Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Working conditions in the Progressive Era (a period in U.S. history marked by great social and industrial reform) were poor regardless of where the factory was and what it produced. Accidents were common. The worst facilities became known as sweatshops (manufacturing workplaces that exploit their workers and operate under inhumane working conditions). One tragedy in particular—the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire—came to symbolize the struggle of labor against sweatshop management in early twentieth-century America.

Deadly fire killed teenagers

The Triangle Shirtwaist Company building in New York City was the site of what many historians consider the worst industrial disaster of its era since the Industrial Revolution began in 1877. On March 25, 1911, fire broke out in the top three stories of the ten-story building. By the time the flames were extinguished, 146 of the 500 employees were dead, many of them immigrant girls around the age of fifteen.

The building was typical of most others in New York at the time—overcrowded and without a sufficient number of emergency exits. There was one fire escape for the entire building, which itself was fireproof and showed little exterior damage after the fire.

When the fire broke out around 4:40 pm, employees of other businesses in the building had already gone home. Had the fire begun ten minutes later, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company women also would have been gone, as indicated by the remnants of coats and cold-weather accessories found on the corpses.

Workers jumped to their deaths

When it became clear there was no way out of the flames because most of the doors were locked (as part of management's effort to keep employees from taking breaks or stealing), employees began jumping out of windows. Witnesses reported that many of them were already on fire, their hair and clothing in flames. With the exception of about a half a dozen people, those who jumped met their death by plunging through broken glass or crushing themselves on the sidewalks below. Firemen had to focus all their efforts on extinguishing the blaze, and bodies were left lying for hours in heaps on the ground where they had fallen.

According to a New York Times article published the day after the fire, one witness gave this account: “I only saw one man jump. All the rest were girls. They stood on the windowsills tearing their hair out in the handfuls and then they jumped. One girl held back after all the rest and clung to the window casing until the flames from the window below crept up to her and set her clothing on fire. Then she jumped far over the net and was killed instantly, like all the rest.”

Workplace deemed unsafe

No one ever determined how the fire started. The building had gone through four recent fires before the one on March 25 and had been reported to the Building Department as unsafe. At the time, such a judgment rarely resulted in a business being closed, even temporarily. The final fire spread more rapidly than most because of the garments inside, which were made of flammable material. Furthermore, sewing machines were crammed together so closely that there were no paths to the doorways.

An investigation into the fire resulted in the two owners of the building being found innocent of any wrongdoing, despite the fact that they were aware of the fire hazards associated with their building. Families of the victims felt justice had not been served. Twenty-three families filed suits against the owners. In 1913, the owners settled by paying each family $75 for the loss of their loved one.