Sample The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Of 1911

Running head: THE TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FACTORY FIRE 1

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911

Silas Ochieng Elphines Otieno

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THE TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FACTORY FIRE 2

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911

The deadliest workplace accident in the history of New York occurred in a fire at the

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in Lower Manhattan on 25

March 1911. In the months preceding

the fire, the workers were engaged in a labour dispute with the factory owners, Max Blanck and

Isaac Harris. One in ten New Yorkers attended the funeral of the Triangle fire victims. There

were one hundred and forty six caskets. Unmistakably, most Americans would not naïvely risk

their lives for a pay check if they believed they could die on the job. Since that day in 1911,

many changes have come about in the workplace (Argersinger, 2009). On the other hand, the

question as to whether the fire was a simple workplace accident or the result of a labour dispute

and carelessness remains unanswered. The fact that responsibility was not apportioned to anyone

has kept haunting those related to the victims of the fire.

Contextually, there were close to 100,000 workers in the New York garment industry in

the first decade of the 20

century. Nearly all were women and many were in their teens or

younger. The vast majority were immigrant women and their daughters who had passed through

Ellis Island in search of the American Dream. Realizing that dream depended on their

willingness to work, a job at the Triangle was considered a good one in 1910. This is because the

equipment on the factory floor was modern and electric (Hapke, 2004). The Triangle workers

sewed shirtwaists and worked for fourteen hours a day from Monday to Friday, and eight hours

on Saturdays. For a seventy-eight hour workweek they earned two dollars daily or twelve dollars

each week. There were deductions for sewing mistakes (Argersinger, 2009). The factory was

located on the 9

floor of the Ashe Building in Greenwich Village. Its headquarters were on the

floor where Triangle owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris had their offices. There was a lot

THE TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FACTORY FIRE 3

of pressure to produce more on the factory floor and sell it for less in the stores to remain

competitive as there were more than five hundred shirtwaist factories (Hapke, 2004).

Preoccupation with theft and monitoring resulted in Max Blanck ordering his shop

foremen to lock one of the Triangle’s two doors (though this was not proven at the inquest or

trial), forcing workers to leave by the lone remaining exit (Drehle, 2003). The 25

of March,

1910 was a Saturday, which made it an eight hour day in the factories. A worker on the eighth

floor below the Triangle discarded a lit cigarette which ignited a fire. Alerted by telephone, the

owners on the tenth floor rushed to the roof of the building, and leaped to an adjacent rooftop

(Hapke, 2004). The 200 workers on the shop floor were unaware a fire burned on the floor

below. Initially they ran to the exit at the front of the factory but the staircase was completely

filled with smoke. Others climbed out on the fire escape at the rear of the factory, which soon

buckled under the weight of the fleeing workers. It collapsed, taking the workers eight floors to

the pavement (Argersinger, 2009).

Many of the dead were burned beyond recognition and identified by shoes or rings.

Having survived, one worker who jumped from the eighth floor was in intensive condition.

There were fifty-three others who didn’t and died from the fall. Another nineteen were

discovered in the elevator shaft. More than twenty died when the fire escape collapsed. Another

fifty perished on the factory floor. Of the dead, all but twenty-three were women and nearly half

of them were teens (Drehle, 2003). Harris and Blanck were charged with manslaughter and

acquitted because the state could not prove beyond reasonable doubt that they knew the exit door

was locked. Each collected their insurance claims and vanished into history (Argersinger, 2009).

The Triangle fire alerted the public and workers to the unequal relationship existent between

worker and owner. The New York legislature funded a factory safety commission which sat for

THE TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FACTORY FIRE 4

two years, inspecting 2,000 sweatshops. Drehle (2003) explains that the findings spurred passage

of thirty labour laws, set minimum wage standards and maximum hours worked, and regulated

working conditions. The commission addressed each failure at the Triangle Factory. Sadly, 146

women and children burned to death to achieve the gains labour had been asking for since 1909

but were denied by owners like Blanck and Harris (Drehle, 2003).

To brand the Triangle fire an accident would be naïve since it could have been

anticipated given the labour unrest at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Blanck and Harris were

ultimately acquitted but if such a fire were to happen today, they most certainly would be guilty

of culpable homicide for padlocking a fire exit. Accountability lay in caskets on the pavement

whereas it belonged in the ninth-floor executive offices. However, the outcomes of the event

awakened New York and brought about lasting changes.

THE TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FACTORY FIRE 5

References

Argersinger, J. A. (2009). The Triangle Fire: A Brief History with Documents. Boston:

Bedford/St. Martins.

Drehle, D. (2003). Triangle: The Fire that Changed America. New York: Atlantic Monthly

Press.

Hapke, L. (2004). Sweatshop: The history of an American Idea. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers

University Press.

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