Essay On The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

The Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory fire took place in New York City on March 25, 1911, killing 145 workers. This is a very infamous incident that happened in the American industrial history because the deaths could have been avoided; most of the victims died as a consequence of neglected safety features and locked doors within the factory building. This tragedy finally brought awareness to the dangerous sweatshop environments within the factories, and led to the growth of a series of laws and procedures that better protected the safety workers. The Triangle factory was owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, the top three floors of the Asch building located in Manhattan. This factory was the definition of a true sweat shop that consisted of young immigrant women that came to America looking for a better future, that worked in cramped spaced at lines of sewing machines. Most of the workers were teenaged girls that did not speak English, working 12 hour days, every day and paid very low wages which was 15 dollars a week. In the movie, Triangle fire, it was said that if these women spoke, hummed or was even too slow they would be fired immediately. In this factory there were four elevators with access to the factory floors, but only one was completely operational. “There were two stairways down to the street, but one was locked from the outside to prevent stealing and the other only opened inward. The fire escape …show more content…
Having many people watch that defiantly showed that people let alone women should never have to go through that and experience such a horrific tragedy. It’s something that they will never be able to get out of their minds and the only way to help in some way after so many deaths was to make a change in these shops that provided safer and cleaner