The Fire
How the Fire Started |
The fire started on March 25, 1911, most likely due to oil dripping down onto one of the fabric bins in the cutting room. However it is also suspected that the owners may have started the fire themselves. This was not an uncommon practice with factory owners in the early nineteen hundreds, due to the fire insurance they would get from the incident.
The Fire also easily could have been prevented in that the water hose that was in the room was rotted over and rusted shut, rendering it useless against the growing flames, yet another example of the factors that lead to the large scale death and destruction. |
During the Fire! |
The fire started on the eighth floor cutting room of the factory. And because of the fabric littering the floor, lack of hoses, and improper sprinkler system the fire spread quickly up into the other floors.
Everything that could have gone wrong in attempts of safety, went wrong. For example, one of the multiple reason it caused so much death was because of the elevator shaft breaking down after four rides, plummeting girls down to their deaths while they were attempting to escape, and the doors on the stair cases were locked, girls were trapped in the staircases burning to death. As the girls were trapped in the fire they were forced to either die in the fire or jump to their deaths from the roof and top floors. As well as the poor construction of the building the firefighters plan to try and help the burning was also similar as to what lead to the disaster. The firefighters' water and ladders couldn't reach the eighth floor, and their safety nets all tore. The U.S Department of Labor has said that by the time they arrived the men only "...simply sprayed the building in the hopes the mist from the water would cool the victims trapped above." (Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, 2) just really showing how unprepared and far behind the United States was in terms of the safety of their workers and factories. |