Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Research Paper

On Sunday, March 25, 1911, a factory caught fire on the eighth floor of the Asch building. One hundred and forty six people died in this thirty minute tragic event. “Rows and rows of tightly packed young women working in a cramped sweatshop making shirtwaists (blouses with buttons along the front). They earned roughly $15 a week. A large number of them were immigrants, speaking little or no English.”(Part 1). The Shirtwaist factory building was packed with long wooden tables covering almost all of the three floors. Workers were piled by the dozen sitting across and right next to each other. The workers hung clothes above their heads and threw the fabric scraps that also covered the floor, into wicker baskets. Smoking was strictly forbidden, being as the place was an extreme fire hazard. There was one working elevator, one fire escape, and a stairwell that was locked. Most workers in this factory were women immigrants that were 16-20 years old. …show more content…
The fire was so far up firefighter could not reach it with a ladder. “In 1911, there were two elevators with access to the factory floors, but only one was fully operational and the workers had to file down a long, narrow corridor in order to reach it.”(Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire). The elevator only made one single trip letting a crowd of people to safety. A machine operator trying to escape pried the empty elevator doors open and slowly slid down the cables. Six girls jumped off into the elevator shaft trying to find a way to survive the burning flames. The one fire escape was crowded with girls trying to open the door, but failing miserably. “When you have a large group of occupants trying to get out one small door and they’re in a panic they press up against the door making it impossible for the door to open inwardly from the press of bodies,”(Part