The Triangle Factory Fire

Highest FDNY ladders could

reach

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory

There is just one fire escape in the

building. That one is an interior fire

escape, where the terrified

unfortunates crowded before they began to make their mad leaps to death, the whole big front of the building is

guiltless of one. Nor is there a fire

escape in the back.

The building had experienced

four recent fires and had been

reported by the Fire Department to the Building Department as

unsafe on account of the insufficiency of

its exits.

Max Blank and Isaac Harris, Triangle Waist Company owners, were indicted on April 11th in the death of

Margaret Schwartz.  The trial began 8 months later and finished in 18 days.  On December 27, 1911 the 

factory owners were acquitted of responsibility. 

Three years later, 23 individual suits were settled

at a rate of $75 per death.

Safety Reforms• Local 25 of the ILGWU organized a rally

against the unsafe working conditions that led to the disaster. Meanwhile the Women's Trade Union League led a campaign to investigate such conditions among Triangle workers, to collect testimonies, and to promote an investigation. Within a month of the fire the governor of New York State appointed the Factory Investigating Commission. For five years, this commission conducted a series of statewide hearings that resulted in the passage of important factory safety legislation.