Question

What was the primary reason for the high death toll in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire?

Answer 1

The primary reason for the high death toll in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire is difficult to tease out of the several factors that contributed to the fire and the death toll.The most direct cause was that the exits were closed and locked, so no one could get out the way they came in once the fire had started.But there are almost always several reasons working together when a disaster occurs, and usually if any one of them had been prevented the disaster (in this case the high death toll) might not have happened.These other reasons include the crowding of people into the shop floor. Had there been fewer people trying to escape, the fire escapes collapsed and possibly no one would have been tempted to jump from the windows.If adequate housekeeping had been routinely employed, the cloth scraps would not have been available to fuel the fire.If smoking had not been permitted on the floor, the discarded cigarette would not have been there to ignite the fire. (But no one thought about smoking as a hazard in those days, unless they worked around explosives.)