The Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire

History 4 Minutes

On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York City burned, killing 146 workers. It is remembered as one of the most infamous incidents in American industrial history, as the deaths were largely preventable–most of the victims died as a result of neglected safety features and locked doors within the factory building. The tragedy brought widespread attention to the dangerous sweatshop conditions of factories, and led to the development of a series of laws and regulations that better protected the safety of workers.

The Triangle factory, owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, was located in the top three floors of the Asch Building, on the corner of Greene Street and Washington Place, in Manhattan. It was a true sweatshop, employing young immigrant women who worked in a cramped space at lines of sewing machines. Nearly all the workers were teenaged girls who did not speak English and worked 12 hours a day, every day. In 1911, there were four 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. There were two stairways down to the street, but one was locked from the outside to prevent stealing and the other only opened inward. The fire escape was so narrow that it would have taken hours for all the workers to use it, even in the best of circumstances.

The danger of fire in factories like the Triangle Shirtwaist was well-known, but high levels of corruption in both the garment industry and city government generally ensured that no useful precautions were taken to prevent fires. Blanck and Harris already had a suspicious history of factory fires. The Triangle factory was twice scorched in 1902, while their Diamond Waist Company factory burned twice, in 1907 and in 1910. It seems that Blanck and Harris deliberately torched their workplaces before business hours in order to collect on the large fire-insurance policies they purchased, a not uncommon practice in the early 20th century. While this was not the cause of the 1911 fire, it contributed to the tragedy, as Blanck and Harris refused to install sprinkler systems and take other safety measures in case they needed to burn down their shops again.

Added to this delinquency were Blanck and Harris’ notorious anti-worker policies. Their employees were paid a mere $15 a week, despite working 12 hours a day, every day. When the International Ladies Garment Workers Union led a strike in 1909 demanding higher pay and shorter and more predictable hours, Blanck and Harris’ company was one of the few manufacturers who resisted, hiring police as thugs to imprison the striking women, and paying off politicians to look the other way.

What Started The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire?

On March 25, a Saturday afternoon, there were 600 workers at the factory when a fire began in a rag bin. The manager attempted to use the fire hose to extinguish it, but was unsuccessful, as the hose was rotted and its valve was rusted shut. As the fire grew, panic ensued. The young workers tried to exit the building by the elevator but it could hold only 12 people and the operator was able to make just four trips back and forth before it broke down amid the heat and flames. In a desperate attempt to escape the fire, the girls left behind waiting for the elevator plunged down the shaft to their deaths. The girls who fled via the stairwells also met awful demises–when they found a locked door at the bottom of the stairs, many were burned alive.

Those workers who were on floors above the fire, including the owners, escaped to the roof and then to adjoining buildings. As firefighters arrived, they witnessed a horrible scene. The girls who did not make it to the stairwells or the elevator were trapped by the fire inside the factory and began to jump from the windows to escape it. The bodies of the jumpers fell on the fire hoses, making it difficult to begin fighting the fire. Also, the firefighters’ ladders reached only seven floors high and the fire was on the eighth floor. In one case, a life net was unfurled to catch jumpers, but three girls jumped at the same time, ripping the net. The nets turned out to be mostly ineffectual.

Within 18 minutes, it was all over. A total of 146 people were killed by the fire due to severe burns, smoke inhalation, falls from great heights and injuries sustained during the incident.

The fire helped unite organized labor and reform-minded politicians like progressive New York Governor Alfred E. Smith and Senator Robert F. Wagner, one of the legislative architects of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal agenda. Frances Perkins, who served on a committee that helped to set up the Factory Investigating Commission in New York in the wake of the fire, would later become Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor. The workers union set up a march on April 5 on New York’s Fifth Avenue to protest the conditions that had led to the fire. It was attended by 80,000 people.

Despite a good deal of evidence that the owners and management had been horribly negligent in the fire, a grand jury failed to indict them on manslaughter charges. To settle lawsuits against them, they eventually paid $75 in compensation to each victim’s family—a fraction of the $400 per death that they were paid by their insurer.

Still, the massacre for which they were responsible did finally compel the city to enact reform. In addition to the Sullivan-Hoey Fire Prevention Law passed that October, the New York Democratic set took up the cause of the worker and became known as a reform party. Both were crucial in preventing similar disasters in the future.

SOURCE: HISTORY.COM

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144 thoughts on “The Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire”

  1. EXCERPT: “The government of Argentine President Javier Milei announced Monday that, based upon the request of a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, it intends to declassify and release all files related to former Nazis who found refuge in the South American country after the Second War War.

    Guillermo Francos, the president’s chief of staff, said in an interview with DNews that the release would satisfy American curiosity and concern for transparency regarding the issue.

    Milei spoke on February 22 at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the same day that President Donald J. Trump made his address. The two men met backstage, and Trump invited him to the White House then and there.

    The day before Milei — who holds postgraduate degrees in economic theory from the Institute of Economic and Social Development and in economics from the Torcuato Di Tella University — spoke, he came onstage for Elon Musk’s CPAC address, where he presented the billionaire and DOGE hierarch with a commemorative chainsaw—the symbol of the president’s attack upon Argentina’s bureaucracy.

    Francos said the order to release the files came directly from the president, and it would be part of a larger Milei project to declassify and release information about the 1970s military crackdown on government opponents, many of whom disappeared.

    The government announcement came on March 24, which in Argentina is a public holiday to commemorate the victims of the political strife during the so-called Dirty War. The Dirty War ran roughly between the 1974 death of President Juan Peron and the subsequent 1976 military coup, through to the junta’s fall in 1983…..”

    https://redstate.com/mccabe/2025/03/25/ratline-files-argentine-president-javier-milei-orders-release-of-countrys-escaped-nazi-files-n2187074

    Liked by 1 person

  5. Just The News: “President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order that directed the Justice Department to declassify files concerning Crossfire Hurricane, which was an FBI investigation into allegations that Trump campaign members colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential election.

    The order comes after House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan asked the FBI to comply with his committee’s requests for the truth about the FBI’s investigation into and promotion of the Trump-Russia collusion hoax.

    The president ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to declassify the files proposed in an earlier memorandum, but to keep other data redacted. 

    “My decision to declassify the materials described above does not extend to materials that must be protected from disclosure pursuant to orders of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and does not require the disclosure of certain personally identifiable information or any other materials that must be protected from disclosure under applicable law,” Trump wrote in the order.

    The declassification order comes after an investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller “did not establish” any criminal Trump-Russia collusion.

    “You probably won’t bother because you’re not going to like what you see,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday. “But this was total weaponization, it’s a disgrace. It should have never happened in this country. But now you’ll be able to see for yourselves. All declassified.”

    Liked by 1 person

  9. “Try climbing those stairs after a few beers….”

    “How would you like to be stationed here? Ksar de Drâa, Timimoun, Algeria”

    Liked by 1 person

  12. ENOUGH ALREADY!!! Stop fucking with Mother Nature!!!

    EXCERPT: “Of course, it was just a matter of time. The laboratory cell-based revolution has already produced chicken, fish, and beef substitutes that, once cooked up and plated, are practically indistinguishable from their live counterparts. In the U.S, there’s been backlash against the idea that a mother of four could one day fill her shopping cart with meat substitutes made from cell cultures.

    Numerous state legislatures are attempting to restrict or ban the sale of lab-cultured meat. Florida has already succeeded. Also Alabama. Nebraska could be next. And a slew of states are looking to pass new labeling laws that would require front of package language such as “cell-cultured” or “lab-grown.”

    Needless to say, the debate over lab-grown meat is contentious. It’s about to get even messier. Late last month, Brown Foods announced the creation of what it says is “the world’s first test tube of lab-grown milk.”

    Yes. Lab-grown milk. I imagine the company hopes that UnReal Milk might one day become a viable alternative to not only cow’s milk but also plant-based alternatives such as soy, oat, rice and almond. UnReal Milk’s major selling point is that Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) affiliated Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research claims the product contains all essential proteins, fats and carbohydrates that make up 99% of traditional cow milk.

    Soy milk comes closest to real milk’s nutritional values, but even then, it’s a poor second. UnReal Milk also can be processed into butter, cheese and ice cream.

    Brown Foods says the lab-grown milk is a product of mammalian cell culture. It is on a fast track to get the milk to market, looking to bring Unreal Milk to consumers for tasting by late this year, followed by a market pilot in late 2026….”

    https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/unreal-lab-grown-milk-boston-startup-brown-foods/

    Liked by 1 person

  13. sunnydaze
    sunnydaze
    March 25, 2025 4:23 pm

    California is at it again

    – FEMA is reporting they’ve received 270,000 applications from “homeowners” for the Los Angeles fires
    – Only 13,000 homes were destroyed in the wildfires
    – Democrats have filed scores of lawsuits trying to stop DOGE from eliminating fraudulent payments… pic.twitter.com/P3ThtU61Wc

    — Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) March 24, 2025

    Liked by 1 person

  15. I am adding a short daily prayer to the board. I would invite each of you, if you wish, to also add one or maybe two of your own liking. I do not want to stifle anyone but please limit yourself to one or two religious postings. here’s one I found that I liked.

    Like

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