Triangle Factory Fire Essay

On March 25, 1911 in New York City thousands stood by and watched as the Triangle Waist Factory quickly caught fire on one of its top floors. Within 20 minutes 146 people had either burned to death in the flames or had chosen to jump from the windows instead. This fire was considered one of the worst events in the Industrial Revolution, but it did bring to light the almost inhuman conditions in most of the factories in the early 20th century. The conditions of these factories were very bad, in the case of the Triangle Waist Factory simple fire precautions were even ignored such as to not lock the doors and to make the doors open out. In Sadie Frowne’s story “Days and Dreams” she mentions how sometimes the sewing machine would be going

Many factories at this time were spend a lot of money on new and better machines to make production go faster, but they were greatly neglecting the care, health and safety of their employees. The neglect of the human factor is why so many preventable defects in factories were able to exist such as workshops with inadequate lighting, no provision for ventilation, little or no cleaning done, and with no ordinary comforts like washing facilities, water supplies, or bathrooms. Most industries did not include things that they felt weren’t necessary for production of what ever goods were produced in their factories, this lack of caring for their workers was the reason that occupational diseases and work related injuries occurred so often. There are still very few regulations on factory construction other than the building codes such as the width of the walls and the strength of the foundation. In that time and even now a days workers spend the greater part of their day working. Back then though most people spent that time in either a workshop or a factory, the proper sanitation of the workplace is therefore very important to the worker. Not long after these things really started to come to light did most people begin to realize that the factories sanitation was so closely related to the factories