Commentary On The 1911 New York Triangle Fire

Jill Lepore, is a David Woods Kemper’ 41 professor of America History at Harvard University and a staff writer at The New Yorker. She writes about America history, law, literature and politics. She is consider an American historian, has her B.A. where she teaches American politics history, and focuses on missing evidence in historical record and articles. The purposes for Lepore to write this book “New York Burning” was to rewrite the New York conspiracy of 1741, by using the Horsmanden Journal, she shows how politics and laws were used in the 18th century against the slave and how the white New Yorkers fear of slaves. Lepore used demographic and physical information about New York City, gave reports with a rich context to the historical events,

On October 15, 1910 the factory has a mandatory fire inspection and they pass. A month later, a fire in Newark kills twenty-five workers. This stimulates fire prevention efforts in buildings but again, this warning is ignored. January 15, 1911 is the last time prior to the fire that garbage is taken from the factory. On March 16, another report warning of improper safety standards in New York buildings is published. However, like previous warnings, it is again ignored. Nine days later, at 4:45 PM, just before workers would be released, a fire breaks out on the eighth floor. This fire will take the lives of a 146 unfortunate victims. Most of these victims are those of young woman. Six minutes later, the New York Fire Department (NYFD) arrives on site. By this time, the fire is spreading up to the ninth and tenth floors, which also belong to the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. Those on the eighth floor quickly head down and those on the tenth floor flee to the roof. However, most workers who were on the ninth floor are stranded, unable to move up or down. By 4:47 PM, the last of the bodies from the ninth floor land on the sidewalk, falling from the ninth floor ledge. It is not until 5:05 PM, that the fire is finally taken under control and ten minutes later is described as “all over.” (Stein. Triangle Fire) NYFD fighters head to all the top floors of the building finding many severely burned bodies. Mobs of

The horrific Chicago Fire devastated Chicago, Illinois on October 8, 1871, continuing until October 10, 1871. Hundreds of lives and thousands of homes were claimed by the fire (Duis 435). Many were left without a single possession, causing them to start over on their lives completely. Although for some this would have been bad, for others, it meant a new start for a better life. It gave criminals a chance to clean up their life and go back to their families. The cause of the Chicago Fire of 1871 is still unknown, although it left much devastation until Martial Law took over, resulting in the city patriotically rebounding back.

The Industrial Revolution is remembered as a major turning point in U.S. history. During this time, there were advancements in technology, an abundance of natural resources, cheap labor and investment capital. Industrialization led to the development of factories, which led to the increase in jobs for many immigrants. These advancements clearly overshadowed the harsh working conditions for many of these factory workers. In 1911, The Triangle Factory Fire was a clear representation of the dangers when the focus is on cheap labor production instead of the wellbeing of the factory workers.

    To begin with, the working conditions were very poor. Their employees worked in cramped lines at their sewing machines. The girls worked twelve hours a day, everyday. At the eighth floor, there were bins and bins of scraps, since the last time they were picked up and sold to cotton mills was January, and the fire happened midway into March. There were four elevators, but only one was working, so the workers had to file a long like to use it. They had two stairways that led to the streets, but one of them was locked from the outside to prevent robbery. Finally, the fire escape was so narrow that it would take hours to have all the workers use it, even if luck was on their side.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire was an infamous part of our history as a nation. The fire began on the eighth floor of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory and quickly spread all throughout the building. The fire took almost one hundred and fifty lives, most of them being young women or girls. It was not just the fire that took so many lives though, but women and men alike jumping from many stories up, to their death, just to have a possibility to live.

One policy that city could do to respond to all those young girls dead bodies was to make a specific policy about women workers safety or salary. As the stand-in History.com website the women right movement start in 1848 and ends up in 1920.The Triangle factory fire happened in 1911 during the women right movement, at that time women did not have that much right to fight for their safety and or higher

The New York City Triangle Waist Company fire was a disastrous event that paved the road for Progressive Era reforms. A day after the fire, there was an article, “Death List Shows Few Identified,” published by the New York Times listing the identifiable and unidentifiable dead and the injured. Because of the revealed appalling working conditions and the gruesome deaths the workers came to, the reader now desires to join the Progressive movement for improved working conditions and factory safety. The historical Triangle Waist Company fire resulted in not only local factory reforms but national factory reforms as well as increased women’s rights. The “Death List Shows Few Identified” article provides a statistical representation and depiction

The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 went on for several days, destroyed thousands of buildings, killed many people, and cause well over millions of dollars in damage. This is a horrible tragedy that happen in our country. It led to unlawfulness of the citizens it affected. There is still great controversy on the start of the fire. Although we do know that in the end everything turned out good and the city is now rebuilt bigger and better than before and is still continuing to grow to this day.

On October 8, 1871, the infamous Chicago Fire ignited. Although the origins remain unexplainable, the ending result left Chicago in a catastrophic mess. Roughly 300 people died and 17,450 buildings received mass amounts of damage during the fire. Over ⅓ of the city appeared lost in ruins and polluted rivers burst into flames. In addition, the city paid an estimated two hundred million dollars in repairs.

The Great Chicago Fire, October 1871, October 10 of 1871 destroyed thousands of buildings, killed 300 people burned till october 10th 1871, and caused an estimated of $200 million in damages. The fire started at night in a barn owned by Patrick O’Leary and his wife Catherine . Legend says that a cow kicked a lit lantern which that started the fire. The fire burn through 9th of October speeding at 160 kilometers an hour. The fire destroyed 3.3 square miles of Chicago it burned for two days. It left than 100,000 homeless, it killed hundreds of people because of the fire. The fire was on the 8th of October 1871, the fire was going to fast and the fire killed to many people like hundred of people and destroyed thousands of buildings that costs

After the fire, the owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, were instantly frowned upon for the death of the 146 people who lost their lives in the Triangle Factory Fire. Following the detest, the owners declared that the building was incombustible, and that the fire should not have occurred, using the Department of Building's statement of the matter to enhance their claim. However, the public pressured the city with an ultimatum, and demanded that a trial take place. The rejection of this ultimatum would result in riots and cause an equal or greater number of lives to be lost than the Triangle Factory Fire. The city had no choice but to accept, and so the investigation began. The charge that was being forced onto Max Blanck and Isaac Harris was manslaughter in the second degree, and the first argument was that the doors to the stairwells should not be locked during work hours. The owners refuted this, claiming that they were only trying to stop theft. They did not fully trust the workers, and they were trying to prevent vandalism at the same time. The owners used the locked doors to inspect the bags of the workers to ensure no fabrics or other valuable materials were stolen from the workplace. One owner, Max Blanck, according to Cornell University, had no idea that the doors were locked, and thus, the argument was dropped. The next topic was that what started the fire. The majority of people, including Albert Marrin,

In March 25,1911, blossomed into the kind of Saturday afternoon in early spring that gives rise to thoughts of a picnic in the park. But picnics were not part of the weekend routine for 600 people who work at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. “on March 26,1911 in New York. At 4:35 in the afternoon the fire springing from a source that no one knew it was coming from the rear of the Eighth floor on the Ten-story building at the North-west corner of Washington place and green streets. When the fired died down 154 men and women died in that horror”. But though some people think the factory owners are to blame for the deaths of 154 employees in the fire of 1911 because the trial revealed that the shirtwaist kings had been warned of the Hazardous

n October 1871, Chicago Illinois was built on wood. There was dry weather, and wooden buildings which made the city vulnerable to fires. The new city had drawn many people there, to start new work. Then one day a tragic fire struck the city. It’s still a mystery how the fire started, but some people have their own theories. A common legend told is that a cow kicked over a lantern in the O’Leary’s barn. Which started a blaze, and burned out of control because of the dry weather.

The sheer physical nature of fire is to consume all fuel that lay in its path. That is exactly what happened in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911. The building itself was reported to be fire proof, but what about its contents? The amount of unused cotton and other fabric scraps that were piled up were ample amounts of fuel just waiting to be consumed by a spark. The business owners kept what little exits and escape routes the building had locked for fear of a thieving employee. The employees mostly took the elevators up and down the building, limiting their knowledge of possible escape routes. Given those three factors combined, it was only a matter of time before disaster would strike.