What Were the Causes of the Triangle Factory Fire?
- The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, located on the top three floors of the 10-story Asch building on the corner of Washington Place and Greene Street in New York City, employed about 600 workers. A shirtwaist was a lady's blouse, with long sleeves that gathered at the wrist; the shirt portion was tucked into the skirt at the waist, hence the name. Conditions in most factories in the early 20th century were harsh, and the Triangle was no exception. Hours were long and wages meager; the concept of sick days did not exist. Unions were not permitted. A strike that lasted from September 1909 until February 1910 resulted in shorter hours and higher wages, but no union and no safety improvements.
- Although women workers assembled the shirtwaists, the job of cutting out the patterns from the fabric fell to men. Scraps from the cuttings were thrown into scrap bins. Every couple of months, the scraps would be hauled away; the last time that had been done before the fire's outbreak was in January of 1911, when more than a ton of scraps had been removed. When a worker threw a cigarette into one of the bins on the eighth floor, the dirty, greasy scraps quickly began to smolder. Shortly before the 4:45 p.m. closing time, cries of "Fire" rang out.
- The Asch building itself was fireproof, according to a "New York Times" account of the fire from March 26, 1911. Nonetheless, the fire spread rapidly. When the blaze first broke out, some workers tried to use a fire hose to put out the flames, but the hose was old and the valve was rusted. Even after workers wrestled it open, there was insufficient water pressure to quench the fire. Moreover, the burning bin was near an elevator shaft; air coming up the shaft caused the flames to spread further. The accumulation of oil and grease on both the scraps and the floor also contributed to the spread of the fire, according to Donna Getzinger in her 2009 book "Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire."
- Unsafe working conditions contributed to the high death toll. One of the exit doors was locked to prevent employee theft, while the other opened in instead of out and the press of workers trying to escape made it difficult to open the door. Only two of the four elevators were working, and although the operators made several trips to rescue workers, the fire's heat soon put an end to their attempts.
The ladder on the fire escape did not descend completely to the ground; workers were forced to jump the last couple of stories. Ultimately, the fire escape collapsed from the weight of the fleeing workers, killing those on it and trapping remaining victims on the burning floors.
External factors also contributed to the many deaths. Fire department ladders only reached to the sixth floor. Nor did the safety nets work, partly because they were not intended to catch people from such heights, and partly because the nets could not handle the combined weight from people jumping and landing hand-in-hand. - The aftermath of the fire saw hearings held on both the state and local levels. New York City created a Bureau of Fire Protection. New laws on workplace safety were adopted. Doors had to open out instead of in, and they had to remain unlocked. Fire drills were to be conducted on a regular basis and the premises inspected to ensure compliance with the new regulations. Reforms were adopted not only in New York but in more than 30 other states. The unions used the tragedy to mobilize support and worked to help make conditions better, not just in the garment factories, but in other industries as well.
