Tragic Fire in New York City at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company

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Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire

On March 25, 1911, a devastating fire broke out in New York City. Specifically it started in the eighth floor of the ten story Asch building, the first of three floors that belonged to the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. The fire spread to the floors above claiming the lives of 146 workers. Nearly all of these workers were young women, mainly recent immigrants that were Jewish, or Italian. This case is not an arson case as some may think with the amount of lives lost, rather the fire was, as far as anybody knows, an accident. Due to the working conditions these workers faced, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company was considered a sweatshop. They worked in crowded rooms with too many people, and got paid very little for their work. It appears as though it was common practice to keep doors restricted so that only one person could exit the floor at a time. By doing this the owners Isaac Harris, and Max Blanck could check the workers personal belongings as they left work, for stolen shirts or material. Between the overall working conditions and the exits that only allowed one person to exit at a time, this case becomes a crime against globalization case.

Linder (2002) gives a detailed timeline about the Triangle Shirtwaist Company and Asch building in New York. In July of 1900 the plans were approved for the Asch building to be built, and less than six months later, the building was finished. Five years later the Triangle Shirtwaist Company moved into the Asch Building, occupying the eighth floor of the ten story building. Three years later in 1909 a fire prevention expert writes a letter to the Shirtwaist Company encouraging them to hold a safety meeting, which they do not. In the fall of 1909 a strike ...

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Rosenberg, J. (n.d.). Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. In About.com. Retrieved March 23, 2014, from http://history1900s.about.com/od/1910s/p/trianglefire.htm

Triangle Owner Tells Of The Fire (n.d.). In New York Times. Retrieved March 23, 2014, from http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F30812FB395517738DDDAA0A94DA415B818DF1D3

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Building (n.d.). In National Park Service . Retrieved March 23, 2014, from http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/pwwmh/ny30.htm

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire (n.d.). In AFL-CIO America's Unions. Retrieved March 23, 2014, from http://www.aflcio.org/About/Our-History/Key-Events-in-Labor-History/Triangle-Shirtwaist-Fire

Zasky, J. (n.d.). The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. In Failure Magazine. Retrieved March 23, 2014, from http://failuremag.com/feature/article/the_triangle_shirtwaist_fire/P3/

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