Triangle Factory Fire Essay

On March 25, 1911, one of the most deadliest fires in American industrial history occurred at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York City. The fire killed about 145 of the factories workers. The deaths could've been prevented easily but, due to not following safety procedures they weren't.

The Triangle factory was located in the top three floors of the Asch Building, on the corner of Greene Street and Washington Place, in Manhattan. The factory was a true sweatshop that hired young women who were immigrants that worked in a cramped space at lines of sewing machines. Almost all of the girls who worked there were in their teens and did not speak any English. They worked 12 hours a day, every day. In 1911, the factory only had

The owners of Triangle Shirtwaist, Blanck and Harris, already had a suspicious history of factory fires. The Triangle factory was burned twice in 1902, while their Diamond Waist Company factory also burned twice, in 1907 and 1910. It was as Blanck and Harris torched their workplaces on purpose, before business hours so they can collect the large fire-insurance policies. This was very a common practice in these times. Even though this wasn’t what cause the fired that occurred in 1911, it sure did help the tragedy happen. Blanck and Harris refused to install sprinkler systems and take other safety measures in case they needed to burn down their shops

There were strikes held two years before the fire occurred to demand a higher pay and less hours. The Triangle Shirtwaist was one of few companies who resisted and paid off certain people to look the other way. On a Saturday afternoon, March 25th, 600 workers were at the factory when the fire began in a rag bin. The manager tried to put it out but it wasn't successful. As the fire grew so did panic. The workers all rushed to the elevator but it only held 12 people at a time and the operator can only make a couple of trips before it broke down due to the heat of the flames. Being desperate to escape the fire, the girls that were left behind waiting for the elevator decided to jump down the shaft to their deaths. The girls who fled to the stairwells also met awful demises–when they found the door at the bottom of the stairs were locked, many were burned alive. Workers and owners on the levels above the fire, escaped on the roof and jumped to other