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Remembering the Triangle Shirtwaist fire (Original Post) niyad Mar 2019 OP
Kicked and recommended. Uncle Joe Mar 2019 #1
you are most welcome. niyad Mar 2019 #2
FYI Submariner Mar 2019 #3
thank you for that listing. niyad Mar 2019 #4
With all the sweatshops these days, it's amazing it doesn't happen more often sandensea Mar 2019 #5
you are most welcome. niyad Mar 2019 #6
Well, I remember hearing about this one FiveGoodMen Mar 2019 #8
Thank you for posting this. I remember that one. sandensea Mar 2019 #9
PBS American Experience episode on Triangle Shirtwaist fire area51 Mar 2019 #7
I remember seeing a documentary on this and I often used to walk past that building smirkymonkey Mar 2019 #10
Thank you UpInArms Mar 2019 #11

sandensea

(21,526 posts)
5. With all the sweatshops these days, it's amazing it doesn't happen more often
Mon Mar 25, 2019, 12:48 PM
Mar 2019

I suspect we have more to thank sprinklers for that, than any caution on the owners' part.

Thanks for posting this powerful - and timely - reminder of what can happen when businessmen are left to their own devices.

FiveGoodMen

(20,018 posts)
8. Well, I remember hearing about this one
Mon Mar 25, 2019, 05:03 PM
Mar 2019

The Hamlet chicken processing plant fire was an industrial fire in Hamlet, North Carolina, at the Imperial Foods processing plant on September 3, 1991, resulting from a failure in a hydraulic line. 25 workers were killed and 55 injured in the fire, trapped behind locked fire doors. In 11 years of operation, the plant had never received a safety inspection.[1] Investigators believe a safety inspection might have prevented the disaster.[2]

A federal investigation was launched. Owner Emmett Roe received a 20-year prison sentence, of which he served only four years. The company received the highest fine in the history of North Carolina,[3] which was less than the federal minimum. As a result, the federal government took over enforcement of much of North Carolina's worker safety laws.[4] Survivors and victims' families accused the fire service and city of Hamlet of racism, leading to two monuments to the tragedy being erected. The plant was never reopened.

The fire was the North Carolina's worst non-mining industrial disaster and second worst industrial disaster overall.[5] The death toll was particularly high for a United States industrial disaster in the late 20th century, despite being a lower death toll than several other disasters in the past, such as the 1947 Texas City disaster, the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, and the 1860 Pemberton Mill collapse.[6]

The Imperial Foods building was 11 years old, although the basic structure dated back to the early 20th century. The building had been used for food processing applications and had been an ice cream factory.[2] At the time of the fire, it included adjoining structures totaling 30,000 square feet (2,800 m2).[5] The factory was constructed with bricks and metalwork and was one story high.[2] The interior was a "maze of large rooms separated by moveable walls", and both workers and the product moved around the interior from process to process, going from front to rear.[5] Imperial's operators usually kept the doors of the chicken plant padlocked and the windows boarded, to prevent theft, vandalism or other criminal acts.[7] There had been no safety inspections by the state due to a lack of inspectors.[1] The poultry inspector visited the site daily and knew of the fire violations. One worker stated that much of the chicken meat was rotten,[7] and that the reason it was processed into chicken nuggets was to disguise the foul taste. He did not report these violations.[6][7] Some workers were made nervous by the locked doors but did not voice their concerns for fear of losing their jobs.[5]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet_chicken_processing_plant_fire

sandensea

(21,526 posts)
9. Thank you for posting this. I remember that one.
Mon Mar 25, 2019, 05:54 PM
Mar 2019

I recall that it was that tragedy - and the Bush administration's typically cavalier, almost snooty response at the time - that really helped drive the point home to many voters that not only were things not "getting better;" but that their leadership couldn't care less.

Which of course is true of all these GOP administrations since Reagan - and more so with each one.

 

smirkymonkey

(63,221 posts)
10. I remember seeing a documentary on this and I often used to walk past that building
Mon Mar 25, 2019, 07:05 PM
Mar 2019

in NYC on my way to work (from the West Village to where I worked in Soho). There was a plaque on the building detailing the history of the event and paying tribute to the workers who died there. It has always haunted me for some reason. These were mostly teenage girls and young women. Like the victims of 9/11 it just pains me to think that people so young had to make the choice to burn or jump to their deaths. It was just so tragic. The owners of the sweatshop just didn't care about these poor, young immigrant women. There were also some men who died as well. It was a travesty that the owners were found not guilty.

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