How The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

The day was March 25, 1911, no one would be able to forget when one of the most catastrophic tragedies on record not only in New York City, but in the history of the American industry transpired. This horrendous event will forever be known as The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. Due to the inhumane working conditions and the rapidly spreading fire, 145 of the 600 employees had died an extremely miserable death during the disastrous event from the fire, smoke inhalation, or falling or jumping to their deaths. The 455 fortunate survivors were not so fortunate; they were left to remember those agonizing moments each and every day of their remaining lives. People, including the victims and their loved ones, who witnessed the last desperate dives …show more content…
The owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, who were known as the “the shirtwaist kings," occupied the top three floors, 8th, 9th, and 10th, of the Asch Building, on the corner of Greene Street and Washington Place, in Manhattan. As sweatshops spread, the desperate need of immigrants for employment rose around the country. Women and children immigrants worked for low wages and excessively long hours in hazardous and unsafe conditions. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory happened to be one such typical sweat shop. The “shirtwaist”—a woman’s blouse—was one of the country’s first fashion statements that crossed class lines. The booming ready-made clothing industry made the stylish shirtwaist affordable even for working women. Max Blanck and Isaac Harris typically employed young Jewish immigrant girls who had come to the United States with their families in search of a better life for them and their loved ones. They never expected lives of relentless poverty and dismaying working conditions. Being immigrants who struggled with a new language and culture, the factory owners took advantage and made the working poor their ready victims. They were each compensated a lousy $6.00 a week for back breaking work on foot powered sewing machines for 12 hour work days starting at 7 o'clock in the morning to 8 o'clock at night 6 days a week. Part of the work was …show more content…
The workers tried there absolute best to try and put out the fire with buckets of water, when that failed the sweatshop workers resulted to the fire hoses as the fire heightened that were available on each floor of the building for one last attempt to put out the fire. However, when the sweatshop workers attempted to turn the water hoses on, no water came out. The hose was rotted and its valve was rusted shut. The fire deteriorated and hurdled from debris pile to debris pile, eating up all the fabric scattered on the floors. The workers then rushed to the nearest elevators and stairways. There were only four elevators in the shirtwaist factory, but only one was fully operational. Unluckily, the workers had to file down a long, narrow hallway in order to reach it, making it much more difficult to access it. Some made it down the eight flights of stairs, however no less than one entryway prompting the staircase was bolted. A few sweatshop workers made it down the one elevator that was operational. Some of them even successfully jumped down elevator shafts when the elevators had stopped working. The rest of the panicked workers were slowed down by the exits that were either blocked or locked by the key holders and the windows that were rusted shut. The factory owners had locked the doors to the stairwells and exits; they did this to prevent workers from taking