The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911 :: United States History Work Safety Essays

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911 275 girls started to collect their belongings as they were leaving work at 445 PM on Saturday. Within twenty minutes some of girls charred bodies were lined up along the East Side of Greene Street. Those girls who flung themselves from the ninth floor were however covered with tarpaulins where they hit the concrete. The Bellevue morgue was overrun with bodies and a makeshift morgue was set up on the adjoining pier on the East River. Hundreds of parents and family members came to bring up their lost loved ones. 146 employees of the Triangle Shirtwaist familiarity were dead the night of March 25, 1911. The horror of their deaths led to numerous changes in occupational safety standards that soon ensure the safety of workers today. At the time of the glow the only safety measures available for the workers were 27 buckets of water and a fire thresh that would collapse when nation tried to use them. Most of the doors were locked and those that we re not locked only opened inwards and were effectively held shut by the onrush of workers escaping the fire. As the clothing materials feed the fire workers tried to escape anyway they could. 25 passengers flung themselves down the elevator shaft trying to escape the fire. Their bodies rained blood and coins down onto the employees who made it into the elevator cars. Engine Company 72 and 33 were the first on the scene. To add to the already bleak situation the water streams from their hoses could only reach the 7th floor. Their ladders could only reach amid the 6th and 7th floor. 19 bodies were found charred against the locked doors. 25 bodies were found huddled in a cloakroom. These deaths, although horrible, was not what changed the feelings toward government regulation. Upon finding that they could not use the doors to escape and the fire burning at their clothes and hair, the girls of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, aged mostly between 13 and 23 years of age, jumped 9 stories to their death. One by and by another the girls jumped to their deaths on the concrete over one hundred of feet below. Sometimes the girls jumped three and four at a time. On lookers watched in horror as body after body fell to the earth. Thud -- dead thud -- dead thud -- dead thud -- dead.