What Happened On March 25th?
Around 4:40 P.M. on Saturday of March 25th, 1911, it seemed like an ordinary workday for over 500 garment workers. At the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City, workers (mostly young immigrant women) were working here in this ten-story skyscraper.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire wasn’t just a tragic accident; it was a preventable disaster fueled by greed and neglect.
The Asch Building, where the Triangle factory operated, had numerous safety violations. Stairwells were crammed with boxes, exits were locked to prevent theft, and fire escapes were flimsy and inadequate for the numbers amount of workers crammed into the upper floors.
Large quantities of fabric scraps, highly flammable celluloid used for shirtwaist collars, and locked wooden doors all contributed to the rapid spread of the fire. Many workers were Italian and Jewish immigrants and were unfamiliar with English. That being said, these workers were not aware of the dangers or the building’s layout.
So, when a match on the eighth floor came into contact with the fabric and debris, a massive fire spread rapidly to the higher floors, causing chaos all over.
The locked exits turned floors into deadly cages. Panicked workers had few options for escape. Many jumped from the windows to their deaths, while others perished in the inferno of fire.
The most horrifying part of the tragedy was the jumping of trapped workers from windows in a desperate attempt to escape the flames. Their screams echoed through the city and onlookers watched in horror as there was not much that they could do. Controversially, photographers took images of these desperate leaps, and there is real footage of the catastrophe.
After the fire, the owners of Triangle Shirtwaist factory, Harris and Blanck, were brought to court on charges of manslaughter. They were fined only $75 for each life lost, a small amount of money, even back then. However their insurance policy paid them back $60,000, at the rate of $400 per life lost, so they really profited from the tragedy. This caused further outrage.
In the wake of the fire, garment workers, particularly young women, organized and demanded change. The International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU) gained deserved momentum, pushing for better working conditions and stricter safety regulations.
The Triangle fire led to the passage of a slew of fire safety laws across the United States. These laws mandated regular fire drills, unlocked exits, and improved fire escapes. This is why smoke detectors and fire procedures are mandatory in all buildings all over the country today.
Today, the Triangle Fire Factory site is a somber memorial park. To lose that many lives over an accident that could have easily been avoided is tragic, and may they rest in peace.
Later in the same year of 1911, air conditioning and filters were invented, which allowed for better filtration in workplaces, reducing heat risk of fires.
