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The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire – Part II

© Mara Lou Hawse

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911 remains one of the most vivid and horrible tragedies in American labor history. At the time of the fire, few regulations existed that would have saved the lives of those who were killed. Until that time, politicians and others had seen little need to regulate safety in the workplace. However, the unnecessary deaths of 146 people aroused the public and the politicians and brought about changes in American labor laws.

The New York legislature created the Factory Commission of 1911, headed by Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, to investigate the catastrophe. Senator Robert F. Wagner and Alfred E. Smith also were members. Following the commission's inquiry, the New York legislature enacted laws that would help prevent future conflagrations and improve safety in the workplace. Other states soon followed suit.

At the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, the tragedy had been inevitable: floors were littered with flammable materials; narrow staircases were located in drafty, vertical wells; doors opened inward at the landings, if they opened at all; and no sprinklers had been installed. All those conditions had been called to the attention of the owners many times, but nothing had been done to correct them. When fire department authorities suggested that sprinklers be installed, a property owners' association rejected the idea because the cost amounted to "confiscation."

After the blaze, Fire Marshal William Beers told a New York Post reporter he could show him "150 loft buildings far worse than this one." Of 1,463 factories in New York's garment industry, practically all had hall doors that opened in instead of out; 500 had only one fire escape; the halls in 60 buildings were less than three feet wide; and 14 had no fire escapes.

In one interview, Pauline Cuoio Pepe, a nineteen-year-old sewing machine operator at the factory, asked one historian, "What the hell did they close the door for? What did the think we were going out with? What are we gonna do, steal a shirtwaist? Who the heck wanted a shirtwaist?"

Pepe explained that the workers didn't even use the regular doors to leave the factory. "We never went out the front door. We always went one by one out the back." A guard stationed there searched workers as they left. They "were afraid we would take something, so that door was always locked."

Even the doors that were not locked were useless because they opened in. When workers tried to escape, those in front could not open the doors because of people pushing from behind. The new laws prevented situations such as this.

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