The Triangle Fire Essay

It was the fire, that caught America by surprise, the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire. Killing 145 workers, the workers were young immigrant women looking for jobs, some even as young as 13 were employed. Usually the workers would work 12 to 14 hour shifts a day, 6 days a week, getting payed only four to five dollars a week. The company was owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris. The book “Uprising” by Margaret Peterson Haddix is a historical fiction that teaches students about how working in a factory was. This book is about these three young girls named Yetta, Bella, and Jane began to realize the factory owners were cheating them and not paying the right amount they were told. So they went on strike and kept fighting for what they believed

The Triangle Factory Fire took place in New York on Saturday, March 25, 1911. The fire was marked as the worst in history of the state of New York. Men, women, and children of all ages were there but unfortunately there were more women/girls than men/boys. There were many people to not find a way out of the building but some decided to jump out of the windows for a way of escaping the fire. Majority of those who escaped by the window lost their lives. The employers had no clue of this ever happening as well as the fire department who did not have enough man power or equipment for this massive degree. Although majority of the workers died, there were some who lived to share their stories.

In today’s time, it is almost impossible to to find a building that does not have exit signs or fire extinguishers here in America. Fire drills are regularly practiced in schools and workplaces to ensure the tiniest amount of fatality would not occur. However, it wasn’t like that in the 1900’s. Neither safety issues nor regulations were taken into thought. “The waist industry was flourishing in New York: there were more than five hundred blouse factories, employing upward of forty thousand workers.” In this time of history, the Triangle Waist Company was the largest manufacturer of women’s shirtwaist in the entire country! On March 25, 1911, one hundred and forty six individuals lost their life to what was one of the biggest events in history

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 crew was not prepared for the fire when it suddenly arrived. A wave of fire, heat, and smoke over took them by surprise, Eight of the crew deployed their shelters on the road and the two civilians took shelter with one of the crew members. The squad boss was high above the road in the rock scree watching the fire. He ran down towards the road but couldn’t get there before the fire arrived, He turned around and ran back up the slope were the other four crew members and the crew boss was.

     Near closing time on Saturday afternoon, March 25, 1911, in New York City a fire broke out on the top floors of the Asch Building in the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. One of the worst tragedies in American history it was know as the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. It was a disaster that took the lives of 146 young immigrant workers. A fire that broke out in a cramped sweatshop that trapped many inside and killed 146 people.

A year after shirtwaist workers thought they had won a war, the Triangle Fire proved that it had merely been a battle. Under the Triangle Shirtwaist Company owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, the men and women laboring to sew waist skirts were dissatisfied with their terrible working conditions and low wages. While working, the garment workers, made up of mostly poor Italian and Jewish women immigrants, would constantly be yelled at and called sexist slurs by bosses, and forced to work long, tiring hours for little pay (Argersinger 11). Tired of these conditions, the workers of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York met in secret to form a union against the company in September 1909 (Argersinger 11). The union of the garment workers

     Near closing time on Saturday afternoon, March 25, 1911, in New York City a fire broke out on the top floors of the Asch Building in the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. One of the worst tragedies in American history it is known as the “Triangle Shirtwaist Fire”. It was a disaster that took the lives of 146 workers, most of which were women. This tragedy pointed out the negatives of sweatshop conditions of the industrialization era. It emphasized the worst part of its times the low wages, long hours, and unsanitary working conditions were what symbolized what sweatshops were all about. These conditions were appalling, and no person should ever be made to work in these conditions.

Triangle, a novel written by David Von Drehle, is about the working conditions that caused “the deadliest workplace disaster in New York history [for ninety years to come]” (Drehle 3). It occurred in the early 1930’s, and about the events that led to protests for better conditions so that the incident that happened on March 25, 1911, in the Triangle Waist building, would not be replicated. Due to the inadequate working conditions, some buildings experienced disasters because “[The] workplace safety was scarcely regulated, and workers’ compensation was considered newfangled or even socialist” (Drehle 3). Most who lost their lives that unfaithful day at the Triangle building, were taken to the pier, “the makeshift morgue at the end of the pier

Life in the early 1900’s wasn’t easy. Competition for jobs was at an all time high, especially in New York City. Immigrants were flooding in and needed to find work fast, even if that meant in the hot, overcrowded conditions of garment factories. Conditions were horrid and disaster was inevitable, and disaster did strike in March, 1911. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York set on fire, killing 146 workers. This is an important event in US history because it helped accomplish the tasks unions and strikes had tried to accomplish years earlier, It improved working conditions in factories nationwide and set new safety laws and regulations so that nothing as catastrophic would happen again. The workplace struggles became public after

They would have no nails,-they had worn them off pulling hides; their knuckles were swollen so that their fingers spread out like a fan.”(Sinclair, 1906) He stated this to point out that the workers had horrible conditions in the workshops and they needed to be justified in that state. Similarly, a recent article ,Labor in Progressive Era Politics, expressed an event of deaths in a workshop located in New York in 1911; this event is well known by the name The Triangle Fire. In the article it states that the “Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York killed 146 garment workers in 1911, public outrage prompted the creation of a state commission to study the origins of the fire and the conditions of industrial workplace.”(Unknown) This event was not only tragic, but also a huge spark of the idea that the marginalization shall be no more. They were going to do what they needed to overcome the working conditions.

“The ‘Triangle’ company, “With blood this name will be written in the history of the American workers’ movement, and with feeling will this history recall the names of the strikers of this shop- of the crusaders” (Von Drehle 86). Even before it happen, the Forward predicted the terrible disaster of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory that occurred one year, one month, and seventeen days later (86). Triangle: The Fire that Changed America, by David Von Drehle tells the story of the horrible fire.

The factories housed the latest technology of the Gilded Age, such as the assembly line. The mass production that the assembly line brought about made the rich richer, but did nothing to help the poor. They were working long hours in sometimes extremely dangerous conditions. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire was considered one of the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city. Since, the owners locked the doors to the stairwells and exits - due to theft and unauthorized breaks - many of the workers were trapped with nowhere to go. As a result 147 garment workers died from smoking inhalation and falling to their deaths. In response a newspaper published an article titled “Fire Trap Victims Buried Draft New Law to Save Shop Workers,” covers the stories of the survivors and witnesses as well as questioning who was at fault and what further actions would take place (Document

Triangle: The Fire That Changed America by David Von Drehle gives readers a look into one of the most significant tragedies to take place in the United States. Before writing this book, Von Drehle was an American journalist working with The Denver Post, Miami Herald, Washington Post, and Time. Von Drehle is a very accomplished writer as he has won several awards those which recognize his excellence in young journalism, among these are, the Livingston award and the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award. Triangle was written with amazing descriptions that transport you to the day in 1911 where the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire took place. The book gives its audience a chance to experience what not only that horrific day was like, but what most days were like for factory workers. Von Drehle believes that “the fire was a crucial moment in American history that forced fundamental reforms from the political machinery of New York and the whole nation.” (Von Drehle 3)

On the afternoon of March 25, 1911, a fire broke out in the 10-floor Asch Building, a block east of Manhattan's Washington Square. This is where 500 mostly young immigrant girls were producing shirts for the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. Within minutes, it spread to consume the building's upper three stories. Firemen at the scene were unable to rescue those trapped inside: their ladders weren't tall enough. Exits were locked, and the narrow fire escapes were inadequate. Panicked, many jumped from the windows to their deaths. People on the street watched in horror. The flames were under control in less than a half hour, but 146 people perished, 123 of them women. It was the worst disaster in the city's history.