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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forumstriangle shirtwaist fire-25 mar 1911
(this is what happens with no sorts of safety and workplace regulations. and note that blanck and harris profited handsomely from the fire)
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire
Date March 25, 1911
Time 4:40 PM (local time)
Location Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
Deaths 146
Injuries 71
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911, was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city of New York and resulted in the fourth highest loss of life from an industrial accident in U.S. history. It was also the second deadliest disaster in New York City after the burning of the General Slocum on June 15, 1904 until the destruction of the World Trade Center 90 years later. The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers, who died from the fire, smoke inhalation, or falling or jumping to their deaths. Most of the victims were recent Jewish and Italian immigrant women aged sixteen to twenty-three;[1][2][3] of the victims whose ages are known, the oldest victim was Providenza Panno at 43, and the youngest were 14-year-olds Kate Leone and "Sara" Rosaria Maltese.[4]
Because the managers had locked the doors to the stairwells and exits a common practice at the time to prevent pilferage and unauthorized breaks[5] many of the workers who could not escape the burning building jumped from the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors to the streets below. The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers.
. . .
As the workday was ending on the afternoon of Saturday, March 25, 1911, a fire flared up at approximately 4:40 PM in a scrap bin under one of the cutter's tables at the northeast corner of the eighth floor.[9] The first fire alarm was sent at 4:45 PM by a passerby on Washington Place who saw smoke coming from the eighth floor.[10] Both owners of the factory were in attendance and had invited their children to the factory on that afternoon.[11] The Fire Marshal concluded that the likely cause of the fire was the disposal of an unextinguished match or cigarette butt in the scrap bin, which held two months' worth of accumulated cuttings by the time of the fire.[12] Although smoking was banned in the factory, cutters were known to sneak cigarettes, exhaling the smoke through their lapels to avoid detection.[13] A New York Times article suggested that the fire may have been started by the engines running the sewing machines, while The Insurance Monitor, a leading industry journal, suggested that the epidemic of fires among shirtwaist manufacturers was "fairly saturated with moral hazard."[11] No one suggested arson.
. . .
Within three minutes, the Greene Street stairway became unusable in both directions.[18] Terrified employees crowded onto the single exterior fire escape, a flimsy and poorly anchored iron structure which may have been broken before the fire. It soon twisted and collapsed from the heat and overload, spilling about 20 victims nearly 100 feet (30 m) to their deaths on the concrete pavement below. Elevator operators Joseph Zito[19] and Gaspar Mortillalo saved many lives by traveling three times up to the ninth floor for passengers, but Mortillalo was eventually forced to give up when the rails of his elevator buckled under the heat. Some victims pried the elevator doors open and jumped into the empty shaft, trying to slide down the cables or to land on top of the car. The weight and impacts of these bodies warped the elevator car and made it impossible for Zito to make another attempt.
. . . .
The company's owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, who survived the fire by fleeing to the building's roof when the fire began, were indicted on charges of first- and second-degree manslaughter in mid-April; the pair's trial began on December 4, 1911.[36] Max Steuer, counsel for the defendants, managed to destroy the credibility of one of the survivors, Kate Alterman, by asking her to repeat her testimony a number of times, which she did without altering key phrases. Steuer argued to the jury that Alterman and possibly other witnesses had memorized their statements, and might even have been told what to say by the prosecutors. The defense also stressed that the prosecution had failed to prove that the owners knew the exit doors were locked at the time in question. The jury acquitted the two men, but they lost a subsequent civil suit in 1913 in which plaintiffs won compensation in the amount of $75 per deceased victim. The insurance company paid Blanck and Harris about $60,000 more than the reported losses, or about $400 per casualty. In 1913, Blanck was once again arrested for locking the door in his factory during working hours. He was fined $20.[37]
. . .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire
pipi_k
(21,020 posts)reading a book on it last month.
Frightening and very sad.
niyad
(113,336 posts)very difficult to watch, but worth it. I am so glad there is an organization dedicated to the memory of the victims.
myrna minx
(22,772 posts)I highly recommend the program. What a horrible tragedy. Thanks for posting.
niyad
(113,336 posts)this fire, and by how the owners not only got off, but made a fortune.
seen it, but if it's ever on again, I will definitely watch it.
niyad
(113,336 posts)your library.
Judi Lynn
(160,545 posts)niyad
(113,336 posts)a la izquierda
(11,795 posts)I brought this up in class (I teach Latin American history, but we were talking about factory women in the colonial period). I am happy I got the date right.
redqueen
(115,103 posts)niyad
(113,336 posts)Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)niyad
(113,336 posts)fire. would like to acknowledge and honour them as well, if possible.
Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)I'll keep looking.
JanMichael
(24,890 posts)On DU.
niyad
(113,336 posts)etherealtruth
(22,165 posts)... to confront those complaining about those of use that want change after the Newtown Tragedy.
The Shirtwaist Factory galvanized people ... for the public (worker) good
niyad
(113,336 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)I have long been fascinated and horrified by this incident in our nation's workplace history. When I lived in NYC, I often passed by this building on my way to work (I lived in the West Village and worked in Soho).
I have always been angered by the fact that the factory owners escaped justice (IMO) and even profited from this crime - and yes, I do consider it a crime. I have always wanted to learn more about the victims of the tragedy.
Poll_Blind
(23,864 posts)PB
senseandsensibility
(17,065 posts)Labor history has been purposely blacklisted from TV and schools. I hope this post gets lots of recs.
niyad
(113,336 posts)know anything about it.
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)of with the years of protest and tragedy, tens of thousands of women and children marching in the streets (in 1909, following several decades of struggle and change after the Civil War), being beaten and shot by the police as well as spies and thugs paid for by business owners.
The fire is tragic and sensational, but perhaps that narrow focus keeps the conversation from wandering around to discussions of how people are used by others for profit and how that might actually be changed, (lots of kids with fingers and misshapen hands lost to the machines worked there, machines which also pulled them in by their hair and killed them - hundreds of people died every month in the shops of New York) maybe touch upon how tens of thousands of people can organize and still be so powerless that they can't get the doors opened in one lousy factory (several of those women were union members), instead of remembering just one more monument to sorrow.
niyad
(113,336 posts)the fire. in some of what I was reading, it was stated that "the march of 20,000" was more like 40,000, which just emphasizes your point.
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)about how we got here.
I'll go look for the other one.
niyad
(113,336 posts)jtuck004
(15,882 posts)Union Scribe
(7,099 posts)just in countries they hope nobody will notice.
"Triangle Returns" http://www.globallabourrights.org/reports?id=0630
And just a few months ago http://www.democraticunderground.com/11171639
niyad
(113,336 posts)kairos12
(12,862 posts)niyad
(113,336 posts)Heidi
(58,237 posts)Youtube links to the PBS documentary on this fire:
Part 1:
Part 2:
niyad
(113,336 posts)Heidi
(58,237 posts)Good morning!