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Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Essay

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Introduction Summary
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire is considered one of the deadliest fire tragedies in history that claimed 146 lives of mostly young girls and women. Majority of the victims were Italian and Jewish immigrants working in the garment factory (Lewis, 2016). They escaped their mother countries to seek better lives in the United States, but instead were met with terrible conditions of working and grinding poverty. In 1911, March 25th on a Saturday afternoon, a tragedy occurred in New York City in the garment company called Triangle Shirtwaist, where a fire occurred in the Asch Building top floors. The fire affected the company workers mainly women both old and young that perished as a result of the fire hazard. At the time, …show more content…

At this juncture, the only passage and escape route they could have used was engulfed with smoke and all of the elevators has ceased to function and this put them in a trapped position. Even though the rescue fire department team gotten there as quickly as they could, it was difficult to access them as their ladders could not reach this floor. Their water hoses were also not sufficient enough to control the flames at the ninth floor. Majority of the workers opted to shield themselves from the flames by hiding in the bathrooms and dressing rooms, but the smoke fumes overcame them and they died while in their hiding places. Others suffocated from the deadly fumes while trying to open the door that was locked by the managers. Those that could not bear being burnt alive or enduring the deadly smoke opted to escape through the windows, preferring to jump and about 60 workers made the leap of faith of jumping to save their lives where some survived and others perished (Lewis, 2016). Others managed to access the fire escape, however overloading the fire escape and resulting in it twisting and collapsing as it was not that strong to support the over excess number of people. This resulted in the death of 24 people after it crushed and without a fire escape, the workers left in the building had no other available option. The fire was finally controlled at 5.15 in the evening and at this time the death toll was at 146 with workers that had died from the fire and other that were severely injured perishing shortly after as a result of the injuries sustained (Rosenberg,

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