Triangle Fire

The fiend fire could not be stopped. The doors that would free the six-hundred workers were locked shut, imprisoning the young girls in a man-made flaming hell. The manager attempted to use the fire hose to extinguish it, but the hose was rotted and its valve was rusted shut. Running from the incinerator, many stuffed themselves into the two freight elevators, operated by Gaspar Mortillaro and Joseph Zito who both returned to the inferno over and over, saving a hundred and fifty people. Still, many could not fit on the elevator, and thus, they tried to slide down the cable or jump down the shaft, meeting their deaths. Ergo, the elevators stopped functioning quickly, weighed down by dozens of bodies and unable to rise. Those who managed to get …show more content…
All evidence seemed to prove that they burned them down before business hours and collected the insurance money. Even though this was not the circumstance in the Triangle Fire, it certainly contributed to the days horror, as they neglected any policy that would hinder the process of torching the factory. Furthermore, they had little empathy for the workers themselves, paying them fifteen dollars a week and having them work for 12 hours a day. In 1909, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union had a strike for higher pay and better hours, but the owners’ of the Triangle Factory disregarded it and suppressed the strike though corrupt …show more content…
Tens of thousands of New Yorkers gathered to pick out their beloved family members from the cesspool of corpses. Only six went unidentified - the unknowns. The public rage that erupted proved to be the impetus for change that the strikers before them lacked. The people were filled with anger and a determination to fix it. Marches began on the downtown streets for the unknowns. The people wanted institution and justice and action. United in their cause, progressives and unionists began their work to invoke labor