The event of the fire was exceedingly devastating chiefly caused by the extreme lack of fire safety in the era. To begin with, the materials used in making the shirtwaists were highly flammable in themselves. When the scraps from the garments and their patterns were piled in large bins, the perfect environment for igniting and fueling a fire was created, as detailed in the book, “Those airy scraps of sheer fabric and tissue paper, loosely heaped and full of oxygen, amounted to a virtual firebomb” (119). With the insufficient rules, meant to keep the flammable scraps from fire, largely unenforced, catastrophic events were sure to follow. Von Drehle addresses the issue that “the Triangle Waist Company had a no-smoking policy…but the cutters behaved…