At around closing time 100 years ago on March 25, 1911, a fire broke out on the eighth floor of the Asch Building in New York City.
It was the start of what would be known as the deadliest workplace disaster in the city until the attack on the World Trade Center. Due to the fire and the horrific manner in which it took the lives of 146 people, a new kind of insurance was born in New York, and building safety standards were instituted—standards insurers still verify when underwriting a commercial property policy today.
Unlike insurers in 1911, insurers today focus on life-safety and fire-prevention maintenance, says Mike Barry, spokesman for the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.). Insurers in 1911 focused on selling more and larger policies, not risk reduction.
The eighth, ninth and tenth floors of the Asch Building were occupied by the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory and its 500 employees, a majority of them female Italian and Jewish immigrants. Some were in their mid-teens, and many were packed side-by-side on the ninth floor at sewing machines on long rows of tables among baskets of cloth for the shirtwaists.
No one told the women on the ninth floor that a fire had started on the eighth, and when they smelled smoke and saw the flames, a mad rush was made to the exits. The only inadequate fire escape collapsed as people tried to use it. One door only opened in. Another was locked. Desperate women piled on top of each other.
Firefighters responded, but their ladders only reached the sixth floor.
A half-hour later more than 60 workers had chosen suicide over suffocating or burning to death, flinging themselves out windows.
The factory owners, charged with manslaughter, stood trial for their roles in the senseless deaths but were acquitted. It was alleged they kept the door locked to keep workers from taking breaks, stealing, and to keep union organizers out.
Owners, who profited form their fire insurance, eventually settled with families for about $75 per victim. There was no workers' compensation. The outrage and sympathy from the tragedy fueled reform. People demanded change.
"As a result of the Triangle Fire—and it was a direct result—there were 32 statutes enacted in New York State that ameliorated or improved working conditions," said former state Sen. Serphin Maltese in an interview with WNYC radio. Maltese's grandmother (Catherine, 39) and two aunts (Lucia, 20, and Rosaria, 14) died in the fire.
Three months after the fire the Factory Investigation Commission was started to document workplace-safety issues. Its chief investigator was Frances Perkins, an eyewitness to the fire and fervent labor reformer. The commission's scathing reports led to widespread workplace improvements.
In 1914 the state passed a workers' compensation law, and in July 1914 the New York State Insurance Fund began offering workers' compensation insurance.
The NYSIF, forged from the Triangle Fire, remains the largest writer of workers' compensation insurance in New York.
Meanwhile, building safety is verified by property insurers, and companies with strong risk management practices are rewarded with lower premiums.
The deaths of 146 women 100 years ago remind us there is value to life, as well as property.
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