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.
People standing outside the building watched helplessly as people dropped from the windows of the ninth floor. William Shephard, a reporter for the United Press said, “Thud -- ...
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..., "The Triangle shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911." Accessed March 27, 2014.dol.gov/shirtwaist.
23 "After The Triangle Fire: State And National Workplace Safety Reforms." Last modified March 25, 2011.Accessed March 27, 2014.politicalcorrection.org.
24 "After The Triangle Fire: State And National Workplace Safety Reforms." Last modified March 25, 2011.Accessed March 27, 2014.politicalcorrection.org.
25 US Department of Labor. "The New York Factory Investigating Commission." . http://www.dol.gov/ Accessed May 16, 2014. http://www.dol.gov/dol/aboutdol/history/mono-regsafepart07.htm
26 United States Department of Labor, "OSHA’s Mission."Last modified March 25, 2011. Accessed March 27, 2014.www.osha.gov/about.html.
27 National Safety Council. "About the National Safety Council." Last modified 2014. http://www.nsc.org/about_us/Pages/Home.aspx (accessed May 16, 2014).
275 girls started to collect their belongings as they were leaving work at 4:45 PM on Saturday. Within twenty minutes some of girls' charred bodies were lined up along the East Side of Greene Street. Those girls who flung themselves from the ninth floor were merely covered with tarpaulins where they hit the concrete. The Bellevue morgue was overrun with bodies and a makeshift morgue was set up on the adjoining pier on the East River. Hundred's of parents and family members came to identify their lost loved ones. 146 employees of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company were dead the night of March 25, 1911. The horror of their deaths led to numerous changes in occupational safety standards that currently ensure the safety of workers today.
“The old Inquisition had its rack and its thumbscrews and its instruments of torture with iron teeth. We know what these things are today: the iron teeth are our necessities, the thumbscrews, the high-powered and swift machinery close to which we must work, and the rack is here in the ‘fireproof’ structures that will destroy us the minute they catch on fire,” suffragist Rose Schneiderman vehemently declared in a memorial speech after the terrible tragedy that occurred more than a century ago. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire was one of the deadliest industrial disasters in United States history. Taking place on March 25, 1911 in New York City, a fire broke out on the 8th floor of the factory, spreading quickly to the 9th and 10th floors,
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.
When most people drive downtown, they are almost always in a hurry. But, if a person actually stops and looks around, it is easily seen that Fond du Lac contains a lot of history. Every old church and store in this city has a special story connected to it. When a disaster strikes, the story can be lost; only to be found again through old newspapers. These churches meant a great deal to the citizens of Fond du Lac during the time of their existence. Couples were married, babies baptized, and generations of families gathered on Sunday mornings for worship in these churches. In the early days, catastrophic fires threatened these structures, and Fond du Lac did not have a proper fire department handle the disaster. Most often, if something caught on fire, it had to be left to burn. Then the expensive rebuilding could begin.
MacLaury, J. 1998. “A Brief History: The Department of Labor.” The United States Department of Labor.
“Terrible forces seemed out of control and the nation seemed imperiled. Farmers and workers had been waging political war against capitalists and political conservatives for decades, but then, slowly, toward the end of the nineteenth century a new generation of middle class Americans interjected themselves into public life and advocated new reforms to tame the runaway world of the Gilded Age” (American Yawp). Until one of the major tragedy happened known as the Triangle Shirtwaist were the factory was caught fire and many women had died or were injured. Events such as the Triangle Shirtwaist fire convinced many Americans of the need for reform, but the energies of activists were needed to spread a new commitment to political activism and government interference in the economy” (American Yawp). This is similar to the documentary video, A Dangerous Business, because, “workers had become injured in the McWane Corporation, safety was sacrificed to increase productivity” (Frontline/ Bergman). “Few years passed till OSHA found many violations but still owners would still put their workers at risk breaking violations time passed and suddenly they had too many violations that McWane had spent $5 million to develop a self-contaminated water treatment system, eliminated hazards, hired
As a result, “half the workers in Manhattan toiled on the seventh floor or above—which was at least one floor higher than the city fire department could easily reach” (48). When the New York Fire Department was unable to save many of the trapped victims of the Triangle fire, blame was placed on the fire department “for failing to insist on adequate safety measures” (179). Though, the NYFD was known for being the one of the top fire departments of the time, and those victims would have had a greater chance of survival if there were more adequate means of evacuation or if evacuation had been practiced in the form of a fire
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire is a turning point in history because, unions gained powerful alliances and people who wanted to fight for their safety. Which now in the U.S there is a set of guidelines that need to be follow to ensure the safety of the employees. He writes: “The Triangle fire of March 25, 1911, was for ninety years the deadliest workplace disaster in New York history—and the most important (Von Drehle 3).” Von Drehle emphasizes how important this event is in history and he draw comparisons to the to
...being held accountable, the city officials themselves were also held accountable because of improper safety regulations. Showing that the city itself should be at fault for not enforcing safety regulations for such things as fire escapes, that were not in working order. These unprecedented circumstances just lay down the blueprint for what is now the correct way to set regulations for industrial factory conditions.
...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).
Triangle is an amazingly written book about the true events that took place on March 25, 1911. This book would be highly valuable to historians because it gives a fully detailed account of the events that precede and followed the Triangle fire. It has a more permanent interest because of the time it took place, almost one hundred years ago. Some of the people like Charles Murphy, Charles Whitman, and Max Steuer then would have been thought to always be remembered, but today they are nearly forgotten, known only to historians, and not always well known to them (267). Overall, the Triangle fire really was the fire that changed America because it brought change politically to Tammy Hall, change for the workers and a push towards a better future for workers.
United States Department of Labor (2004) Occupational Safety & Health Administration. In Guidelines for Preventing Workplace Violence for Health Care & Social Service Workers. Retrieved from http://www.osha.gov/Publications/OSHA3148/osha3148.html
In the early 1900s industrial accidents were commonplace in this country; for example, in 1907 over 3,200 people were killed in mining accidents. At this time legislation and public opinion all favored management. There were few protections for the worker's safety. Today's industrial employees are better off than their colleagues in the past. Their chances of being killed in an industrial accident are less than half of that of their predecessors of 60 years ago. According to National safety Council (NSC), the current death rate from work-related injuries is approximately 4 per 100,000, or less than a third of the rate of 50 years ago. Improvements in safety up to now have been the result of pressure for legislation to promote health and safety, the steadily increasing cost associated with accidents and injuries, and the professionalization of safety as an occupation. When the industrial sector began to grow in the United States, hazardous working conditions were commonplace. Following the Civil War, the seeds of the safety movement were sown in this country. Factory inspection was introduced in Massachusetts in 1867. In 1868 the first barrier safeguard was patented. In 1869 the Pennsylvania legislature passed a mine safety law requiring two exits from all mines. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) was established in 1869 to study industrial accidents and report pertinent information about hose accidents. The following decade saw little progress in the safety movement until 1877, when the Massachusetts legislature passed a law requiring safeguards for hazardous machinery. In 1877 the Employers' Liability Law was passed. In 1892, the first safety program was established in a steel plant in Illinois, in response to the explosion of a flywheel in that company.
Regulation compliance, employee safety, fire safety, ergonomics, industrial hygiene, hazardous waste removal, training procedures, and management relations are samples of features taken into consideration during a Safety Major’s day. Though there are numerous specializations safety professions can choose, a base knowledge in all fields is essential for a successful career. Therefore, I intend to pursue a continuation of safety certifications that will demonstrate a persistent ability to learn about my career. For the initial duration of my profession, I hope to obtain an Environmental Health and Safety specialist entry level position for an established organization. If the opportunity arises, I will promote within the same organization until
Chemical and fire hazards in the workplace cause serious injuries that in most cases are fatal.