When was the shirtwaist triangle factory fire

So then we — we took off — we made the — the cutters helped us picket. So the bosses put out — put out gangsters to fight us and that was the practice. November 5, Union-Made Candies for Halloween. Union-Made Candies for Halloween October 31, The elevator operators ran the elevators until the elevator tracks warped from the heat. Many people, seeing no other escape, jumped to their deaths. The fire raised nationwide awareness of poor working conditions in factories and was a catalyst for unionization efforts.

His grandmother and two aunts were killed in the fire. In this video by the NFPA, Robert Solomon discusses the conditions that led to the fire and changes in regulation since that time.

Search Library Website Go. Videos This segment by CBS News was produced in to commemorate the th anniversary of the fire. The Progressive Era: primary documents from by Elizabeth V. On March 25, a Saturday afternoon, there were workers at the factory when a fire began in a rag bin.

The manager attempted to use the fire hose to extinguish it, but was unsuccessful, as the hose was rotted and its valve was rusted shut. As the fire grew, panic ensued. The young workers tried to exit the building by the elevator but it could hold only 12 people and the operator was able to make just four trips back and forth before it broke down amid the heat and flames. In a desperate attempt to escape the fire, the girls left behind waiting for the elevator plunged down the shaft to their deaths.

The girls who fled via the stairwells also met awful demises—when they found a locked door at the bottom of the stairs, many were burned alive. Those workers who were on floors above the fire, including the owners, escaped to the roof and then to adjoining buildings.

As firefighters arrived, they witnessed a horrible scene. The girls who did not make it to the stairwells or the elevator were trapped by the fire inside the factory and began to jump from the windows to escape it.

The bodies of the jumpers fell on the fire hoses, making it difficult to begin fighting the fire. Also, the firefighters ladders reached only seven floors high and the fire was on the eighth floor. In one case, a life net was unfurled to catch jumpers, but three girls jumped at the same time, ripping the net. The nets turned out to be mostly ineffectual. Within 18 minutes, it was all over.

Forty-nine workers had burned to death or been suffocated by smoke, 36 were dead in the elevator shaft and 58 died from jumping to the sidewalks. With two more dying later from their injuries, a total of people were killed by the fire. The fire helped unite organized labor and reform-minded politicians like progressive New York Governor Alfred E.

Smith and Senator Robert F. Wagner , one of the legislative architects of President Franklin D. It was attended by 80, people.