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New York's Tragedy: The Triangle Fire of 1911, Part 1

© Bailey Lowenthal

One-hundred forty-six employees of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory died on March 25, 1911 due to a fire.

Beyond first-degree burns, beyond second and third degree, there is death, but to reach death by fire one must first experience all of the former stages. First-degree burns are like bad sun burns, it hurts to apply any amount of pressure to the burn but within a few weeks it goes away. Second degree burns creates blisters on the skin, the skin bubbles up and often peels away, the pain is unbearable and usually the patient requires prescription pain relief, but again with certain medications it goes away. When third-degree burns occur not only the skin has been burned but the tissues and muscles underneath as well, this degree of burn could mean surgery and grafts, nerves don't grow back and the patient looses feeling in the burned area. Inside, when the body burns, internal organs boil, the throat often burns away and the patient is 'cooked'. So when a person 'burns to death' it is not quick, it is not painless, they go through all the stages, all the steps and death is a release. ¹

Fires happen, and people die, but in the case of the Triangle fire most if not all the lives lost could have been saved if only a few things had been changed. If the Washington Street exit would not have been locked, if the fire escape had been adequate and not blocked by rows of tables, or if the company had practiced fire drills, the outcome would have been much less fatal. Those changes were the same things the employees of the Triangle Company were striking to receive not more than two years before the fire. ²

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Workers were fed up with the conditions that they had to deal with and they did not see a light at the end of the tunnel. Workers in the shirtwaist factories were hounded to the bathroom and back, not paid for work done in poor conditions, the clocks were 'fixed' to prolong hours, and workers were constantly pushed to do more then feasible. The Triangle employed mainly women because they were willing to work for less and their hands were better sized for sewing machines. Sixty percent of the workers were Eastern European Jews, mainly immigrants, less valuable lives. What the Triangle Company failed to notice was that women were active in, the rise of unions, the fight for women's rights, and quite possibly the most active group of people in the fight for workers rights. ³