Triangle Shirtwaist fire

Sweatshop

A sweatshop is a factory or workshop, especially in the clothing industry, where workers are employed at very low wages for long hours and under poor conditions.

The workers in the triangle shirtwaist factory

Nearly all of the workers were teenaged girls. Many worked six days a week, 12 hours a day, earning about $4 an hour (in today's money).

what happened (triangle shirtwaist factory)

One afternoon, a fire broke out inside the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. This fire spread quickly. In all, 145 workers were killed.

what did this factory do

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was located in lower Manhattan. The people who worked there made shirtwaists. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was a sweatshop.

what did the fire help do

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire brought widespread attention to the dangerous work conditions—and lack of safety features such as fire sprinklers—of factories and sweatshops during the period we have been learning about in class. This fire led to new laws and regulations that better protected the safety of factory workers (for example, fire sprinklers became required inside of factories and sweatshop).