How Did The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

The Owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire started on March 25, 1911. No one knows the real cause of the fire, but many people believe it was a cigarette bud tossed into a scrap bin. Out of the 500 employees that showed up to work that day, 146 died and another 71 were injured. The amount of deaths were very tragic.

Constructed in 1901, the then called Asch Building, was an ideal spot for running a company (Timeline). Two men by the names of Max Blanck and Isaac Harris purchased the building. The two men were notorious for being anti-union supporters who refused to comply with any union worker's demands (Drehle 62). Harris and Blanck managed to keep from getting into trouble by the hands of restless union workers and rented out the ten floors to numerous businesses. The top three floors would become the working place for the Triangle Shirtwaist Company employees.

Through out the history of the United States, a number of incidents and disasters have occurred to influence safety and protection. In the aftermath of these events, valuable lessons are learned and steps are taken to ensure nothing like that happens again. One such incident is the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, one of the most influential and horrifying incidents in United States history. The fact that both the National Fire Prevention Association (NFPA) and National Safety Council (NSC) trace their history back to this incident speaks to that. Sadly, the tragic events that unfolded during the Triangle fire were not surprising.

Max and his business partner, Isaac Harris, owned the factory, which was located in the heart of New York City. On March 25, 1911, a fire broke out in the factory, killing 146 people, mostly young women. The fire was a turning point in American history, sparking widespread outrage and leading to major changes in workplace safety laws. However, Max and Isaac were widely criticized for their role in the tragedy.

These young women,many being immigrants, worked six or seven days a week for wages of approximately $5, crammed into dark spaces with little ventilation . This factory like so many others was owned and run by men who were more interested in males working in the higher-paid jobs, while assuming women were less skilled and less willing to fight for equality. “The shops are unsanitary - that's the word that is generally used, but there ought to be a worse one used. Whenever we tear or damage any of the goods we sew on, or whenever it is found damaged after we are through with it, whether we have done it or not, we are charged for the piece and sometimes for a whole yard of the material. ”(7).

The Fire That Sparked The Progressive Era and Reform The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in March 1911 tragically ended the lives of 146 workers way too soon. The majority of these workers were Jewish and Italian immigrant women (Hewitt, and Lawson 575), who were typically young, and worked under neglectful owners (Max Blanck and Isaac Harris) who failed to maintain safety regulations that could have easily prevented the intolerable death count. Amongst the tragedy, however; came important workplace safety laws and reforms that wouldn't have been possible without the horrific happenings of the Triangle Factory fire.

Triangle The Fire That Changed America is a book based on a fire that took place in the Triangle Shirtwaist factory on March 25, 1911. It was one of the deadliest disasters in New York. There were one-hundred and forty-six deaths of women ages ranging from fourteen to forty-eight. Many women committed suicide by jumping to their deaths in order to prevent being burned alive. At that time, there were no building regulations on safe working environments.

Workers Rights During 1911, workers did not have many rights. The tragedy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire caused 146 innocent women and children to lose their lives. The people of the public started to realize the harsh conditions that the blue collared workers of America have to deal with. They had absolutely no safety regulations or rules.

A fire started in a rag bin on the eighth floor of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory building in Manhattan, New York on Saturday, March 25, 1911. There were six hundred people working in the factory at the time of the fire, and almost all of them were poor, immigrant, teenage women. A total of one hundred forty-five people died as a result of the unsafe building: the fire extinguishers had hoses that were rusted shut, the doors at the bottom of the stairwell were locked, the stairwell was not fireproof, and the workers panicked and had no idea what to do because there had never been any fire drills. Fire trucks responded quickly, but their equipment was inadequate: their ladders were too short and their safety nets ripped easily. The fire was

The 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire caught the imagination of Progressives and validated their arguments about the American economy. The factory fire broke out in late March and claimed the lives of over one hundred workers. This factory was what seemed like a normal factory in New York City on the outside, but had dangerous and unsanitary working conditions on the inside that remained unknown until the fire broke out. This calamity would help to bring new laws and regulations on factory conditions and rights for their workers.

The women in this excerpt even encouraged other girls to join the workplace. Factories also helped meet consumer demands. They were able to get unskilled laborers to do the job, which increased mass production. In Document 4, the graph that is shown

It went into detail, explaining the female factory working population and the hardships that

These women scrounged for jobs and were often met with contempt from many who felt they were stealing jobs from men, the true breadwinners, yet despite the animosity, the amount of employed women increased by 2 million (Ware). And in the 1940’s, partly due to WW2, women again saw an increase in these aforementioned numbers and the trend towards female equality

The detrimental Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire is considered to be one of the most tragic disasters in history. On March 25th, 1911, a fire broke out and killed 146 garment workers who were mostly women. These women worked countless hours with low wages and inhumane working conditions in a factory. Even though this event was tragic, the triangle shirtwaist fire helped to shape the new world for the better. The multitude of workers trapped within the inferno to their demise was the final straw for the mistreatment of America’s workers.

This goes along with the gender inequality within the household. They brought that attitude into the workforce which helped transition the gender hierarchy that existed in the household, into the factories and other production facilities. Ideas of women’s placement in society were underpinned by legal, political, and social practices which subordinated women. They were seen as less important. One circumstance that made women seem less powerful was how poorly they were paid compared to men.