In 1911, a sweatshop factory caught fire, and with no way out, over 100 children burned alive and many lost their lives by jumping from the ninth story windows to avoid death by fire. On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York City burned, killing 145 workers. It is remembered as one of the most infamous incidents in American industrial history, as the deaths were preventable–most of the victims died as a result of neglected safety features and locked doors within the factory building. Due to the locked doors to prevent theft at the sweatshop, children were trapped in the burning building and lost their lives. When the fire had broken out in a rag bin on the eighth floor, it caused a commotion between all the girls. They tried to put the fire out, but when the manager tried hosing it down, the hose was rotted and it’s valve was rusted shut. At first it started off as a small-scale dispute, but then the fire caught on all of the clothes and then spread to the higher parts of the building, trapping them all. …show more content…
When I think about this disaster, I see little girls falling from the building and I hear screams and I feel really sad and depressed, because no one could save them. I would imagine they were terrified and was hoping someone could rescue them. Even though this incident was one of the worst cases in industrial history, the fire had caused better safety procedures and better environments for the workers. So I guess if the fire hadn’t killed all those lives, we would have never changed our ways for the
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire not only affected the city of New York, but also the rest of the country. It forever changed the way our country would look at safety regulations in factories and buildings. The fire proved to America what can and will happen if we over-look safety regulations and over-crowd buildings. Unfortunately, 146 lives are taken before we fully understand this concept.
...s leading up to the fire and the aftermath of the event that makes this event so influential and important. The reforms made afterwards within New York legislation soon spread across the nation, and to almost every manufacturer in the country. It changed how workers were treated, the conditions in which they worked, and other legalities that protected their rights as workers and as human beings. This event also lead to the changing of lives through recognition women within the workforce, to women holding office in national politics, and eventually women’s suffrage. The fire impacted reformers and thinkers who went on to create the ideals within the New Deal. The majority of the legislation that was passed because of the outcome of the fire is still in effect today, over 100 years later. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire changed the nation’s workforce completely.
Girls and women ran to the doors and to the elevator. The elevator operator saved as many as he could, but he had to stop running the elevator because the fire had spread too far to keep operating it safely. Sisters, mothers, and daughters were separated. For some, the last thing they saw of their family member was either them going down the elevator, or trapped in the building. The workers became truly desperate. Some threw themselves down the elevator shaft after the elevator stopped coming. Others rushed to the fire escape, but it collapsed under all the weight. The firemen were not able to catch any of the girls that jumped through the window because the nets broke, the ladder on the tuck only reached to the sixth floor, and the water from the fire hose only reached the seventh floor. The firefighters sprayed the building as high as they could in hopes that the mist would cool the fire and start to put it out. The women soon realized that escape was hopeless. Knowing that they were going to burn to death, some turned to the window and jumped. None of the girls that jumped survived the fall. Within twenty minutes of the fire breaking out, there were bodies lying on the street and people surrounding the building. The total number of victims of the fire was 146. Nineteen bodies were recovered from the elevator shaft, and fifty-four workers died by jumping out of windows. 12 The two founders, Harris and Blanck, made it out of the burning building alive, but some of their family members worked in the upper floors of the factory and were killed by the fire.
Life in the early 1900’s wasn’t easy. Competition for jobs was at an all time high, especially in New York City. Immigrants were flooding in and needed to find work fast, even if that meant in the hot, overcrowded conditions of garment factories. Conditions were horrid and disaster was inevitable, and disaster did strike in March, 1911. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York set on fire, killing 146 workers. This is an important event in US history because it helped accomplish the tasks unions and strikes had tried to accomplish years earlier, It improved working conditions in factories nationwide and set new safety laws and regulations so that nothing as catastrophic would happen again. The workplace struggles became public after this fire, and the work industry would never remain the same again.
In conclusion, the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire was a tragedy that could have been avoided. It caused many innocent people to lose their lives. But, fortunately this caused the factory owners and the government to take more precautions with the factory.Because of this incident, the safety standards have changed significantly such as better firefighting equipment, and fire alarm. Now there are more exit doors which can only be used as an emergency and if you intend to go through that door, the fire alarm will turn
It was also a tragedy because of the unfair treatment and harsh work conditions. Many of these young immigrants hoped that America would bring them a better life, yet it only tore their life down. We should not only remember them for being killed in a tragic fire but we should remember them for fighting for rights not only for women but for workers of all races, genders, and ethnicities (/youtube). These young men and women were only trying to earn money to survive, but while doing so, they made an incredible difference in our
Disasters can be so impactful; some can forever change the course of history. While many at the time thought this story would soon pass, and with it all the potential bad publicity, the story of the Triangle fire spread quickly, and outraged many people. On a beautiful spring day in March 1911 when 146 workers lost their lives, a fire would prove it could do what years of reformers had failed to do, get the government on the side of the workers. I would argue that the fire largely impacted the country. Specifically, the Triangle Fire ended up changing New York’s interconnected political and economic scene, and spurred on the creation of stricter safety codes. For the first time owners would hold responsibility for their actions. Max Blanck and Isaac Harris; being indicted for manslaughter was proof of this. Social change seemed to be spurred as well; the general public and newspapers would come back the workers of New York. Large institutions would suffer as well. Tammany Hall would be feared less and less by waves of new immigrants. The largest change brought about by the blaze would be legislation. Twenty-five bills, recasting the labor laws of the state
Saturday seems like the perfect day to unwind, but not to the women at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. They tediously spent 7 days a week bent over an overheating, run-down sewing machine for 13 hours; producing shirtwaists for the city’s population. What everyone expected had occurred. A fire set ablaze on the eighth floor, engulfing the room at an expeditious rate. In a matter of fifteen minutes, 146 women had died. Their skin had been charred by the flames; peeling off to expose their vulnerable skeleton. Others had leaped to their instantaneous deaths by either chucking themselves out the windows or being spilled off the derelict fire escape. Owners of the factory, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, deemed the
The Triangle Fire made a lasting impact on the future of America. March 25th, 1911, a day that changed everything. Fire engulfed the three stories of the Triangle Waist Company. Family members, firemen, and friends could only watch by the sidelines as 146 girls and boys perished. The vision of girls jumping from the windows to escape being burned alive, broke down even the most seasoned Fire Chief sending him down to the street with quivering lips. In 1910, 13 weeks on strike most companies accepted the unions’ demands but Triangle Waist Company denied the union, giving higher wages and shorter hours. If Triangle Waist Company had accepted the union, would the 146 girls and boys lived? The fire was a terrible tragedy that will never be forgotten but it changed the Industrial life. Following the Fire there was industrial reform, passing of legislation, and it led to women’s suffrage.
The novel Triangle: The Fire That Changed America by David Von Drehle is a novel that brought worldwide recognition of what terrible events that occurred on March 25th 1911. Von Drehle is a well-known American author and a journalist. With a bachelor degree from the University of Denver, and earning his masters in literature from Oxford University. He worked in many newspapers such as the Denver post, the Washington post, and the Times. Therefore, publishing many pieces which he received an award for such as Among the lowest of the dead: inside death row, Deadlock: the indie story of Americas closest election, and Rise to greatness: Abraham Lincoln and Americas most perilous year. The novel Triangle is about a shirtwaist factory fire that occurred on March 25th, 1911. It was a deadly fire that happened in the New York triangle factory that killed approximately 146 workers. This tragedy is well remembered in American industrial history, because the deaths could have been prevented. Most of the victims were burned alive or jumped to their death, because the factory did not have the proper safety equipment and the doors being locked within the building. This tragedy brought attention to the dangerous working conditions that the victims endured in the sweatshop factories. Which therefore led to new laws
Before this tragedy occurred the suffering of the workers was very evident. Take for instance this first hand account by Sadie Frowne.
...ving put out the fire (33-34). At one point while fighting the fire one of the firefighters was told to spray the houses with water so they would be wet and unable to burn. While he was doing this, a steamer unplugged his hose from its water plug because the steamer worked better than the little hose cart. The steamer however, didn’t continue spraying the houses but went somewhere else. At the same time another steamer stopped working temporarily, but was soon fixed by banging it with a hammer. It was ready to go back to work, but the time that was wasted and the neglect of the two spots that were being worked on let the fire spread and burn the rest of the city (42).
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire was remembered as one of the most infamous incidents in American industrial history. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was owned by Max Blank and Isaac Harris. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory grew quickly as Max and Isaac moved their business from a little shop by 1901 to the new ten-story Asch building at the top three floors. There were approximately five hundred workers who worked in the Triangle Shirtwaist Company at the time while the fire broke out. The workers were mostly Jewish and Italian immigrant women (Campbell 210-212). The incident happened in Manhattan, New York City in March, 25, 1911; also, as one important event that held relevance in American .This incident was the deadliest industrial disaster. 146 workers died, and they either died from the fire or jumped from the window. They jumped out from the window because the fire trucks’ ladders could only reach up to the seventh floor. After the incident, there were demands for enhanced law to protect workers health and safety, including factory fire codes and child labor law that helped shape future labor laws; however, there was evidence that the fire wouldn’t have happened if the company owners had listened to the warnings, and the owners were found unfairly not guilty in the court.
The documentary strived to show us how factories were corrupt that they couldn’t provide good working conditions for the workers until we lost people. This documentary is about the tragic fire that took place on March 25, 1911 in the Triangle factory. We can clearly see through this documentary that these people didn’t matter to the factory owners because their needs were not met. The documentary shows that the year before the fire took place the workers led a strike asking for better working conditions, but obviously their voices were not heard. After the fire took place this is when factories started improving working conditions. It is sad to learn that it took 146 lives of innocent people in order for factory owners to be convinced that they need to improve the poor working
The fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was a monumental and crucial event in American History for many reasons. It took place on March 25 1911 and in the horrendous events of the fire 146 people lost their lives. The quality of the workplace was poor and ended up being dangerous enough that it lead to the catastrophic fire that changed the way factories operate as well as individual lives forever. The oppression that the women and immigrants experienced in the workplace and in society was greatly affected in the aftermath of the fire.