A Half-Hour of Horror On March 25, 1911 about 146 people lost their lives. Many more people lost loved ones. This was the most tragic disaster of all time until 9/11. What happened you may ask, well it all started with one little cigarette butt, wicker baskets of cloth and flammable paper. On this terrible day the workers, never in their wildest dreams, thought they wouldn’t get to say goodbye or see their loved ones again. At approximately 4:40 PM in a scrap bin under one of the cutter’s table at the northeast corner of the eighth floor flames erupted. A bypasser on Washington Place saw smoke coming from the windows and notified the fire department at 4:45. There were many safety violations that were very dangerous …show more content…
These were for two passengers at a time, once again to prevent stealing. There were 4 elevators, two were locked, and one of the remaining two was covered by fire. That left one, one elevator that about 100 people tried to squeeze into. About 5 people died waiting for the elevator to return, but it never did. If the elevators were bigger, allowed more people into them, or more were unlocked, then once again many more may have survived. The fifth issue was the the doors, they opened the wrong way. The doors opened inwards, not out. So when there were about 150 people pushing and shoving to get out, they couldn’t get the doors open. At this point the building sounds more dangerous than the fire itself. The sixth and final issue was that once the door was opened it was blocked off by barrels of oil, yes flammable oil. They once again said it was to keep workers from leaving early and taking breaks. This is just one of those things that make you think, what makes the boss of this company block off the doors, that once again open inwards, with oil, very flammable oil. It just doesn’t make sense. These were some safety problems that the building had and caused more problems when the fire was actually started. To this day we still talk about this disaster, one of the biggest disasters in history. A half-hour of horror goes down in history, meaning in 30 minutes 146 people lost their lives and never saw
One of the main reasons why so many people died in the fire was because of the lack of regulations for buildings. For instance, the fire escape was too weak to hold large amounts of people and it collapsed, killing everyone on it. Some were even impaled by a metal fence down below. In addition to the weakness of the fire escape, it wasn’t even long enough to reach the ground safely. Regulations
At first the workers tried to take the elevator to escape but it could only take so many before it broke down. After this, some people pried open the elevator doors and jumped down the elevator shaft to their deaths trying to get away from the fire. Other girls took the stairwell, but they found a locked door at the bottom so all of them ended up burning to death. Some employees took the fire escape but it was poorly built and constructed so it fell to the concrete with many people on it, killing all of them. The rest of the workers in the building jumped to their inevitable deaths to escape from the alternative of burning to death. Some of the people who were on the tenth floor escaped to safety on the roof of the building and survived. Two of these survivors were the owners of the factory, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris. Even though there was a ton of evidence showing that these two were negligent for the fire, the court never indicted them for manslaughter which angered and upset the devastated families of the
Three stories of a ten-floor building a the corner of Greens Street and Washington Place were burned yesterday, and while the fire was going on 141 young men and women at least 125 of them mere girls were burned to death or killed by jumping to the pavement below. The building was fireproof. The fire except the furniture and 141 of the 600 men and girls that were employed in its upper three stories. The victims were suffocated or burned to death within the building, but some who found their way to the windows and leaped met death as surely, but perhaps more quickly, on the pavements below.
Harris and Blanck didn’t have fire drills cause if they did the workers would have known what to do and they amount of death of triangle fire would have been less than it is now thanks to Harris and Blanck some one last their mother, father, best friend, boyfriend, girlfriend, son and daughter. they know it wasn’t save Harris and Blanck were frequently notified by the fire department of the fire danger in their building and ignored it. Same might say it’s the government fault for not shutting down the factory after the many violations by the owner and the many “nonfatal fair” that happened over the years. Some Workers died trying to open the doors their owners Harris and Blanck locked cause they were afraid the women might steal a few pennies worth of leftover cloth. Other exits were blocked with boxes of scrap fabric that have been there for nearly six
In addition, at the event most employees were acting out of fear, and they all wanted to save their lives. According to the article, the manager at the triangle factory didn’t warn employees as soon as possible. As a result, the court tried both owners of the factory for manslaughter, but they didn't find them guilty because the juries in the court was in doubt if the doors at the factory were actually locked or not. Based on the Kate Altermans statement , “Its locked, Its locked!”, her reaction at the time could be seen as an alert to others to find a different door for refuge and could be used as an evidence by witness which proves that the doors in the 8th floor was locked. By coincidence, another witness of that fire incident, Frances Perkins
The fire department received preliminary call just before 8.30 p.m. On arrival at the scene, fire fighters saw heavy smoke at the mid-height of the plaza and flame expanding from one window thereby exposing the adjacent floors (US Fire Administration, 1991). A dark, thick column of smoke was evident and extended up the building faรงade towards the roof. The smoke started to vent from several additional points along the northern side of the fire starting point. The fire resulted in engagement of twelve alarms that brought fifteen ladder organizations, fifty-one engine companies and hundreds of fire suppression personnel (US Fire Administration, 1991). In the
There was another huge issue that affected the process of egress. The building had no audible fire alarm. This is a problem that had a large impact on the loss of life. People on the far side of the building had no idea there was even a fire until employees had walked all the way down to that side of the building to relay that information. If they had audible fire alarms, many more people would have been able to evacuate safely.
Guests started heading for the only public exit from the Melody Lounge, which was a four-foot wide staircase that lead to the foyer on the first floor. Furnishings caught fire, and a wave of fire and toxic gases spread across the room heading toward the stairway. Panic came over the crowd and attempts to open the emergency door at the top of the stairs failed. The fire spread up the stairs and into the foyer area, which contained the coat rooms, restrooms, and the main entrance. The panic continued as cries of “FIRE! FIRE!” were shouted by patrons as the crowd raced toward the main entrance door. The first few were able to exit through the revolving door, but as the mass of patrons slammed into the exit the doors became jammed. People outside the building looked on as they watched their friends and relatives get crushed by the crowd surging against the jammed door.
This was a very terrifying fire it destroyed many homes and killed many adults and many kids too
There was 92 students and 3 nuns that were killed as a result of the fire.If the building which had been The devistation could ave been prevented
The girls were in line in the passageway ready to be checked out when the fire broke out. The tiny passageway was not spacious enough for the feared to death young immigrants fighting for a way out of the building. Almost everything in the factory is flammable, so it was difficult to control the fire. The fire department responded quickly, but their holes could not reach the eighth to the tenth floor. The fire escape was knocked off, the elevators stop working and the only door out was locked. The poor girls who were faced with death had no option than to jump out of the building. The nets of the fire department were not strong enough to trap the girls to safety. This horrific scene enters the mind’s eye of families and eye witnesses. Within minutes, all was lost. America was hit with one horrific incident that could not be over looked. The death toll reached one hundred and forty-six. Though some bodies were burned beyond recognition, all but six were identified. This catastrophic tragedy sent a Shockwave through the city of New York and over the border to the families of these young migrant workers. Families grieved and angered over the repugnant working conditions that has led to the tragic fire that claimed one hundred and forty-six lives within thirty minutes. This catastrophic tragedy changed
The fire spread from the O’Learys’ barn to the yards nearby. Soon it was spreading throughout the neighborhood. William Lee, a neighbor a block away, saw the fire and ran to Bruno Goll’s drugstore to turn in the fire alarm. Bruno Goll refused to turn in the alarm because he said the fire truck had already gone past. So instead of arguing, Lee went home to his family. At the courthouse the lookout on duty saw smoke, but thought nothing of it, thinking it was just Saturday's fire and there was no reason to be alarmed. Then he looked up and noticed it was a different fire and had his assistant strike the Box 342 for the fire department. Soon fire trucks were at the scene and attempted to put out the fire. The fire department’s Chief Marshal, Robert A. Williams got the engines to circle the fire to contain it. They got as close to the fire as they could until their arm hair was being burned and their
9/11 was not the first attack on the World Trade Center. At least 400 police and firefighters died by being burned or crushed by all of the debri from the calaption of the buildings. After this attack it was a very silent day in America.
and fires were in the upper half of the building and did not affect all the
The fire started on March 25, 1911. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory employed about 500 people. A discarded cigarette was said to have started the fire which soon spread because of the factories cotton and waist. The firefighters ladders couldn’t reach some floors leaving the people with the option to jump out the window or burn in the fire. In the fire 129 women and 17 men perished in the fire. The owners of the factory were charged with manslaughter but got away without paying anything. This fire helped encouraged 30 more health and safety laws for buildings.