Triangle factory fire

Triangle factory fire

Introduction

On the afternoon of March 25, 1911, Frances Perkins (1880 -1965) was having tea with some friends a few blocks from Washington Square North in New York City. Suddenly shouts, whistles and other noises they made ??were lifted from the table and go to the door to see what was happening. So they learned that there was a big fire on the other side of the Plaza, in the twelve-story building, where was the Triangle shirt factory.

Onlookers watched in horror the flames coming out the windows and the people who blew by them. This building was twenty-five meters high. Hundred people worked there, six days a week, mostly women and children, including adolescents. They were poor immigrants, some from Italy and Eastern Europe.

When the fire started, a few down the stairs, others mass broke the doors. Many were trapped and died from smoke and / or fire. In about eighteen minutes perished one hundred forty-six people.

Tragedy was averted

In 1909 workers in this and other garment factories had declared a strike and took to the streets in protest demanding better working conditions, including more fire escape exits. The police attacked the demonstrators and there were some detainees. Although several of the companies responded positively and made ??some concessions to the workers, they did so the owners of the Triangle.

Moreover, there had been four recent fires in that building, the Fire Department, which considered dangerous, due to insufficient number of exits and so reported to the Department of Buildings. There were only two elevators, each for twelve individuals and two narrow staircases. One of the doors to one of the exits and stairs leading to the roof were kept locked trancadas the pretext of protection against theft. Each worker was revised (packages, handbags) before leaving to prevent carry with them something that was not theirs.

Frances Perkins, Social Worker

When tragedy Triangle, Frances worked for the National Consumer Society in New York City. The focus of his work was in the working conditions of employees bakeries: long hours, low wages, fire hazards and child labor. It was natural to witness the fire at the Triangle shirt factory and the consequences would have impacted. He thought he had to do something. He wrote letters to newspaper editors of the neighboring towns, attended several meetings with people like her who were concerned about the issue.

Came the Safety Committee, which named Frances, Executive Secretary. The Committee, instigated the legislature to create the Factories Inquiry Commission of the State of New York, whose mission was to monitor questionable labor conditions in factories in the state and recommend solutions.The first research meeting was held October 14, 1911. They questioned two hundred twenty-two witnesses (workers, employers, government officials and union leaders). Commission inspectors visited 1,836 businesses and presented their results.

We found the following reasons for the Triangle fire: overcrowding, which must have hindered the exit; accumulation of garbage (scraps of fabric and thread, pipe and cigar smoke that favored the fire), oil from the sewing machines that probably increased fire and ...