Triangle: The Fire that Changed America Essay

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

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)

The book is about a person who put a cigarette in the trash when it was still burning and it caught the whole building on fire. This building was called Triangle Factory Fire. Also 146 people died. They died because they couldn't get out of the building. Aslo they jump out the window. The owner locked the door because of people being late. Also the owner didn't want the late people to get in the building.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire happened on March 25, 1911. The Triangle Fire is remembered as one of the most tragic workplace incidents in the history of Industrial America. This tragic fire killed 146 female factory workers, some as young as age 15. During this time there was many problems with sweatshops and unsafe working conditions, this fire proved those problems to be true.

Triangle: The Fire that Changed America by David von Drehle analyzes the events surrounding the fire of the Triangle Waist Company in New York. David von Drehle is an award-winning author and journalist who graduated with a masters in literature from Oxford University, and had worked for various newspapers such as The Washington Post. The Triangle factory fire occurred on March 25, 1911 in New York City and marked a turning point in history beginning with an uprising before and reform effects afterwards. Drehle argues in his book that the fire was a crucial moment in the history of America that pushed for safety and workplace reforms not only in New York, but the entire country.

On March 25, 1911, a Saturday afternoon, near closing time, a fire broke out in the Triangle Waist Company, on one of the top 3 floors of the ten story Asch Building. Within thirty minutes, 146 lives were lost, because of neglected safety features and locked doors. The fire is believed to have started by the careless use of a match from one of the cutters to get a smoke. Before ringing the fire alarm, the workers tried to extinguish the flames, but the flames quickly spread. It was the shirtwaists, hanging on lines about the workers, the sewing machines placed closely together, and the trimmings of cuttings and rags with littered the floors that spread the fire so quickly.

The following is a short excerpt of those who fought and died due to the Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire. “The “Triangle” Company… With blood this name will be written in the history of the American workers’ movement, and with feel will this history recall the names of the strikers of this shop—of the crusaders.”— Jewish Daily Forward (Drehle)

Nobody knows what caused the Triangle Fire, and maybe no one ever will. Although, there is a writer that described the events so thoroughly that the images make it seem like we were there. This writer’s name is Albert Marrin. The way he is making these images so vivid is something that many amazing writers use. It is called figurative language. He uses many forms of figurative language in his describing of the Triangle Fire. The main reason he uses them was to make the writing more impactful. In other words, instead of using everyday words, he uses metaphors that allows us to comprehend the text, and it also allows us to relate to it. That is why the use of these creating writing elements makes this non-fiction text so impactful. When the

Around the 1910s, America was in a time of industrialization where there was the development of factory system and mass production, and the increasing growth rate population. While this transformation may have provided many benefits to Americans, it also carried negative results. For instance, The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, located in Manhattan, New York City, managed by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, sold shirtwaists, an immensely popular necessity that every women desired to have in their closet. Since Blanck and Harris were known for operating the largest firm in business, they were notorious for taking advantage of the enormous amount of immigrants entering New York during the early twentieth century, and hiring them in a sweatshop that consisted of “poor ventilation, overcrowded working environment, and dangerous machinery.”(Lyons) In addition, “Not only did Blanck and Harris have a suspicious history of factory fires, they were also well known for anti-worker policies.”(Downey) On March 25, 1911, The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory employees were in jeopardy when the building had caught on fire. During the incident, there were four elevators with access to the factory floors, however, only one of the elevators was working and it could only hold twelve people at a time. There were also two stairways but one was locked from the outside to prevent theft or employees ditching work. While Harris and Blanck received warning and escaped the building, the workers continued

The exhibition, Remembering the 1911 Triangle Factory Fire illustrates the conditions in which the Triangle Factory Fire occurred and the effects of the fire. The exhibition informs how most of the workers were women and many of them were paid “whatever rates: the subcontractors wanted to pay them and the owners themselves did not know how many workers worked in the factory. The working conditions of these workers were deplorable. 156 of the 500 workers died during the fire. The writers emphasize how the fire showed that “fire inspections and precautions were woefully inadequate at the time”. Some of the testimonies obtain recounted the useless efforts of some of the workers to open the doors on the ninth floor. However, “they and many others

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was located on the top three floors of the Asch Building. This factory was owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris. The Triangle factory was known as a sweatshop, employing teenage immigrant girls that did not speak English. They would work for 12 hours a day and get paid only $15 a week. Th owners of the factory have had a history of starting fires on purpose so they could get insurance money, this fire was not one of those times. Although the men may have thought of starting a fire because they did not install sprinklers throughout the factory. The Triangle factory had four elevators, but only one was working at the time of the fire. On Saturday, March 25, 1911, there were 600 people working when a fire started in a rag bin. A manager tried to put the fire out with a hose, but the hose was rotted away and the valve was rusted shut. The one elevator could hold 12 people and had managed to make four trips down and back before breaking. Some woman then fell to there death at the bottom of the elevator. Other woman went down a stairwell and were greeted by a locked door and burned to death. The firefighters could only reach the 7th floor which was not very helpful considering that the fire was on the eighth. After being trapped by the fire, many women decided to jump from the building, dying from the fall rather than the fire. In the end, 145 people died in this historic

There is also a very dark side to mass production. On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York City burned, killing 145 workers. It is one tragic manufacturing accident in American industrial history. The Triangle Shirtwaist Company a true sweatshop, employing young immigrant women who worked in a confined space with rows of sewing machines. Most of all the employee were teenaged girls who did not speak English. A typical work day was 12 hours long 7 days a week earning $15 dollars a week.

The setting in "To Build a Fire" is one of the most important roles of the short story,

Von Drehle (2004) outlines the Triangle Shirtwaist fire as a tragedy of the gilded age. The fire occurred in New York in 1911, and 146 people perished. The fire broke out in a "shirtwaist" or blouse factory in Greenwich Village. The workers inside, most of them Jewish women, worked in sweatshop conditions common to the industry at the time. They worked in the factory to support their families, and often had no other means of support. They had little or no say over their working conditions, which was standard practice at the time. While there were activists who fought for workers' rights, in that era they had little power. The factory had little fire control equipment or other safety standards, and this lack of standards allowed the fire to spread rapidly. The locks to the factory had been locked from the outside ostensibly to prevent theft and as a result the workers were trapped inside the factory during the inferno. Many of those who died had jumped to their deaths to escape the blaze. While the owners of the factory were acquitted on their charges, the fire led to dramatic changes in workers protections and women's rights.

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 acquired the backing of both the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and the Women’s Trade Union League, which inspired many other women, both working and upper classes, to follow the older unions’ lead and join the garment workers’ fight. Accordingly, thousands of garment workers launched an eleven week strike on November 22, 1909, which became known as the “Uprising of Twenty Thousand” (Argersinger 11-12). The strikes were successful because they accomplished their key goals, though this came at the cost of improving workplace safety which eventually led to the Triangle Fire of 1911.