Triangle Factory Fire

Addison Gibboney, Nate Conklin, Marlene Hogue,

Parker Wilson
What happened?

● There was a candle that got knocked over on the eighth floor of the
Triangle Building
● The ladies on that floor called the tenth floor and warned them of
the fire and they both evacuated
● In the panic, no one called the ladies of the ninth floor so they were
left to continue working while a fire was burning underneath them
● It was too late when they saw the fire and smoke from the floor
below, but they started running towards the fire escape and
elevators
● The fire escape collapsed and killed most of the ladies on it, and the
elevators could only take down so many at a time, leaving most of
them trapped in the burning building
Why were the casualties so high?

The main reason that such a large amount of lives were taken by
the fire, was due to egregious safety conditions within the
factory, all of which contributing to further losses. First, the
workers were not warned of the fire, being unable to react until it
was already eating away at the factory, then the only door up the
building was locked with no key among the staff, ensuring that
they could not leave through the upper floors of the building.
Lastly, the fire escape had been poorly maintained, tearing off the
wall, leaving the only means of escape for the women as the
elevator, which only managed to make two trips before leaving
the rest of the workers to jump from eight stories high.
What changes were made to prevent this from happening again?

The biggest outcome of the tragedy was the

establishment of OSHA, tasked with
maintaining safety standards for businesses
and factories, there would initially be major
pushbank against this however, but OSHA
would eventually manage to hold the majority
of the US industry to their safety standards.
Why do we need to remember this event?

This event is what lead to the creation of

OSHA, a strict set of rules about building and
construction safety. It also caused many lives
to change within the families of those who
lost people to the fire. It helped change the
labor code on NY and the adoption of fire
safety measures to prevent this from
happening again.