Microsoft PowerPoint - The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire -
Lina_Saenz.ppt [Compatibility Mode]Factory FireFactory Fire
Process Safety Center
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In 1906, The Triangle Shirtwaist Company opened a factory in the
ASCH Building in New
York. Most of the employees were young women who worked additional
hours under
unsanitary conditions for a piece of apple pie. The owners did not
have any programs to
promote safety as evidenced by the lack of precautions to prevent
fires and the inadequate
fire escape facilities in the building.
The Triangle Shirtwaist FireThe Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
2
On March 25, 1911, a fire broke out on the 8th floor. The fire
claimed 146 victims in less
than 30 minutes. Like most workers at that time, the Triangle
victims and their families
received little help from the law, either guaranteeing their safety
or compensating them for
their injuries.
Their deaths led to numerous changes in occupational safety
standards and still remains
one of the most vivid tragedies.
The Triangle Shirtwaist FactoryThe Triangle Shirtwaist
Factory
The largest manufacturer of women’s shirtwaists in US.
Shirtwaist was a high necked blouse usually made of crisp, light,
translucent cotton or sheer line.
It occupied the top three floors of the ten-story Asch building in
New York City at the intersection of Greene Street and Washington
Place.
Approximately 500 employees, mostly young Italian, Yiddish and
German immigrant women.
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Owners: Isaac Harris and Max Blank.
Well-known outside the garment industry due to the continuous
strikes by the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union
(ILGWU).
It was a good example of “ A Sweatshop ” because of
Lack of additional pay for overtime,
Low Wages,
Unsanitary conditions,
Also, talking and singing were forbidden, there were fines for
errors, and the workers had to buy their own needles, thread, and
other supplies.
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Saturday March 25Saturday March 25thth ,1911,1911 At 4:45 pm, 15
minutes before the end of the work day, a fire
began on the eighth floor because of a lit cigarette butt in a bin
of scrap fabric.
The workers on the tenth floor were alerted quickly and headed to
the roof. Most on 8th and 10th floor were able to evacuate.
When the word of the fire reached the 9th floor, the workers could
not escape because
One of the two doors on this floor had been locked and
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One of the two doors on this floor had been locked and the other
was inaccessible because of smoke and flames,
The fire escape collapsed under the weight of the people trying to
escape,
And the elevator stopped working.
Each of the four elevators held 10 people and made approximately 15
to 20 trips each.
The women leaped out the factory windows or jumped down the
elevator shaft.
The fire was extinguished a half hour later.
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19 bodies against the locked door,
25 bodies in the cloakroom,
30 bodies in the elevator shafts,
Approximately 70 died by falling or jumping out of the
building
The steel frames and concrete structures were undamaged.
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undamaged.
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Contributing Factors: Building ConstructionContributing Factors:
Building Construction
The Asch Building was a “fire proof building” less than 150 ft
high. The building itself would emerge nearly undamaged but
everything inside would burn completely.
The danger in these fire proof buildings resulted from the use of
wood for the floors, doors, and trim.
The fire escape was inadequate for the number of
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The fire escape was inadequate for the number of people employed in
the building because
It ended at a second floor skylight.
It was dangerously loose at the upper floors.
Its doors opened outward so as to block the catwalks that connected
the flights.
The doors only opened inwards.
The spiral stairways were narrow which restricted the number of
people on it.
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It had been declared as a Fire Trap by the New York City Fire
Commissioner some three months earlier.
The workers were packed closely together on each floor with high
ceilings in the building as the Labor Code mandated a minimum of
250 cubic feet of air per worker.
The location of the stairs or exterior fire escape was unknown for
the employees.
A narrow passageway between tables and the only exit on the
Contributing Factors : Building Design Contributing Factors :
Building Design
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A narrow passageway between tables and the only exit on the Greene
Street side and not enough space in the room: 8 tables and 240
sewing machines on the ninth floor.
The stairways:
The Greene St stairway was used to check the workers for stolen
goods.
The Washington stairway was locked to prevent an alternate
route.
The location of the stairways and exterior fire-escapes was
obstructed by machinery, wooden partitions, and piled-up
merchandise.
Spiral stairway in the Triangle Shirtwaist FactorySpiral stairway
in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
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The 9The 9thth floor of the Asch Buildingfloor of the Asch
Building
8 Tables
ElevatorsFire Escape
Washington St G
machinesmachines
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The owners neglected to install fire safety technology. They
refused to sign the collective bargaining agreement to improve the
factory conditions.
The only measures available for the workers were 27 buckets of
water and a fire escape.
Contributing Factors : Lack of Safety MeasuresContributing Factors
: Lack of Safety Measures
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No sprinkler system because they were not required in New York city
buildings, in1911.
No fire extinguishers.
The fire hose was rotten and broken.
The valve of the pipe that carried water to the building was rusted
which prevented access to water .
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Employees and employers smoked during business hours and at meal
time.
Illumination was provided by gas lighting but they were unprotected
by globes and were placed near flammable material.
Contributing Factors : Lack of safety measures (cont.)Contributing
Factors : Lack of safety measures (cont.)
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No regular effort was made to clear the oil and grease soaked
floors and the rubbish heaps.
No fireproof receptacles were provided for the accumulated
waste.
The last time an accumulation of cutaways was picked up from the
factory was on January 15, 1911.
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Inadequate inspectionsInadequate inspections
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory passed a routine fire inspection on
October 15, 1910.
Primarily trivial violations were identified during the inspection
on February 27, 1911:
- The shafting under the machine tables was not guarded. - The
factory had no dressing rooms for the girls.
- The lights in the halls were inadequate.
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- The lights in the halls were inadequate.
The inspector failed to identify major violations, such as: •
Violation of the child labor law because the
employees hid the kids in cases for the shirts. • Smoking even
though he saw some cigarette butts
in the factory. • Adequate distances between the exits and
the
machines and tables. • Locked doors because they were unlocked
before
the inspection. No corrective measures were taken after several
warnings
to improve the safety measures in the Factory.
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The manager tried to put the fire out himself; he did not call the
Fire Department immediately.
Fire ladders could reach no higher than the 6th
floor.
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floor.
The firefighters tried to enter as the workers streamed out in the
narrow stairway.
The firefighters focused on stopping the fire on the 8th floor
instead of trying to rescue workers.
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After The FireAfter The Fire
On June 30, 1911, a Factory Investigation Commission was
established that resulted in:
36 new safety laws in factories were enacted.
The New York Fire Department was reorganized.
The number of Inspectors was doubled.
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Some of the defects in the building were corrected almost
immediately after the fire. These were:
Making the Washington Place stairs a place accessible to the
roof.
Adding a new fire escape
Constructing two large water tanks on the roof.
Installing a sprinkler system.
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The owners were indicted for manslaughter but the jury acquitted
them on December 27,1911 when it was concluded by one juror that
the workers had caused their own deaths:
“ I can’t see that any one was responsible… it must have been an
act of God. I think the factory was well managed, and was as good
or better than many others. I think that the girls, who undoubtedly
have not as much intelligence as others might have
in other walks of life, were inclined to fly into a panic.”
Consequences for the OwnersConsequences for the Owners
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"The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911: Social Change, Industrial
Accidents, and the Evolution of Common-Sense Causality," Law &
Social Inquiry, 20 (1995): 637.
In 1914, the owners had to pay damages in the amount of $75 to each
of the families of 23 victims who had sued.
The Triangle Factory set up shop in another location a week after
the fire in a building with the same design and the same
faults.
The owners recovered insurance payments of $445 per worker
killed.
This incident among others led to numerous changes in Occupational
Safety Standards.
All the doors must open outwards.
No doors are to be locked during working hours.
Sprinkler systems must be installed in all factory buildings over
seven stories or 90 ft in height in which wooden floors or wooden
trim are used, and more than 200 people are employed above the
seventh floor.
Fire drills are mandatory if a company employs more than 25
people
Improved Safety Requirements Improved Safety Requirements
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Fire drills are mandatory if a company employs more than 25 people
above the ground floor. They must be conducted at least once every
three months under the supervision of the Local Fire
Department.
Multiple fire exits.
Training for employees about safety in the workplace are
required.
Emergency evacuation plans.
Fireproof receptacles are needed to place all flammable material,
cuttings and rubbish, to throw out the accumulation.
Smoking must be prohibited in the factories.
The building is now known as The building is now known as
the Brown Building of the Brown Building of Science and it is
listed as a Science and it is listed as a National Historic
Landmark.National Historic Landmark.
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The International Women’s Day The International Women’s Day is
celebrated on March 8 as a is celebrated on March 8 as a
commemoration to that day.commemoration to that day.
In September 1991, a very similar incident in Hamlet, North
Carolina, at The Imperial Food Products Company required about one
hour to extinguish and resulted in the deaths of 25 people and
injured another 56.
Many similar factors were identified:
No sprinkler system,
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No marked fire exits and no regular fire drills,
Fire inspectors had not visited the factory since it had been
operating.
The state found a total of 83 violations of state and federal
regulations, 54 of them willful.
This time, there were sanctions against the plant and its
owner.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire
ReferencesReferences
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire
www.historybuff.com/library/refshirtwaist.html
www.trianglememorial.com/mainframe.htm
"The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911: Social Change, Industrial
Accidents, and the Evolution of Common-Sense Causality," Law &
Social Inquiry, 20 (1995): 621-651
BooksBooks
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire: Landmark Events In American
History by Adam R. Shaefer.
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911 by Janell Broyles.
Triangle: The Fire that changed America by David Von Drehle.
More informationMore information
Fire at the Triangle Factory by Holly Littlefield.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire by Elaine Landau.
Triangle by Katherine Weber.