Triangle_Shirwaist_Factory

The Triangle Shirt factory was a garment factory based out of New York City. The Triangle Shirt factory employees were mostly young women who were of Jewish and Italian heritage (Murrin/Johnson pg. 608). The building in which theses women worked in was extremely unsafe and there was only one way in….one way out. There were fire escapes and other doors but they did not work or open which made it one way in…one way out. On March 25, 1911, a fire broke out in a bin of rags. The flames grew very fast throughout the building since there were a lot of flammable materials within the building. In less than an hour 146 people had died from being trapped in by the fire (Historymatters). There were women who not only burned to death but there were women who died from jumping from the burning building. Due to the tragic event that took place here at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, there were lots of mourning and grieving going on by the public. The International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union proposed an official day of mourning. The grief-stricken city gathered in churches, synagogues, and in the streets with protests towards what happen. The ILGWU continues its fight to achieve the right of workers to sage, decent working conditions. Due to the legacy of this horrific event, many serious problems facing factory workers became apparent and it made way for attempts at remedies through protective legislation (ilr.cornell.edu). I think that an industrial disaster exactly like this could not happen today…this was just a normal fire with a few flammable materials lying around. Today would be something more like a chemical spill and explosion. On another note today there would not be workers working in a building with no way of getting out. Today we have something called (PMS) Preventive Maintenance System. This allows things to be checked on a scheduled basis; to prevent disaster and turmoil. We have all kinds of organizations today to cover every corner of disaster that could happen. In these days we imagine things happening played them out falsely and prepare to try and prevent them from happening.