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U.S. History 1877-Present 4: The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire 2160 Views
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Description:
Whether you know what triangle shirtwaists are or not (and we most certainly do not), setting them on fire is bad news. It eventually paved the way to better fire safety regulations, but not before a tragic disaster or two.
Transcript
- 00:03
Let's zero in on a tragedy called the 1911 Triangle [Building burning]
- 00:07
Shirtwaist Fire why was it important because after this happened Americans
- 00:12
actually began paying more attention to workplace safety much like a toddler
- 00:17
that doesn't understand when a stove burner is hot America only became aware [Toddler places toy on a stove]
- 00:21
of certain dangers after it got burned when it came to sweatshops the Triangle
Full Transcript
- 00:25
Shirtwaist company Factory was the real deal the owners Max Planck and Isaac [Owners of shirtwaist company appear]
- 00:31
Harris packed their Factory full of teen immigrant girls who couldn't speak
- 00:35
English the workers earned a cool 15 bucks a week for working 12 hours a day
- 00:40
seven days a week workers attempted to strike for higher [Workers striking for higher wages]
- 00:43
wages but Blanc and Harris paid policemen to imprison the strikers the
- 00:48
layout of the factory made escape next to impossible all for the sake of
- 00:52
preventing effect well the day of the fire there was only one stairwell and [People running down stairwell]
- 00:56
one functional elevator for the 600 workers to attempt to escape out of the
- 01:01
high-rise Factory well it was worth it as long as those girls didn't make off
- 01:05
with any of those amazing and insured ways
- 01:08
well Blanc and Harris were no strangers to factory fires either the very same [Blanck and Harris standing in the fire]
- 01:11
factory burned two times in 1902 and a different factory of theirs burned in
- 01:16
1907 and 1910 so you have no strangers of factory fires but definitely
- 01:21
strangers of fire safety but were these guys playing with matches for funds well [Match stick burning]
- 01:26
people were pretty sure that Blanc and Harris torched their factories to cash
- 01:30
in on insurance policies even though they intentionally burn their factories
- 01:34
they still refuse to install a sprinkler system and to invoke our previous
- 01:39
toddler metaphor because apparently we only have one decent metaphor per video [Toddler roasting marshmallow on stove fire]
- 01:43
blanck and Harris burned their hands on the stove but since they got paid to do it
- 01:48
they took no precautions to prevent it from happening again but spikes shady [Man places hand on burning stove]
- 01:53
history of blanket errors the famed 1911 fire was actually an accident on March
- 01:57
25th 1911 a fire ignited in a rag been a manager attempted to put it out with a [Man putting out fire with hose]
- 02:01
hose unfortunately the hose was rotted and the valve was rusted shut everybody
- 02:07
panicked and the only working elevator provided escape for a few dozen before
- 02:10
it broke down the stairwells were open but the door at [Elevator sets on fire]
- 02:14
the bottom of the stairs remained locked now I'm escaped to the roof and hopped
- 02:17
onto an adjacent building when the firefighter showed up things continue to [Woman jumps over to building and falls down]
- 02:21
play out like an extremely dark comedy the ladders brought by the firefighters
- 02:26
only reached up to the seventh floor but the fire was on the eighth oops the
- 02:31
trapped girls began to jump and their bodies pinned the firefighters hoses to [Girls in a pile on the floor]
- 02:36
the ground the Nets deployed to catch the jumping
- 02:39
girls were ineffective and they ripped through them 145 people died and all
- 02:44
people were upset because obviously the tragedy could have been stopped if [People protesting]
- 02:47
management had a working hose and enough doors and elevators well a protest
- 02:51
attended by 80,000 union workers took place a few weeks later a mountain of
- 02:56
evidence existed to convict Blanc and Harris of manslaughter yet the owners of
- 03:00
the factory caught off scot-free there's really no silver lining here but the [Harris and Blanck walking away from court]
- 03:03
death they caused did inspire reform with the passing of the Sullivan Hui
- 03:08
Fire Prevention law so maybe like you know moldy burlap lining not just that
- 03:14
was much more consolation to the ladies who died because of a hose that was [Man appears at graveyard]
- 03:17
falling apart too we're pretty sure they're ghosts those who really got home [Woman ghost appears]
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