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Risk Management
On March 25, 1911, approximately 146 people, many in their teens, died or jumped to their deaths in the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire. The fire engines at the scene did not have ladders that reached to the ninth floor where the blaze was raging. The fire escape, which did not reach to the street and was not built to accommodate more than a few people at a time, collapsed. The stairwell that led to the roof was burning. The one that led down to the street was padlocked from the outside so that the workers would be prevented from eluding inspection or making off with leftover scraps of cloth. Triangle’s owners rebuffed the union’s demand for sprinklers and unlocked stairwells. They were later tried for manslaughter, but acquitted ...
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