| Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire |
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THE COMPANY The Triangle Shirtwaist Company, owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris , occupied the top three floors of the ten-story Asch Building in New York City at the intersection of Greene Street and Washington Place, just east of Washington Square . The company employed approximately 500 workers, mostly young Immigrant Women from Italy and Eastern Europe. Some of the women were as young as twelve or thirteen and worked fourteen-hour shifts during a 60-hour to 72-hour workweek, sewing clothes for a wage of $1.50 per week (approximately $31 per week in 2006 dollars). The Triangle Shirtwaist Company had already become well-known outside the garment industry by 1911: the massive strike by women's shirtwaist makers in 1909, known as the Uprising Of 20,000 , began with a spontaneous walkout at the Triangle Company. While the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union negotiated a Collective Bargaining Agreement covering most of those workers after a four-month strike, Triangle Shirtwaist refused to sign the agreement. The conditions of the factory were typical of the time. Flammable Textiles were stored throughout the factory, scraps of fabric littered the floors, patterns and designs on sheets of tissue paper hung above the tables, Smoking was common, illumination was provided by open Gas Lighting , and there were no fire extinguishers. THE FIRE In the afternoon of March 25 , 1911 , a fire began on the eighth floor, sparked by either a lighted match or a cigarette. To this day, no one knows whether it was accidental or intentional. Most of the workers who were alerted on the tenth and eighth floors were able to evacuate. However the warning about the fire did not reach the ninth floor in time. The ninth floor had only two doors leading out. One stairwell was already filling with smoke and flames by the time the Seamstress es realized the building was ablaze. The other door had been locked, ostensibly to prevent workers from stealing materials or taking breaks and to keep out union organizers. The single exterior Fire Escape , a flimsy, poorly-anchored iron structure, soon twisted and collapsed under the weight of people trying to escape. The Elevator also stopped working, cutting off that means of escape, partly because the panicked workers tried to save themselves by jumping down the shaft to land on the roof of the elevator.
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