Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FIRE

Into the early twentieth century businesses operated free of government regulation and with few industry standards. No building codes existed and regular machinery or fire inspections were not performed. "Sweatshops" were common, where people worked for very low wages in crowded, unsafe conditions with poor ventilation or inadequate heat. No limit existed for the number of hours a person could be required to work, and child labor laws were non-existent. Fresh to the United States, speaking little English, and desperately seeking employment, immigrants were especially vulnerable to sweatshop employment. While seeking a better life in the United States immigrants instead often found exploitation and impoverishment. Children could be found routinely working in mills and factories under dismal conditions. Often women and their children worked side by side for over 15 hours a day.

Such a factory sweatshop operated in New York City's Greenwich Village section in 1911. It produced women's clothing and employing primarily women. Over 500 garment workers performed low-paying piecework for the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in the top three stories of the Asch Building, a ten-story building near Washington Square in New York City. Many of the women were recent Italian and Russian Jewish immigrants, mostly between 16 and 23 years of age, with some girls even younger. The building's structure was considered fire proof, but the interior on the upper three floors was packed with flammable objects including clothing products hanging from lines above workers' heads, rows of tightly-spaced sewing machines, cutting tables bearing bolts of cloth, and linen and cotton cuttings littering the floors.

Few fire escapes were present, and company management had a policy of locking most exits, supposedly to guard against break-ins, but more accurately meant to contain the workers. The unlocked exits were only 20 inches wide, designed to restrict access by no more than one person at a time and to guard against employee theft. Though the company was a non-union shop, some of the workers had joined the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), formed in 1900. The building experienced several small fires, leading to complaints concerning insufficient exits from the building. In 1910 a general Cloakmakers' Strike to improve sanitation and safety conditions in New York City had been held. The strike led to the formation of the Joint Board of Sanitary Control to establish appropriate standards. Triangle's employees who had joined in the strike, however, had been replaced.

Late Saturday afternoon on March 25, 1911, at the conclusion of the six-day workweek, the Triangle Shirtwaist workers were shutting down operations for the night as quitting time was drawing close. Suddenly, a fire broke out near a corner of the eighth floor, spreading quickly to the two higher floors. With a door to the fire escape locked, workers anxiously waited at the windows for rescue. When fire crews arrived they discovered their fire ladders were several stories too short and water pressure was insufficient for water from the hoses to reach that height. Terrified, some workers clung to one another; many, to the horror of onlookers and rescue workers, began leaping to their deaths. Workers on the tenth floor were able to get to the roof of the building and escaped over ladders placed by students across to a nearby New York University building. Almost 100 employees died inside the structure, while 47 jumped to their deaths from the eighth and ninth floors to escape the flames. In total 146 workers died and 70 were seriously injured.

The company owners were indicted on charges of criminal negligence, but were acquitted eight months later in a jury trial and assessed only a small fine. They later received $65,000 in insurance payments for property damage. The fire, regarded as one of the worst industrial tragedies in U.S. history, aroused public anger over management and government indifference to worker safety. Women's unionization activity escalated as the ILGWU stepped up efforts to improve sweatshop conditions. Effects on local and national politics were profound, beginning a 20 year effort to introduce industry reforms.

One eyewitness to the catastrophe was Frances Perkins (1880–1965), at the time a lobbyist for the New York Consumers League. Perkins came away from the tragic scene with even more determination to help workers. The State of New York created a special commission with Perkins as its chief investigator to probe into factors surrounding the Triangle Shirtwaist fire and industrial working conditions in general throughout the state. Three years later, in 1914, the commission issued its report calling for widespread changes. One piece of legislation, passed over stiff opposition from business management in the state, limited the workweek for women and children to 54 hours. Perkins also served as executive secretary of New York City's Committee on Safety influencing the passage of more stringent city building codes and factory inspection requirements. Perkins ultimately became the first woman Presidential Cabinet member in the United States as the Secretary of Labor for President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945). The only Cabinet member to serve all four terms of Roosevelt's presidency, Perkins was a key person behind the New Deal's socio-economic reforms. The tragic event in New York had triggered more intensive efforts through protective legislation to gain the right of workers to safe working conditions.

Topic overview

Suddenly, a fire broke out near a corner of the eighth floor, spreading quickly to the two higher floors. With a door to the fire escape locked, workers anxiously waited at the windows for rescue. When fire crews arrived they discovered their fire ladders were several stories too short and water pressure was insufficient for water from the hoses to reach that height. Terrified, some workers clung to one another; many, to the horror of onlookers and rescue workers, began leaping to their deaths.See also: Industrial Revolution, Women in the Workplace, Working Conditions in Factories

FURTHER READING

Lehrer, Susan. Origins of Protective Labor Legislation for Women, 1905–1925. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1987.

McClymer, John F. The Triangle Strike and Fire. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1998.

McEvoy, Arthur F. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911: Social Change, Industrial Accidents, and the Evolution of Commonsense Causality. Chicago: American Bar Association, 1994.

Stein, Leon. The Triangle Fire. New York: Carroll and Graf/Quicksilver Book, 1962.

——. Out of the Sweatshop: The Struggle for Industrial Democracy. New York: Quadrangle/New Times Book Company, 1977.

Tyler, Gus. Look for the Union Label: A History of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1995.