triangle fire
DESCRIPTION
rundown of tragic fireTRANSCRIPT
The Triangle Factory Fire
Highest FDNY ladders could
reach
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
There is just one fire escape in the
building. That one is an interior fire
escape, where the terrified
unfortunates crowded before they began to make their mad leaps to death, the whole big front of the building is
guiltless of one. Nor is there a fire
escape in the back.
The building had experienced
four recent fires and had been
reported by the Fire Department to the Building Department as
unsafe on account of the insufficiency of
its exits.
Max Blank and Isaac Harris, Triangle Waist Company owners, were indicted on April 11th in the death of
Margaret Schwartz. The trial began 8 months later and finished in 18 days. On December 27, 1911 the
factory owners were acquitted of responsibility.
Three years later, 23 individual suits were settled
at a rate of $75 per death.
Safety Reforms• Local 25 of the ILGWU organized a rally
against the unsafe working conditions that led to the disaster. Meanwhile the Women's Trade Union League led a campaign to investigate such conditions among Triangle workers, to collect testimonies, and to promote an investigation. Within a month of the fire the governor of New York State appointed the Factory Investigating Commission. For five years, this commission conducted a series of statewide hearings that resulted in the passage of important factory safety legislation.