Today, March 25, in 1911, Triangle Shirtwaist Company’s factory burned down, which killed 145 factory workers. This horrible tragedy led to the introduction of several new laws for factory workers, some of which are still in existence today.
The Triangle Shirtwaist factory occupied the top three floors of a 10-story building in downtown Manhattan. The workers were mostly immigrants and most of them were young girls. They worked in hot, crowded miserable conditions where they were only paid $15 a week, even though they worked 12 hours a day all seven days of the week.
When the fire broke out, only one of the four factory elevators was working, and that could only carry 12 people at a time. There were two stairways that lead to the street, but one of them was locked from the outside and the other only opened inward, making them all but useless for anyone inside the factory. There was a fire escape, but it wasn’t well constructed and could only support a few people at a time. When the fire broke out, the people inside tried to use a fire hose, but it was rotted and broken. Of course, these factors contributed to the death of many who were not able to evacuate.
The owners of the factory (who also owned another in the city) had already dealt with three fires among their factories. Some believe they would deliberately set fire to their buildings to collect insurance money. Interestingly, the owners were on the top floor of the building when the fire started, and escaped by climbing onto the building’s roof, then jumping onto the roof of a neighboring building.
On April 5, the worker’s union held a march in protest of the terrible working conditions the factory workers were subjected to, which may have led to the fire, and which definitely led to the high number of deaths from the accident. About 80,000 people attended the march.
The factory owners were tried for manslaughter, but, to the amazement of those with law enforcement careers, and people everywhere, they were not charged. The fire and the march led to the creation of the creation of the Sullivan-Hoey Fire Prevention Law, which requires that buildings have certain safety measures in place to prevent fires and to provide for the safety of occupants should a fire break out.
