The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire , which occurred on March 25, 1911, was significant because it showed the American people the horrors that young girls were facing in factories all across the country at the time. The fire ultimately took the lives of 145 innocent people in a short amount of time. The fire ended up exposing the following problems in the factory system; unsafe working conditions, government corruption, and lack of concern for employee rights. Corruption was rampant in the garment industry between the owners of the factories and the local governments, and these relationships ensured that safety precautions for the workers were either non existent or minimal. The relationships also ensured that workers had little to no rights concerning wages, privacy, or safety. Secondly, workers safety was not a priority and many factory owners would actively barr exits to ensure that employees were not stealing, in direct disregard to safety. In the event of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire these practices did not allow for employees to exit the factory when the fire started, and cost many people their lives as they were not able to escape the building. Thirdly, unsafe working conditions led to the fire. There were four elevators but only one functioned. Of the stairwell exits one was locked from the outside, again to prevent stealing, and one only opened inwards, and the fire escape was too small for the amount of people employed to use safely and quickly. The factory was overcrowded and that led to many people being trapped in a small space. Many people suffocated or burned to death, but many more jumped to their deaths in an effort to escape.
Due to the fire there were changes in industrial workplace procedures and protections. Citizens and reformers were horrified to see the conditions that the workers were working in and the lack of safety precautions in case of something like a fire. Workers organized to enact reforms such as fire sprinklers and outward swinging doors. The biggest impact was on the workers right movement that was going on during the early 1900's, which gained more momentum due to this tragedy.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire remains one of the worst workplace disasters in US history. The factory represented a typical sweatshop—it employed young women, mainly immigrants and teenagers, who worked long hours for low wages in unsanitary and often unsafe conditions. In 1911, a fire broke out in the factory, which had a history of fires. To make matters worse, the factory lacked necessary safety and fire precautions. The stairways leading out of the building were locked to prevent stealing, and the fire escapes were too narrow to allow for quick escapes by large numbers of people. Naturally, when the fire broke out panic ensued, especially as the women found they could not escape. Many jumped out of the windows to their deaths. To make matters worse, firemen were not equipped with ladders to reach the new skyscrapers and buildings that had spring up in cities. In less than 20 minutes, 145 workers were dead.
While the fire was a tragedy, it also highlighted the persistent problems and abuses industrial workers faced. Reformers were appalled not only by the lack of safety protocols and procedures, but also by the brutal conditions under which the women worked. New York enacted reforms such as the Sullivan-Hoey Fire Prevention Law. The fire also galvanized the labor union movement, as many began to see the necessity of collective bargaining and organized labor in bringing about reforms.
For more information: https://trianglefire.ilr.cornell.edu/index.html
https://trianglefire.ilr.cornell.edu/index.html
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