Triangle Fire Research Paper

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
as if they were exempt, and no one called them on it” (107). Stating that “the butts sometimes went into the bins under the cutting tables,” (107) which were filled with the combustible scraps of the garment fabric, proves that the imposed safety “rules” were not enforced or followed.
Von Drehle shares that after the 1911 Triangle fire, a fire Marshall “[concluded that] someone tossed a match or a cigarette into [a] scrap bin” (119). During this specific event, workers rushed to use the stored water buckets to put out the fires, but it proved to not be enough, so they attempted to utilize the hoses available to them. This system ended up not working due to factors including low water pressure. With no internal source of water, there was essentially no way to extinguish the flames from inside the building. In present day America, there are specific fire codes to ensure flammable products are kept securely confined to fire proof containers. Sprinkler systems are required in many buildings to provide a reliable and automatic emergency water
system.
If extinguishing a fire is not feasible, like in the 1911 Triangle fire, functional methods of escape need to exist in order to be able to increase the amount of survivors.
During the notorious Triangle fire, workers rushed to escape the burning building, only to find most of the designated escape routes to be locked, blocked, or inaccessible. The low capacity elevators served limited use once their entrances became bombarded with panicked workers attempting to exit the flame-engulfed building. Some doors leading to the stairs were locked, rendering them useless, and trapping the workers in the building. Other “stairway landings were too narrow to accommodate outward swinging doors,” (123) pinning swarms of workers inside the rooms. Another alternate method of exiting the building was a flimsy fire escape, which became mangled under the weight of dozens of women. “City officials…had allowed…a little fire escape [to be hung] in place of the required third stairway,” (118) when the building the Triangle factory was in was built. This influenced modern fire codes to be written to guarantee that buildings, especially those that are multi-level, have multiple fire exits that are unblocked and sturdy. Regulations require frequent inspections to ensure companies are following the
rules.
The degree of fire preparedness on the fire department end has surely increased since 1911. Fire trucks now are better equipped with longer ladders to be able to reach increasingly taller buildings. This is relevant because of the fact, as mentioned in the book, “a woman…flung herself at the fire department ladder, three stories below, hoping to catch it—an impossible attempt” (158). In case of the event of people needing to jump out of a window to escape a fire, as so many women in the triangle factory resorted to, more dependable safety nets have been developed and are occasionally used by fire departments. In the time of the Triangle fire “No one could recall a person ever being saved by a net after falling nine stories,” (134) indicates Von Drehle. One key element of preventing large-scale deaths by fire is fire drill training. Educating employees on the most efficient route of evacuating a burning building can save hundreds of lives when combined with meeting proper safety regulations inside the facility. These preparations are affecting American life now, in the fact that most people have gone through fire drill training to at least give them an idea of how to safely leave a burning building. With even the most simple knowledge of what to do in a fire emergency, countless lives can be saved.
The disaster that struck the Triangle Shirtwaist factory on 25, 1911 left an unprecedented mark on the American workforce, which was arguably not outdone for another ninety years. A combination of conniving employers, a lack of education, and weakly regulated facilities brought an untimely demise to over one hundred young workers, mainly teenage girls. The inconsideration for many facets of the factory’s safety ultimately increased the death toll through thoughtless neglect of the workers’ well-being. The outcome of this tragedy resonates through America until this very day. Although the rubble of the fire has been cleared, left behind in the ruins of this misfortune are the present-day safety regulations and activist groups, which help to prevent similar catastrophes from reoccurring.