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N0KFQ > TODAY 25.03.16 16:44l 82 Lines 3993 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 88635_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Mar 25
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Sent: 160325/1433Z 88635@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.65
1911
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in New York City
In one of the darkest moments of America's industrial history,
the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York City burns
down, killing 145 workers, on this day in 1911. The tragedy led
to the development of a series of laws and regulations that
better protected the safety of factory workers.
The Triangle factory, owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, was
located in the top three floors of the 10-story Asch Building in
downtown Manhattan. It was a sweatshop in every sense of the
word: a cramped space lined with work stations and packed with
poor immigrant workers, mostly teenaged women who did not speak
English. At the time of the fire, there were four elevators with
access to the factory floors, but only one was fully operational
and it could hold only 12 people at a time. There were two
stairways down to the street, but one was locked from the outside
to prevent theft by the workers and the other opened inward only.
The fire escape, as all would come to see, was shoddily
constructed, and could not support the weight of more than a few
women at a time.
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.
On March 25, a Saturday afternoon, there were 600 workers at the
factory when a fire broke out in a rag bin on the eighth floor.
The manager turned the fire hose on it, but the hose was rotted
and its valve was rusted shut. Panic ensued as the workers fled
to every exit. The elevator broke down after only four trips, and
women began jumping down the shaft to their deaths. Those who
fled down the wrong set of stairs were trapped inside and burned
alive. Other women trapped on the eighth floor began jumping out
the windows, which created a problem for the firefighters whose
hoses were crushed by falling bodies. Also, the firefighters'
ladders stretched only as high as the seventh floor, and their
safety nets were not strong enough to catch the women, who were
jumping three at a time.
Blanck and Harris were on the building's top floor with some
workers when the fire broke out. They were able to escape by
climbing onto the roof and hopping to an adjoining building.
The fire was out within half an hour, but not before 49 workers
had been killed by the fire, and another 100 or so were piled up
dead in the elevator shaft or on the sidewalk. The workers' union
organized a march on April 5 to protest the conditions that led
to the fire; it was attended by 80,000 people.
Though Blanck and Harris were put on trial for manslaughter, they
managed to get off scot-free. 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.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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