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Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Essay

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The New York Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire is infamous as one of the deadliest industrial disasters in United States history. However, it is was a turning point for American labor. The public outrage that erupted following the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire was the primary force behind the expansion of labor laws in the United States of America. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire led to the expansion of labor laws because of its conditions. The circumstances under which the fire occurred is what caused outrage. There was the high level of corruption in both the industry and the government that led to the massacre. The Factory was largely worked by immigrant women who did not protest to the conditions of the work (1911). Even though …show more content…

On the evening of March 25, 1911, the work day was coming to an end, but four small fires broke out on the eighth floor of the “Fireproof” Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, and located in the top three floors of the Asch Building, on Greene Street and Washington Place in Manhattan (Timeline). Despite the ‘no smoking’ rules, workers and managers often did so in the factory: when one of them lit scraps of cloth, the heaps of garments caught fire - it spread rapidly through the building (1911). It started fires in the waste bins full of garnet scraps as well as the paper patterns on the ceiling. Workers fruitlessly used pails of water in an attempt to put it out (Drehle). The doors that would free the six-hundred workers were locked shut. The manager attempted to use a fire hose to extinguish it, but the hose was rotted and its valve was rusted shut (Stein). Running from the incinerator, many stuffed themselves into the two freight elevators, operated by Gaspar Mortillaro and Joseph Zito, who both returned to the inferno over and over, saving a hundred and fifty people (Berger). Still, many could not fit in the elevator, and thus, they tried to slide down the cable or jump down the shaft, meeting their deaths (Drehle). The elevators stopped functioning quickly, weighed down by dozens of bodies and unable to rise. Those who managed to get onto the roof received help from a New York University professor and his students who used a ladder left over from painters to pull them up to the their adjacent building (Berger). Many fled onto the fire escape, which snapped (Lieurance). Outside help was just as futile. Many of the victims hung out of windows or ledges, but the fire department’s ladders reached only the sixth floor (Triangle). The crowd watched a man holding three women out the window in an attempt to spare them,

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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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Many people might say, why was the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire so important? The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire was so important because it was a tragedy that opened the nation's eyes to poor working conditions in garment factories. Other question might be ask why were the doors locked in the Triangle Shirtwaist fire? The building had only one fire escape, Long tables and bulky machines trapped many of the victims. Panicked workers were crushed as they struggled with doors that were locked by managers to prevent theft, or doors that opened the wrong way.

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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 25,1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City was the deadliest business tragedy in the history of New York. Every morning 100,000 people would head off to work, some of the girls would be as young as ten years old. In Asch Building on the 10th floor was where the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was located. The people had to work up to 14 hours a day with a salary of 2 dollars. Out of the 100,000people there were 500 blouse makers.

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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.

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David Von Drehle is an American author and journalist who received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Denver. He then earned and graduated from Oxford University with a master’s degree in literature and as a Marshall Scholar. He wrote “Triangle: The Fire That Changed America” which is a book about where the people of Manhattan, suffered the tragedy of the Triangle Shirt Waist Factory Fire which took place in the Spring of 1911. This book is “One more attempt to open up the horror of the Triangle fire, to gaze intently and unflinchingly at it, and to settle on the facts and their meaning,” (Drehle, 2003, p. 5)

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Another result of the fire was the creation of the American Society of Safety Engineers. Which was Designed for all buildings to fall under the code to make them safer? The American Society of Safety Engineers did just that, and there has not been any other building tragedy fire not caused by arson as severe as the shirtwaist fire. I will now like to return to the original question.

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The Fire That Changed America is a historical monograph discusses the rise of labor reforms along with the Progressive Movement throughout the state of New York during the early 1900’s, and pushes forward the argument that the fire which decimated the Triangle Waist Company was vital to the entrance of laws advocated by unions that protect the safety of workers. Drehle himself is a journalist, a former editor of Time Magazine, and a frequent visitor of American History in most of his works. The fire at Triangle was a devastating tragedy, but its sheer scale caused incredibly welcoming effects on the common workplace. Before the fire, labor unions that belonged to the progressive movement were only able to secure “a pay raise, [and] a fifty-two hour work week” for a pitifully limited number of workers, as the

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When the building was searched, the inspectors found that the building shows hardly any signs of the events that had occurred a day before. The walls seemed to be as good as ever, as were the floors. Looking at the building from the outside, everything seemed in place but what happened inside that building is what damaged many people. A policeman on sight, Chief Crocker, said that the fire was one of the worst things he has ever seen. Adding that he plans to call a meeting addressing safety regulations to enforce better methods of protection for employees in case of a fire (NY newspaper par 37).

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The Triangle Shirtwaist incident occurred on March 25, 1911, it’s important because it is remembered as the infamous American Industrial fire and also showed the Progressive Labor issues that the United States workers were facing. I have used an article “Life in the Shop”The Cornell University Triangle Shirtwaist Factory website from Cornell University(Written November

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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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Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire The Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire that occurred in New York City on March 25, 1911, remains as one of the most important events in the history of United States due to the aftermath as well as being considered “the beginning of a modern safety movement.” This fire took the lives of 146 people, most of them being immigrant women, very few men, and young girls around the age of sixteen. The fire led to improvements, and a movement against unsafe working conditions in factories located in New York and in other factories throughout the United States.

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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

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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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The eighth floor of the factory was filled with highly flammable items like fabric, paper, wood, cotton, and tissue paper. This allowed the fire to spread very quickly, I can only imagine how it grew with each object it consumed in its fiery jaws. Burning wisp of cotton and paper flew around the room, wherever these pieces landed gave birth to new flames. Employees were running all over trying to escape the now inferno they once called a factory. The Triangle fire killed 146 people and many others were badly injured.

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