worked long hours daily. Most were immigrants and knew little English. In March 25, 1911 a fire was initiated at the top of the Asch Building where the company was located. How the fire started is still a mystery.

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The book Triangle: The Fire That Changed America written by David Von Drehle recounts the dreadful incident of fire that broke out in a Triangle Shirtwaist factory on March 25, 1911 and its aftermath. In the earlier part of nineteenth century Triangle Shirtwaist factory was running a lucrative business in a multistory building in the New York City. The factory was owned by the two men Isaac Harris and Max Blank and it was located on the upper three stories of the Asch Building which was back then considered and projected as an efficient fireproof building (History). On that unfortunate day, fifteen minutes of fire gulped one hundred and forty-six innocent lives who were struggling to keep themselves and their families afloat(CBS).

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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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On March 25, 1911 in New York City, one of the most tragic disasters on record in the history of American industry transpired. This horrendous event will forever be known as The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. Somewhere near closing time on that horrific Saturday afternoon, a fire broke out on the top three floors of the Asch building which were being occupied by the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. Within minutes chaos arose, everything had erupted into madness, forever disrupting the lives of hundreds of young workers. When the fire was over, 146 of the 500 employees had died an extremely miserable death during the disastrous event.

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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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Automatic sprinklers, properly working fire escapes, and fire proof receptacles were among the recommendations for the businesses to instill. The fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory could have been prevented and more lives could have been saved if there were fireproof receptacles in the factory and were properly emptied. The fire spread so quickly trapping many inside. An article from the New York Times states “what burned so quickly and disastrously for the victims were shirtwaists, hanging on lines above tiers of workers, sewing machines placed so closely together that there was hardly aisle room for the girls between them, and shirtwaist trimmings and cuttings which littered the floors above the eighth and ninth stories” (141 men, 1911). The trimmings that laid among the floor is what caused the fire to spread so rapidly.

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David Von Drehle is the author behind the book, “Triangle: The Fire That Changed America”. This book is about the facts, stories, and trial of what occurred on March 25, 1911 at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory. This fire was the worst workplace disaster in New York history until 9/11. The fire that took place left workers of that factory and many others with the goal to change the working conditions and fundamental reforms. Drehle has always known his future involved writing.

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My question for this essay is how did the fire impact the people that got out. The triangle factory fire was a very tragic fire. There was not very many people that lived in the building. 146 of them were left to die because they could not find a way out.

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Triangle The Fire That Changed America is a book written by David Von Drehle. He is the author of many books and works as a journalist for the Washington Post. This book is about how many disasters were going on in the 1900s. That there were many issues and conflicts going on at the time. Then came one of the “deadliest workplace disasters in New York history” that was said to be the most significant too (Drehle, 2003, p. 3).

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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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