Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Essay

The fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was a terrible tragedy. On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory burned, killing 145 workers. It is one of the most infamous fires in American history. Workers were forced to crowd up on the fire exit. Others jumped off the building to their death. The people on the fire exit died because they crowded up and the fire spread there. There were also some people who died of inhalation of the smoke produced by fire. This fire brought up the attention of workers’ safety. The conditions inside were terrible even though there were teenagers inside. The Triangle factory was owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris. It was located in the top three floors of the Asch building, on the corner of Greene Street and Washington Place, in Manhattan. It employed young immigrant women who worked in a cramped space near sewing machines. Those women were forced to work 12 hours a day. What makes it worse is they had to do it every day, including weekends. There were four elevators inside the building. However, after a

Yet, they still worked there even though they knew they could die easily. The sad thing was they were only paid a mere 15 dollars a week, even after working for 12 hours a day every day. Blanck and Harris also torched their workplaces to collect money from the insurance policy. While this wasn’t uncommon in the 20th century, Blanck and Harris refused to install sprinklers to extinguish the fire. The fire began with ashes from a bin with cloth inside of it. There were 600 workers present. They attempted to use the fire hose but it was unsuccessful because the hose was rotted and the valve was shut. Only 48 workers escaped through the elevator. Others went through the stairway where they burned to their deaths when there was a locked door. Jumpers broke the nets that were provided when three jumpers went at the exact same