Triangle Fire Research Paper

Before the fire broke out on Sunday night, October 8, 1871 there had been a large drought causing everything to be dry and extremely flammable. Many fires had been breaking out in Chicago. Records show that in 1870 the fire

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)

March 25th, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory burned leaving 145 workers dead. Negated safety rules and regulations and the overall working conditions in the factory where illegal manual workers were paid close to nothing for working very long hours, were a known concern that was just looked over by the business managers in this “Sweatshop.” Fires, leading up to this tragedy, were looked passed on the count of government officials and business managers’ corrupt ways of running things. The owners of the factory, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris were known for causing fires in factories they have previously owned such as two Diamond Waist Company factory fires in 1907 and 1910, and the Triangle Shirtwaist Company’s fire in 1902. They were doing so to collect insurance money and everyone looked the other way.

In 2003, possibly one of the worst wildfires in California’s history occurred. This fire, referred to as the Cedar Fire, spread across 273,246 acres.

Some disasters are so impactful, that they forever change the course of history. On March 25, 1911, one such event took place. The infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Fire occurred that day, and left one hundred and forty-six people dead in its wake. While many at the time thought the story would soon pass, and with it all the potential bad publicity, the story of the fire spread quickly, and outraged many people. As a result, the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire ended up changing many

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

On March 25, 1911 the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory caught fire. There is a couple of reasons why the factory caught fire like for instance, there where no strict fire prevention law and businesses were corrupted for example, the owners Blanck and Harris are know to have torched their business before workplace hours in order to collect on their fire insurance policies, this was a common practice in the early 20s, History.com staff (2009) Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire http://www.history.com/topics/triangle-shirtwaist-fire, at the time making it easy for company and corruptions to get away hazardous workplaces environments. With no automatic sprinkler installed, 10 story tall building not being fire resistant and many other fire hazards it was

Clotilde Terranova was one of the 146 victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire was a fire on the top three floors of the Asch Building in Brooklyn, New York. No one knows the real cause of the fire. Most believe it started when someone tossed a burning cigarette bud into the scrap bin on the eighth floor. The building itself was fireproof, but there was so many flammable things inside the building that caused the fire to spread so rapidly. Terranova was on the tenth floor during the fire. She was the only death among the approximately seventy workers on the tenth floor.

This commission helped usher in much needed changes on the labor side, which after a few years developed into the New York State Department of Labor (aflcio.org, 2017). The fire also helped fire departments not only in New York City, but all over the Nation at that time, make changes to how they operate. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), which was founded in eighteen ninety-six, declared at its annual meeting right after the fire, to all departments nation-wide, how important fire-drills were to life safety (Teague & Farr, 2009). A few years later the NFPA formed the Committee on Safety to Life to help with fire codes, regulations and departments. Several years after its development, they adopted revised specifications to fire escapes, and worked on specific regulations to exits to buildings and the Building Exit Codes (Teague & Farr, 2009). All of their work helped bring items like fire drills, egress from buildings, sprinklers, fire escapes, and other building code changes. Fire Departments all over the Nation were also helped and their eagerness to improve and update their equipment to meet the needs of a changing, and more industrialized and upward-bound Nation took full effect. Improved safety nets, ladders and equipment to reach taller buildings, more water access points and better personal safety equipment were all a result of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and the efforts of the

Isaac Harris and Max Blank were the owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory when this occurred. They were the ones that made and kept these conditions which got them charged for manslaughter. It was not them who started the fire, it was an employee who

The factory normally employed 500-600 employees mostly immigrants, in which most worked nine hours a day. The fire began around 4:40 in the afternoon in a scrap bin under a cutters tables on the eighth floor. It is suspected that a match or a cigarette in the scrap bin caused the fire. The first alarm was set off buy a passerby at 4:45 who saw smoke coming from the building (Wikipedia Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, n.d.). A bookkeeper on the eighth floor was able to call and warn the tenth floor of the fire and those people along with the owners were able to escape via the roof. The means of egress were very sparse and most were locked. The man with the key to unlock the doors escaped the fire without unlocking most doors. At the time of the fire the only safety measures available for the workers were 27 buckets of water and a fire escape that would collapse when people tried to use them (The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911, n.d.). Most of the doors were locked and those that were not locked only opened inwards and were effectively held shut by the onrush of workers escaping the fire (The

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,

Government agencies answered to the public uproar by examining the conditions of the triangle company and other similar facilities. The discoveries made showed that half the city workers jobs where located higher than fire department ladders could reach, unhealthy working conditions, with iron bars blocking fire escapes, overcrowded conditions, and wooden rickety buildings. Blanck, Harris the owners of Triangle insured the building and received two hundred thousand dollars from nearly forty different insurance companies. Shortly after the fire, they tried to open a new business. They were fined by inspectors for positioning the machines close together.

The Triangle Shirtwaist fire enjoys a dual legacy. It is simultaneously one of the worst corporate destructions and worst fires in history. On March 25, 1911, over one hundred and fifty young girls and women lost their lives when the Triangle

In conclusion, all evidence supporting the idea and concept of fires and its risk. The increase of wildfires does more harm than benefit, to that end, people might have to take preventive actions now. Otherwise, the severe fire disaster could possibly forces living species to the extreme like extinction one day; there were many species had already extinct because of the loss of habitat and environment, and soon people will be most likely facing extinction just like them too. Do you still remember the passenger pigeon (1914), golden toad (1989), Western Black Rhino (2011), and many others? (National Geographic Society). Truly, the massive global climate through excessive greenhouse gasses continuously changes ecosystem and biodiversity, such