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The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in downtown Manhattan changed history forever. The 1911 tragedy is commemorated every March to remember the workers who lost their lives and to educate the public about workplace safety.
The fire brought about labor laws that to this day help protect the health and well-being of workers. Although it is a sensitive topic, it serves as an important reminder about the importance of safety across industrial sectors.
In addition to a brief history of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, a list of resources has been provided below.
At the turn of the 20th century, shirtwaists were all the rage. Gone were the days of suffocating corsets thanks to these button-down blouses. They resembled menswear. They resembled independence. That’s because this workwear fashion trend was for women who worked outside of the house.
In what’s now part of NYU — as most of Greenwich Village seems to be these days — stood the neo-Renaissance Asch Building, at the corner of Greene Street and Washington Place. The top three floors of this 10-story building were the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.
Here, girls as young as 12 years old worked 12-hour shifts, seven days a week, hunched in lines over sewing machines. They were paid $7 a week, a below-average salary even back then. Although most of these Germans, Hungarians, Italians, and Russian Jews did not speak English, the immigrant girls did try to advocate for themselves. There had been uprisings in 1909 and 1910, but the factory owners, Isaac Harris and Max Blanck, paid politicians to look the other way and hired police officers to imprison anyone who went on strike.
The space was overcrowded, and although technically there were four elevators, in reality the girls only had access to one that was fully operational. And while there were two staircases, the door for one was locked to prevent theft, and the door to the other only opened from the outside.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory had already had two fires in 1902, and Blanck and Harris had faced fires at their Diamond Waist Company factory in 1907 and 1910 as well. Rumor had it, they torched the factories themselves to collect the insurance.
On the morning of Saturday, March 25, 1911, a fire broke out in the rag bin on the eighth floor. The unscrupulous managers had not bothered to install sprinklers that could have helped put out the fire. Even the fire hose that did exist had not been properly maintained. Its valve had rusted shut, rendering it useless.
At the time, New York did not legally mandate businesses to conduct regular fire drills, and so the factory managers did not review safety protocols with employees. Consequently, the 600 workers did not know what to do in the emergency. Some rushed to an elevator shaft and stairwells with locked exits. Others attempted to jump from the high-rise windows to safety but were ultimately blamed for making the firefighting more difficult.
The men and girls working on the floors that were above where the fire had broken out, made it to the roof. Like superheroes, they flung themselves onto the rooftops of adjoining buildings.
The fire only lasted 18 minutes, but 146 lives were lost.
It’s reported that about 400,000 people came out to march or watch the funeral procession for the victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. But that’s not all. Activists lobbied leaders.
This led to the New York Factory Investigating Committee and the Committee on Safety formally investigating and proposing new regulations. The result of this was that laws were created not just for fire safety but for factory inspection and rules surrounding the employment of minors. Two years later, the National Safety Council was founded, and the Second Safety Council held a session on fire prevention. Finally, in 1970, the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) was passed.
Today, it remains important for workers to know their rights and practice safety in the workplace. Here are a list of resources businesses and employees can use to ensure proper protocols:
Image Credit: a katz / Shutterstock.com
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