Film: Triangle Factory Fire Scandal

The Triangle Factory Fire Scandal is a 1979 made-for-television movie.   The film chronicles the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, in which 146 garment workers died. 

There were many preventable reasons for the high death toll, such as the doors to the narrow stairwells and exits being locked by the factory management (a common practice then to prevent employees from stealing and taking unscheduled breaks), the fire escape in the rear of the building collapsing, the firefighters’ ladders being several stories too short, and the water from the fire hoses only being able to reach up to the seventh floor — when the factory occupied the eighth, ninth, and tenth stories of the building.

This disaster spurred the growth of the labor movement, and the demand for safe working conditions.