The Fire That Changed America

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911, was the
largest industrial disaster in the history of the city of New York, causing the death of 146 garment workers who either died trapped behind locked fire exits or jumped to their deaths. It was the worst workplace disaster in New York City until September 11th, 2001. The tragedy led to fundamental health and safety reforms in New York City and the US and helped the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers in that industry.

The Story of the Fire
The Triangle Shirtwaist Company was New York’s largest manufacturer of blouses. Owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, the sweatshop occupied the eight, ninth and tenth floors of the ten-story Asch building in New York City at 23-29 Washington Place, the northern corner of Washington Square East. The company employed approximately 500 workers, most of them young immigrants girls and young women, Russian/ Jewish and Italian, in their teens and early 20’s, who worked 70 or more hours per week, in a overcrowded, dimly lit rooms, without overtime pay and earned about $6 per week – a less than living wage.
On the Saturday of March 25th, 1911, only 5 minutes before the slaves of the sewing machines would have hurried to their homes, a fire began on the eighth floor, possibly sparked by a lit match or a cigarette or because of faulty electrical wiring. Because of the highly inflammable materials that were used in the clothes industry, in ten minutes the three floors were all on fire. Most of the workers who were alerted on the tenth and eighth floors were able to evacuate. However, the warning about the fire did not reach the ninth floor on time. The ninth floor had only two doors leading out. One stairwell was already filling with smoke and flames by the time the employees realized the building was on fire. The other door had been locked to prevent workers from stealing materials or taking breaks and to keep out union organizers.
The single exterior fire escape, a poorly-anchored iron structure, soon twisted and collapsed under the weight of people trying to escape. The elevator also stopped working, cutting off that means of escape, partly because the panicked workers tried to save themselves by jumping on the roof of the elevator. Finding the doors locked, the girls rushed to the windows and jumped to the pavement nine floors below, much to the horror of the large crowd of bystanders gathering on the street level. “Others were pushed out by the pressure behind. In other instance two girls came down from the ninth story in each other’s arms. Others were seen embracing and kissing each other before making the final leap” – Duchez, page 667.
The remainder waited until smoke and fire overcame them. The fire department arrived quickly but was unable to stop the flames, as there were no ladders available that could reach beyond the sixth floor. Nets and blankets were used in an effort to save as many lives as possible, but they broke under the weight of three or four bodies falling into them at the same time. Some of the people manage to save themselves by going up on the roof of the building or by leaping on the roof of the elevator. “One girl, after falling six stories, was rescued from a large hook beside a window at the third story, where she was hanging by her clothes, face downward” ” – Duchez, page 667. By the time the fire was over, 146 of the 500 employees had died: 123 young women and 23 men. Many of the victims were identified only because of jewelries which were found on skeleton fingers, necks and ears, as the bodies were completely burnt making it impossible to be recognize. The survivors were left to live and relive those agonizing moments.
The mental and physical agony resulting from this terrible murder of industrial slaves will stretch out into the years. The victims and their families, the people passing by who witnessed the desperate leaps from ninth floor windows and the City of New York will never be the same.