Who Is Responsible For The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

On March 25th, 1911, a fire started in New York City, becoming the deadliest fire in New York City’s history. The workers who worked at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory on the 9th floor were locked in the building. In total 147 people died in the fire. The Factory Owners should bear responsibility for the fire.

The Factory Owners shouldn’t have locked the doors. The workers inside were getting burnt to a crisp during the fire. The workers were trying to open the doors to escape but were locked inside. Source 11, Placing the Responsibility says, “Harris and Blanck, who comprise the firm whose employees were burned, and who had been already indicated by the Grand Jury, were declared responsible for the death of the two women whose cases were presented to the coroner's jury, because of culpable and criminal negligence in leaving a door locked which should have permitted these women to escape.” If the doors were never locked, so many workers could have escaped and lived. They are responsible for locking the doors, making the workers burn, and the deaths of the young men and women who had a family to go home to.

The conditions they worked in were harsh. Source 14, Testimony from the Factory Investigation Commission says, “It is not less true that the slaughter of men and women workers by the slow process of unsanitary and unhealthful conditions is not immoral and anti-social.” The workers were young, some were 13 and 14. The Factory Owners didn’t care, They made them work for hours and if they got hurt or messed up, they would get in trouble, and yelled at. The Factory owners should be responsible for the working conditions. It is immoral to the unsanitary, unhealthy conditions and the labor the Factory Owners put the workers