Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Essay

Sadie Nussbaum, an eighteen-year-old Jewish girl who had lived in the United States of America her entire life along with 148 of her fellow workers, was killed in the fire in the Triangle Shirt Factory(Nussbaum death certificate). Ever since, historians and advocates have asked the question, “Who should be held responsible for their deaths?” After looking at many sources it seems that the owners of the building, Blanck and Harris, were ultimately responsible for the fire. This is because they failed to keep the building properly inspected, had terrible working conditions and over crowding, and only had one exit door. March 25, 1911 started out as a normal work day for Sadie and the other 500 workers at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City. But near the end of the day, a fire broke out on the top three floors of the Asch Building where she was working. Within thirty minutes, the building was engulfed in flames and approximately 146 workers (Introduction Fire!), mostly young women including Sadie, either burned or fell to their deaths. Historians have debated who should be held responsible for the
It led to the transformation of the labor code and adoption of fire safety measures. Because of Blanck and Harris’ fatal mistakes when running their company and the tremendous number of deaths that occurred, The New York Factory Investigative Commission wrote thirty-six new labor related bills to protect the safety of the workers (Legacy of the Triangle Fire). The changes in codes and labor laws generated in the aftermath of the Triangle Fire had obvious beneficial effects on the safety and the working conditions of workers in New York State and across the country. Even though this event in history was catastrophic, the faults of Black and Harris eventually led to the improvement of working conditions in the United States of