The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

On the morning of March 25, 1911, five-hundred women and children went to work in the Asch building where the Triangle Shirtwaist Company was located in New York City. By the end of that day, only 350 would walk out alive. At 4:40 in the afternoon, a pile of scrap material caught fire on the eighth floor cutting room (Jackson). The fire quickly spread to the ninth and tenth floors also occupied by the company. Although 146 people lost their lives in one of the worst fire related tragedies of the Industrial Revolution, the reforms that would follow were necessary for the good of all.
Prior to the fire, conditions in factories of the late 1800s - early 1900s were extremely dangerous. Asa G. Candler, founder of Coca-Cola, summed up the attitudes of many employers of that time, "The most beautiful sight that we see is the child at labor. …