Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Essay

On March 25, 1911 in New York City, one of the most tragic disasters on record in the history of American industry transpired. This horrendous event will forever be known as The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. Somewhere near closing time on that horrific Saturday afternoon, a fire broke out on the top three floors of the Asch building which were being occupied by the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. Within minutes chaos arose, everything had erupted into madness, forever disrupting the lives of hundreds of young workers. When the fire was over, 146 of the 500 employees had died an extremely miserable death during the disastrous event. The 354 fortunate survivors were not so fortunate; they were left to remember those agonizing moments each and every day of their remaining lives. The victims and their loved ones, the people passing by who witnessed the desperate last hope leaps from ninth floor windows, and the City of New York would never be the same. The images of their deaths were embedded deeply into their mind's eyes. This catastrophe uncovered the inhumane working conditions which the industrial workers faced after the Industrial Revolution. This heartless neglect was a

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was one such typical sweat shop. The owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, typically employed young Jewish immigrant girls who had come to the United States with their families in search of a better life for them and their loved ones. Instead, they encountered lives of relentless poverty and dismaying working conditions. Being immigrants who struggled with a new language and culture, the factory owners took advantage and made the working poor their ready