Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

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The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was a company in New York in 1911 that made women’s blouses which, at the time were known as shirtwaist. It was located on the eighth, ninth, and tenth floor of the Asch Building in New York. The Factory was a legitimate business but the owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, ran it much like a sweat shop. Most of the factories 500 employees were young immigrant women who worked nine hour days on weekdays and seven hour days on Saturdays. On top of the long hours that the owners placed on it employees, many hazards existed in the building as well. Because of a theft problem many of the exit doors were kept locked from the outside in order to prevent the employees from getting out with stolen company property. This alone was probably one of the leading factors that contributed to the disaster that was about to ensue. On March 25, 1911, a fire broke out on the eighth floor of the factory. The start of the fire is still not quit known. The initial and still most likely cause was determined by the Fire Marshall on scene to be a match or cigarette butt from one of the employees. Smoking wasn’t allowed in the building but many of the workers would sneak on in here and there during their shifts. Other theories on how the fire started, according to the New York Times, have been that possibly one of the engines on one of the sewing machines caught on fire. Whatever the cause of the fire, it was not that that made this incident such a historical event, it was the reason for the 146 deaths and seventy injuries that occurred during the fire. The bookkeeper on the eighth floor was able to telephone the employees on the tenth floor and ward them about the fire but was not able to get a hold of the people on the tenth floor and there was no audible alarm to warn them of the fire either. As stated earlier, most of the doors that lead to the outside

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