German Sightseeing: Triangle Shirtwaist Factory

[calvinandhabs]

What other places should we visit? Preferably in New York. Cause, you know… money.

[EmJoy]

For those wondering, this is the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, 123 women and 23 men died by burning or jumping because they would rather die on impact than burn. The incident was due to possibly a still lit cigarette being disposed of in a fabric scrap receptacle. It was a textile factory so it lit very quickly. When the upper floors were made aware of the fire, it was too late, and everyone panicked trying to get out the doors to the stairwell, but the doors all swung inward and the crush of people made them impossible to open. The top floor was never even notified of the fire. Because of this incident, the US has a policy that all doors used in public buildings should swing out towards the exit. This also caused the implementation of external fire escapes in New York for buildings of certain hight.

It is deeply sad that for change to happen, it seems like we always need ''enough'' people to die first.

[bgaesop]

My great grandmother was a nurse in NYC back then and she insisted one of her patients not go to work that day, so instead of dying in the fire she was at home in bed. Out of gratitude she gave my great grandma a brass mortar and pestle, which has been passed down through my family and I still use to grind spices to this day

[chrislyne]

I'm a fire risk assessor in the UK and I visit a lot of manufacturing sites. Most are pretty good but there are some who are very much the owners described here. I have only ever reported one client to the fire authority because they kept all their fire exits locked to prevent staff sneaking out to vape/smoke and didn't want to unlock them, plus lots of other failings. I got a call from the enforcement officer a few weeks later to say that the site was being prosecuted and would receive at least a 6 figure fine and a prohibition notice. That was a good day.

[LenaLovesgoodStories]

I am German and I listened with rapt attention. I can 100% confirm that this is exactly the type of sightseeing I would enjoy!

[AG-sefj]

Literally went to NYC for a weekend with a friend and I mandated we visited the memorial because it truly is such an overlooked pivotal moment for US history

[Mikopotato]

"Oh, God!" "He was nowhere to be found!" Very underrated line.

[Siegmernes]

It's called the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire. It's a very central point of the fight for workers rights.

[kariduran]

This is why we say every safety code was written in blood
Edit: rip my notifications

[VaveeDances]

My daughter is an actor in London and she was one of the principals in the play, “Paved with Gold and Ashes”, the story of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory tragedy. What a devastating play….not a dry eye in the theatre. Such an important piece of history and vital to the creation of workplace safety laws.

[anticapitalize]

OMG. I had an almost exact replay of this conversation with my wife in the exact same spot in 2018. HISTORY NERDS UNITE!

[haileybalmer]

Oh! Oh! And then they were caught illegally locking all of the doors again at a different factory. And when they were caught and fined, the judge literally cried about having to impose a small fine on them.

Did I mention it was mostly middle school and high school aged girls who died?

[gio]

The story of a couple business owners who faced much hardship but in the end prevailed! The American Dream

[Ncb-gmsy]

Not sure how many people know but the Triangle Shirtwaist fire changed occupational health and safety laws in Canada too. It's one of the reasons why every work area is supposed to have two fire exits and why it's illegal to lock exits from buildings. We were inspired by the development of similar laws in the USA created after the fire. I wrote a research paper on it in university.

[NaatClark]

"He was nowhere to be found!" LMAO the gleeful delivery on this line was fantastic

[racheljensen]

I teach about this in my history classes, always making sure to point out that the girls in class are the same, if not older, than those who died.

Gonna add this video to my lecture, though. You guys perfectly match my humour when talking about horrible topics lol

[classywafflehouse]

Great sketch guys! I am a historian and I appreciate anyone bringing attention to the Triange Shirtwaist Fire! Americans are quick to forget how many terrible things had to happen for us to get basic safety regulations and develop organizations like OSHA. We are also super quick to forget the majority of the victims of that fire were women (many just teens) and recent immigrants. The bosses got away with so much since they were male and rich.. Truly a tragedy. Cornell University has fantastic website I've used in teaching this if anyone would like to learn more. Never forget March 25, 1911.

[Steven-T]

THERE'S WAY MORE TO IT, GOOGLE IT. This is covered extensively in my fire code inspector class. Genuinely awful stuff:
The owners also did the same thing a few years later at another factory. When an inspector issued a fine, a judge waived the fine and issued a written apology to the owners. Eventually they went bankrupt and left with millions in hand.

Really goes to show just how much the owning class cares about the working class, hunh? 🙂

[t.l.]

Oof, that "I'm in health insurance" line didn't age well 😂

[alissaa]

As a student, it was honestly so bizarre to go to the triangle shirtwaist factory site every week for chemistry lab freshman year