The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire - When Fire Followed Fashion

In 1911 the Socialists were in full swing, organizing unions and inciting factory girls to strike. As if those seamstresses could dictate how companies should be run or instruct seasoned businessmen on the proper administration of a mill. Foolish girls. Impudent factory trash.

In 1911, one hundred workers died on the job everyday. Mines collapsed. Ships sank. Men perished in molten steel. Trains wrecked and arms were caught in machinery. Workplace safety was unregulated. How could the government tell corporate leaders how to run their business? The government had no business giving in to the whining Socialist instigators, cutting into the profits of people who made America work.

Yet in the 1880’s, some New England cotton mills had automatic sprinklers. By 1911 some mills in Philadelphia had enclosed fireproof stairways, fire doors, and firewalls.

But not in Manhattan. In Manhattan, fires were the order of the day, fairly common. Factories were not encouraged to attend to safety matters. Some garment factories were over-insured. Safe buildings meant lower premiums and less income for insurance agencies. Insurance brokers made more money selling higher premiums. They were not about to make a noise about safety.

Fire often followed the fashion of the day. When feathers suddenly went out of style, three feather factories burned. When the shirtwaist started to decline in popularity, ten mills burned whereas six had burned during the previous three years. But garment factories easily caught fire; the flimsy fabrics, rags and remnants, tissue patterns were all so incendiary.

                           

      At 4:40 on March 26, 1911, just before closing time, a scrap bin at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory caught fire. The alarms didn’t work properly and the fire spread quickly. Workers crowded a narrow doorway purposely made a tight squeeze so that departing workers’ purses could be searched for stolen ribbon, a piece of lawn or netting.

     Some crowded to the Washington Street exit but it was locked to prevent workers from sneaking off for unauthorized breaks. Fire ran up the airshaft. Smoke roiled up the stairs. Within minutes, the triangle Shirtwaist Factory became an inferno.

     People ran up to the roof until the stairs were engulfed in flames. Others dropped 8 floors to the safety nets held by firefighters. There weren’t enough nets. Heat crazed workers, instinctively seeking fresh air jumped from the building. Young girls jumped out of windows, arms entwined, unable to bear the smoke and heat.  Terrified people rained down on the sidewalks of New York, thirty at once, girls who barely made enough money to cover their rent.

     The last exits closed off at 4:52.
     The last person fell at 4:57.

     One hundred and forty six people died in those few minutes because the doors were blocked, or locked. Estimates claim that 200 people could have been cleared from the 8th floor in 7 minutes. But you couldn’t have a factory girl sneak off to the bathroom or snitch a scrap of ribbon.

     People noticed. 100,000 showed up at the morgue on Charities Pier. Maybe the Socialists weren’t the radical fanatics some thought. The idea of safety regulation, that government could demand a safe working environment was no longer a cause endorsed by the lunatic fringe. Laws were enacted to ensure workplace safety. Too late for the 146 souls at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.