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1. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire ⦃March 25, 1911⦄

2. Overview The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory operated on the 8th, 9th, and 10th floors of the Asch Building in lower Manhattan. On Saturday, March 25, 1911 at 4:40pm , a fire broke out on the 8th floor of the building. The fire quickly spread upward, consuming the top three floors of the building within minutes .

3. Overview The factory was a crowded sweatshop without adequate exits for the 600 Triangle workers to evacuate , and no fire safety precautions to speak of. A total of 146 workers died as a result, mostly young immigrant women .

4. Working Conditions The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory employed up to 700 workers , primarily immigrant women ages 14 to 23. Work shifts typically lasted 10 to 12 hours each day, 6 or 7 days a week. Workers did not receive overtime pay or any extra compensation for working such long hours, but were rather paid based on how many garments they completed.

5. Start of the Fire The Fire Marshal determined that the likely cause of the fire was the disposal of a match or cigarette butt in the scrap bin, which held two months' worth of accumulated cuttings at the time of the fire. Smoking was banned in the factory, but cutters were known to sneak cigarettes . The scrap bin had not been emptied and was overflowing ; hanging fabrics soon caught fire as well and it spread rapidly throughout.

6. Lack of Fire Safety Measures Since burning their own business was their fallback position, owners Blanck and Harris refused to install automatic sprinklers or any other types of fire protection . The danger of fire in garment factories was well known, but they paid off officials rather than put necessary precautions in place.

7. Fire Evacuation: Stairways The top half of the door was made of thick glass , and the panicked workers did eventually succeed at breaking it. Some workers got through and down the stairs this way. However, when firefighters entered the building after the fire was out, they found about 50 bodies stacked behind that door.

8. Fire Evacuation: Fire Escape A third route down was the fire escape - but it was made of flimsy materials and not properly anchored to the building. Between the heat of the flames and the weight of so many people trying to climb down at once, the fire escape soon broke away from the wall and collapsed, killing more workers.

9. Fire Evacuation: Elevators The building had two elevators , but they could only hold about 12 people at a time . When the heat began to melt the rails, workers trapped above pried open the doors and tried to climb down the elevator shaft, holding onto the cable. The weight and impact of their bodies warped the elevator car.

10. Trapped Those who could not make it to any of the possible escape routes found themselves trapped and rapidly running out of time. Many workers succumbed to the smoke and heat , and died inside the factory. Other workers were driven to the windows, looking for relief from the flames. Ultimately, 62 people jumped or fell to their deaths.

11. Fire Department Horse-drawn fire engines arrived at the scene quickly, but they were unequipped to the task at hand. The ladders they had could not extend past the 6th or 7th floor. Firefighters held out nets in an attempt to save some of those who were forced to jump, but the impact of bodies falling from such a height tore right through them. Bodies falling on the fire hoses also impeded the firefighting efforts.

12. The City in Mourning The whole incident lasted only 18 minutes. Of the 146 workers killed in the fire, 123 were women and 23 were men . They ranged in age from 14 to 43 . This tragedy had a profound effect on those who witnessed it, and it became lodged in the public’s consciousness — both because of the harrowing spectacle and because it had been largely preventable .

13. Identifying the Victims Bodies of the fire victims were brought to Charities Pier , off East 26th Street — nicknamed “ Misery Lane ” because it was the makeshift morgue routinely used by the city after lethal disasters. Loved ones (and morbidly curious onlookers) lined up around the block to view and identify bodies . This process began at midnight March 26th , just 7 hours after the fire, and continued on for 4 days .

14. ILGWU Strike of 1909 In November 1909, after approximately 20% of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory’s workforce walked off the job in protest of the poor working conditions. About 20,000 of the 32,000 workers in the shirtwaist trade walked out, launching a massive labor strike which lasted 14 weeks .

15. ILGWU Strike of 1909 The ILGWU strike of 1909 was the largest labor strike led by women at the time. Picketers faced arrest , fines , and violence at the hands of paid thugs.

16. ILGWU Strike of 1909 The strike was partially successful ; in February 1910 the ILGWU reached an agreement that somewhat improved workers’ wages , hours , and working conditions . Triangle Factory workers returned to work with no real improvement to their conditions. Triangle Factory workers had specifically raised the issue of fire safety , but this too was ignored .

17. Public Outcry On April 2nd , the Women’s Trade Union League held a memorial and called for investigation into the fire. On April 5th , the day of the funerals for the victims, ILGWU called for a citywide day of mourning . More than 120,000 marched in the funeral procession and another 230,000 watched . April 5th also saw more protests against factory conditions, which were attended by tens of thousands .

18. Trial The owners of the factory, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, were indicted on charges of first- and second-degree manslaughter in mid-April. The trial began on December 4, 1911 . The prosecution charged that the owners knew the exit doors were locked at the time of the fire, but the defense argued that while the doors had been locked , there was not sufficient proof that the owners knew . The jury acquitted the owners on the manslaughter charges .

19. Civil Suit In 1913, owners Blanck and Harris were charged with wrongful death in a civil suit filed by families of the victims. The case was settled and families were awarded $75 for each deceased victim . Blanck and Harris, meanwhile, received an insurance payout of about $60,000 more than the reported losses, or about $400 per casualty .