Triangle Shirtwaist Company fireOn March 25, 1911, a devastating fire broke out in New York. Specifically, it started on the eighth floor of the ten-story Asch building, the first of three floors owned by the Triangle Shirtwaist company. The fire spread to the upper floors, costing the lives of 146 workers. Almost all of these workers were young women, mostly recent immigrants, Jewish or Italian. This case is not an arson as some might think given the number of lives lost, but rather, to our knowledge, an accident. Due to the working conditions these workers faced, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company was considered a sweatshop. They worked in crowded rooms, with too many people, and were paid very poorly for their work. It appears that it was common practice to keep doors restricted so that only one person at a time could exit the floor. By doing this, owners Isaac Harris and Max Blanck could check workers' belongings when they left work, for stolen shirts or equipment. Between the general working conditions and the outings which only allowed one person to go out at a time, this affair becomes a case of crime against globalization. Linder (2002) gives a detailed timeline of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company and the Asch Building in New York. In July 1900, construction plans for the Asch Building were approved and less than six months later the building was completed. Five years later, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company moved into the Asch Building, occupying the eighth floor of the ten-story building. Three years later, in 1909, a fire prevention expert wrote a letter to the Shirtwaist Company encouraging them to hold a safety meeting, which they did not do. In the fall of 1909, a strike... middle of paper ......t.htmlRosenberg, J. (n.d.). Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire. On About.com. Retrieved March 23, 2014 from http://history1900s.about.com/od/1910s/p/trianglefire.htmTriangle Owner Tells Of The Fire (nd). In the New York Times. Retrieved March 23, 2014, from http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F30812FB395517738DDDAA0A94DA415B818DF1D3Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Building (nd). At the National Park Service. Retrieved March 23, 2014, from http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/pwwmh/ny30.htmTriangle Shirtwaist Fire (nd). In the American unions of the AFL-CIO. Accessed March 23, 2014 from http://www.aflcio.org/About/Our-History/Key-Events-in-Labor-History/Triangle-Shirtwaist-FireZasky, J. (nd). The fire of the triangular size. In Échec magazine. Retrieved March 23, 2014 from http://failuremag.com/feature/article/the_triangle_shirtwaist_fire/P3/