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Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Essay

1009 Words5 Pages

Many companies and factories don't meet their requirements when it comes to workers rights. During “the booming years” Workers didn't get all the benefits and needs they needed. Around 1911, On an average day one hundred people died on the job. The rights for the workers in the Shirtwaist factory were very poor. They got little to no rights and little to no pay. If workers got the same benefits back then that we get today a lot more lives would not have been lost. Over one hundred years ago, On Saturday, March 25, 1911 a fire broke out on the top floors of the triangle shirtwaist factory killing 146 workers. This fire made people realize that they deserved better rights at workers. If there wouldn't have been such poor fire hazards a lot …show more content…

One of the drawbacks being for the workers and one being for the owners. “Half the workers worked on the 7th floor or above, which was at least one floor higher than the city fire department could easily reach. Being the owners of a shirtwaist factory it was very hard to be organized.”(Drehle 48) The day the building caught on fire there were more than 180 people working on just the 8th floor that initially went up into flames.The building only had one fire escape, that was one fire hazard, and it broke during the fire because so many people were trying to get away from the screaming flames. Long tables and big machines trapped many of the workers from escaping. Panicked workers were crushed as they struggled with doors that were locked by Blanck and harris to prevent theft, little did they know that they were trapping there employees from eascaping the roaring flames. “Only a few buckets of water were on hand to douse the flames. They didn't have sprinklers or anything else to put fires out. Outside, firefighters' ladders were too short to reach the top floors and ineffective safety nets ripped like paper.”(What went wrong) A Lot more lives would have been able to be saved but Because of the bad Fire hazards Nearly anybody lived. For workers to have the rights they need they also need good fire hazards. Blanck and harris were so worried about money that they didn't even care if there employees were safe or …show more content…

25 bodies were found huddled in a cloakroom.”( The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911) These deaths, although horrible, was not what changed the feelings toward government regulation. After finding that they could not use the doors to escape and the fire burning right at their feet, the girls of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, aged mostly between 13 and 23 years of age, jumped 9 stories to their death. One after another the girls jumped to their deaths on the concrete over one hundred of feet below. Sometimes the girls jumped. Onlookers watched in horror as body after body fell to the earth. Many people were outraged at the tragedy. “According to people watching, the flames were pouring from the building and several girls jumped before the first tuck even got there.”(Stories of survivors) The majority of the people jumping were girls. A man named benjamin Levy states that he only seen one man jump. If the owners Isaac Harris and Max Blanck would have cared about their employees more a lot of them would still be

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