Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

On March 25, 1911, a Saturday afternoon, as the workday was coming to an end the Triangle Shirtwaist Companies factory in New York City burned, killing 145 workers. The factory was located on the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors of the Asch Building in a neighborhood of Manhattan. The floor the employees were working on had a number of exits, including a freight elevator, a fire escape (that crumbled), and stairways; however, rapidly increasing flames quickly prevented workers from using those exits. The only remaining exit was a door to the Washington Place, but disappointingly it was mostly always locked; this allowed managers to check the women's purses at the end of every day to prevent theft of product, sewing thread, and other materials used to make the Shirtwaist. The fire department arrived and attempts to extend the ladders, but they would only reach the sixth floor, which was approximately 30 feet short of the floor the workers were trapped on. This tragedy brought forth attention to the hazardous sweatshop conditions of factories, as well as brought on the development of new laws and …show more content…
Another thing that was interesting to me was The Triangle factory was the deadliest workplace tragedy in New York City's history, so to be learning about that while knowing the other tragedy which was that of 9/11, in which I was alive for. Throughout the entire film I was thinking about how I felt standing at the 9/11 monument early in the year, looking at the names on the wall, staring into an empty hole. It is a very overwhelming feeling, the heartfelt emotions of the people whom lost their lives and loved ones because they couldn’t escape the crumbling towers. In some regards this is exactly what happened in the film to these immigrant workers and their families. I can’t imagine the poor utter desperateness that one would feel in that