by the cramped layout of the Things as simple as a sprinkler
The Triangle
The Triangle
Shirtwaist
Shirtwaist Factory
ShirtwaistFactory Fire
FactoryFire
Fire
It was a usual day of working for
the women in the Triangle
Shirtwaist factory on March 25th
of 1911. As they used to,
everybody was working really
hard nine hour a day to support
their families. Everything was like
it had always been when
suddenly, on the 8th floor, a fire
broke out … Just in some
minutes there were hundreds of
deaths that could be avoided.
How did this happen and why is
this an historical event?
The fire had the perfects thing to
start… a cigarette butt had
dropped into a scrap bin holding
pieces of fabric, turning this into a
big and pitiful mess. The fire
spread quickly, traveling easily
through all of the flammable
fabric and working tools.
Accelerating through each floor
building. There was no audible
alarm or anyway to contact
employees on 9th floor to let them
know about the fire, there was no
fire prevention or extinguishing
equipment on site. The people in
9th floor didn’t realize there were
a fire until the fire had already
spread up to their floor blocking
exits.
Hundreds of terrified employees
all rushed to nearest fire
escapes, exits, elevators and
some even climbed to the roof.
One fire escape collapsed under
the overload of people and heat
of the flames. Out of 200 workers
on the 9th floor 146 died. Most
from jumping out of the windows.
The owners, Harris and Blanck
were alerted by telephone first.
They escaped from the 10th floor
to the nearby rooftops and tried
to cover the disastrous event and
told the public they took all
necessary precautions. Public
reacted negatively and
demanded the owners to be held
responsible.
system, a fire extinguisher or an
adequate fire escape could have
prevented this horrible tragedy.
Such safety measures were not
required by law at the time
therefore had not installed in the
factory.
After the fire, their story inspired
hundreds of activists across the
state and the nation to push for
fundamental reforms. For some,
such as Frances Perkins, who
stood helpless watching the
factory burn, the tragedy inspired
a lifetime of advocacy for
workers’ rights. She later became
secretary of labor under
President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
This will be always an important event to the
history because the tragedy brought
widespread attention to the dangerous
sweatshop conditions of factories, and led to
the development of a series of laws and
regulations that better protected the safety of
workers.