Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire was a fire that occured in the triangle shirtwaist factory in New York City on March 25, 1911. The factory produced women's blouses and about 500 people worked there at the time of the fire and most of the workers in the factory were young immigrant women. These women worked about 9 hours on weekdays and 7 hours on saturdays and earned $7-$12 per week. The fire started when there was flared in a scrap bin on the 8th floor of the building. The factory was on floors 8-10 on the 10 story Asch Building. The fire was likely ignited from a workers cigarette they had snuck in and the cigarette was thrown into a pile of scraps which held 2 months of cutting in it. Because of the managers locking the doors to the stairwells, and the flames blocking the stairwells and elevators, the people on the in the 8-10 floors could not escape. A book keeper from the 8th floor warned the people on the 10th floor about the fire but there was no way of communication to the 9th floor. But, the flames from the 8th floor reached the 9th floor right after.
             The only ways workers could get out of the building was going up the Greene Street stairway to the roof (only a dozen survived this way) and the single exterior fire escape, which was extremely flimsy. The staircase collapsed from the heat and the huge amount of weight on it, when it collapsed it dumped about 20 people to a 100 foot drop onto a pavement surface. Everyone died that had fell. The only people who got out were the people who took the elevator from the 9th floor. The workers on the 9th floor took the elevator by the elevator operators Joseph Zito and Gaspar Mortillalo by traveling up to the 9th floor 3 times. He had to stop the elevator because the elevator rails buckled because of the heat. Some workers pried the doors of the elevator open and got into the empty shaft. They were trying to slide down the cables or to land on top of the elevator which ended up warping the elevator car, this made it impossible for Zito to make a other trip to the 9th floor.
             The fire was the fourth highest death rate from a industrial accident in the U.S. The fire was also the most deadly disasters in New York City until the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The aftermath of the fire was that 141-148 people died from the fire. Most of the victims died of asphyxiation, burns, and butt impact injuries, some even died from all three of those causes. About 67 people jumped to their deaths also. The building is still standing now known as the Brown Building which is a Historical Landmark and also a New York City landmark.

Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKdMuVu1wi8

Sources: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKdMuVu1wi8

              http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire

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