Traingle+Shirtwaist+Factory+Fire

 **The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire** took place on March 25, 1911 in New York City, NY at approximately 4:40pm. The factory, which was located  on the 8th, 9th and 10th floors of the Asch Building, was owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris and produced women blouses, known as shirtwaists. This horrible, destructive event led to important legislations for the rights of workers and better working conditions for sweat shop workers.


 * ~ Table of Contents ||
 * = The Building ||
 * = The Fire ||
 * = The Aftermath ||
 * = Works Cited ||

=__ The Building __ = The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, which took up the 8th, 9th, and 10th floor of the Asch Building, had over 250 workers on each floor. The exits from the three floors, monitored heavily, locked, or unstable i n general, were: Two freight elevators, two staircases, and an old fire escape. The two elevators,operated by Joseph Zito and Gaspar Mortillalo, were guarded and were both near the staircases.   The staircases were accessed through two different doors, both of which only one person could fit through at a time and was locked until the end of the day when the guards blocked the doorway and checked the workers person for any stolen cloth or merchandise. One set of stairs went up to the roof and down to Greene Street and the other went down Washington Square and the elevators just went up to the 10th floor. The fire escape hung from the center of the building and was already old, unstable and rusty. == __The Fire__ ==  The fire itself started when a scrap bin underneath a cutter’s table on the 8th floor caught fire. The fire spread quickly causing 250 some workers, mostly young women, to go into a fit of hysteria. The flames climb along the walls and engulf everything. The workers, trying to escape the flames, sprint for the staircases and the elevators. Other women are so desperate to escape that they take a fatal jump out a window. Some workers tried to put out the fire themselves by collecting buckets of water and trying to use the emergency fire hoses but the water pressure was next to none. Many workers chose to take the route of the fire scape, that was most likely broken at the time, and many escaped, however, the rusty staircase collapsed under the weight of all the people crowded onto it, killing all the victims trying to climb to safety. ====      ====

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf9GVbzf7Q4&feature=player_detailpage    ======  A bookkeeper on the 8th floor is calm enough to try to alert the other floors. She managed to reach the 10th floor via telephone but the was unable to contact the 9th floor in anywa y and there was no audible alarm. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The above floors, hearing the news and seeing the quickly spreading fire, tried desperately to use the elevators, pushing others out to get to safety. Many succeeded in this attempt, as the elevator operators made many trips up and down the floors, saving many lives, until the rails of the elevator buckled due to heat and was forced to stop. Some people were so distraught and desperate, they threw themselves down the elevator shafts. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Soon, the fire spread to the staircases as well. The Washington Square staircase was locked so the workers fled to the Greene Street staircase. A few workers escaped but soon the lower half of the staircase was on fire, blocking the exit to the street. Seeing the dilemma, workers went to the roof, seeing it as their only sanctuary, until the upper half of the staircase caught fire too. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The fire fighters got there quickly, around 4:46pm, but they were unable to stop the flame, or safe many workers. The fire ladders were limited, as they only reached the 6th floor, and the fallen bodies crowd ed the bottom of the building, making it harder for the fire department to do their job. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The workers last workers, trapped where they were, waited for the flames and smoke to consume them. 146 people died in the fire overall. 62 died from jumping and the remainder from the fire itself. 71 were injured.

Excerpt from //Transforming America: U.S. History Since 1877// on The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire: []

=== __Immediate <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Aftermath: __ === <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">After the fire, many people were blamed: -The Fire department:because they should have had axes to break down the doors and free more victims -The City Building Department, because they should have enforced safety measures in new buildings The Factory owners, because the doors were locked (rumors spread throughout the crowd that buliding managers had commandeered elevators for themselves, and had locked doors to keep out union organizers, but these were untrue) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The Fire appealed to the emotions of NYC’ers. it was a “gory spectacle of flames and smoke pouring into a clear sky in plain view of the whole city. helpless victims dying in sight, but just out of reach. the awful realization that a huge and vulnerable world existed far above the street” (Von Drehle 172). Union organizers played on this outpouring of emotion to help bolster their cause. To make the tragedy even more potent and emotional, they organized a massive funeral parade through the heart of Manhattan for the victims of the fire. One of the first people to realize how significant this could be for politicians and labor was Charles Seymour Whitman, the DA of NYC. He went to the factory and began to gather information. In two very calculated and politically savvy moves, he talked to reporters and spent nine paragraphs basically saying nothing, leaving himself in a good position to either prosecute or let it fade away, depending on the public opinion. He also made sure to focus blame away from the fire department, because he knew the public wouldn't be interested in prosecuting heroes. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> In the following days, most people in power were disturbingly vague with their comments to the media. In the mean time, the owners of Triangle Shirtwaist Company were telling anyone and everyone who would listen that they were not responsible and the doors had never been locked during working hours During the official preliminary investigation, the fire marshal s tated his opinion on the fire. He said that the victims were killed by the rush of heat and smoke that proceeded the fire, not the fire itself. He proceeded to assume since some people were able to escape the door on Green Street, all the doors must have been open--a theory later disproven. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The same day, the fire marshall was basically saying the tragedy was no more than an accident and the doors had been unlocked, the victims just couldn't get to them in time. The Fire official was correct with regard to one of the doors-the one on Greene street was unlocked and many people escaped out of it. but The door across the floor-the Washington place door was definitely locked. Reforms After the fire scarred the minds of many new yorkers who saw the tragedy unfold in front of their eyes, several decided to do something about it. one of the most notable was Frances Perkins, a young liberal woman with progressive ideas. She strongly believed in labor unions and fair working conditions. Thanks to her and others priceless lobbying, the Governor of New York signed a law creating the Factory Investigating Commission. The commission was allowed to subpoena witnesses and documents and employ experts while investigating labor practices at factories. The Commission was expected to just be a facade to convince people the state was doing something, but in actuality, the commission became a very powerful force, averaging nearly one hearing about a factory a week. By the end of 1911, the commission had proposed 15 new laws covering everything from factory fire safety to employment rules for wome n and children. By 1913, Tammany Hall had pushed 25 laws through the the state legislature, completely reforming Factory laws. To enforce the laws, the state department of labor was completely overhauled. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The business leaders certainly didn't go down without a fight, but they continued to alienate the public. at a hearing, a business leader remarked (regarding how many people were killed in the Triangle Factory) “....It is an infinitesimal proportion of the population”. Shocked, an observer cried “But, Mr. Dowing, They were men and women! they were human souls. it was a hundred percent of them.” Trial By the second week of April, DA Charles Whitman had listened to hours of testimony by the surviving workers and was convinced he had a case. He went to the remnants of the Factory and managed to find the lock on the door to Washington place, further cementing his case. On April 11, 1911, detectives the two owners of the factory were arrested and charged with six counts of manslaughter. The owners hired the best lawyer money could by and entered a plea of not guilty. Harris and Blanck were released on $25,000 bail and their lawyer challenge the indictment on technicalities. As they were battled during most of the rest of 1911, prosecutors changed their strategy to be about only one victim, Margaret Schwartz. As the trial started, hundreds of people crowded the halls of the courthouse, yelling, crying and pointing fingers at the infamous Harris and Blanck as they entered the courtroom. After hours of trial and deliberation, the jury returned their verdict--in favor of acquittal. Several years later, the duo was arrested again on charges of locking doors-and this time they didn't get off, though they were given the lightest punishment possible-a fine of $20-and the judge apologize for having to fine them at all

====<span style="display: block; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center; text-indent: -0.5in;"><span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; text-align: center;">Works Cited ==== <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -0.5in;"> [1] "Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Web. Feb. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire>. [2] Underwood, Lamar. "The Triangle Fire." //The Greatest Disaster Stories Ever Told//. Guilford, CT: Lyons, 2002. Print. [3] Von, Drehle Dave. //Triangle: the Fire That Changed America//. New York: Atlantic Monthly, 2003. Print. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -0.5in;">[4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf9GVbzf7Q4&feature=player_detailpage