Nasheed Choudhury October 3rd, 2016
English 8IA Mrs. Katz
Argumentative Essay
“One man whom I advised to install a fire drill replied to me: ‘Let ‘em burn. They're a lot of cattle anyway.’ Workers could easily be replaced” (Flesh and Blood So Cheap). The cause of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire may still be a mystery that no one has been able to solve, one can easily identity why it had occurred. The factory was made out of fireproof material and the building was somewhat equipped should a fire occur. Clearly, the factory owners couldn't care less about what happened to the workers because after all, they were unskilled, uneducated, immigrant…show more content… At the time, around the year 1911, the government and economy wasn't exactly at it’s highest. In Flesh and Blood So Cheap, it states, “These precautions, though well known, were almost totally absent in New York City, because fire safety did not ‘pay.’ It did not pay the insurance industry, since safer buildings lowered insurance costs, reducing the earning of insurance sellers, called brokers” At this time, the equipment for the fire department wasn’t as good as it could’ve. In the text, it says, “Their equipment was top-notch, by 1911 standards, but not perfect. Aerial ladders and portable towers lifted firefighters and water high above the ground. Unfortunately, no ladder could reach above the sixth floor of a building” (Flesh and Blood So Cheap). This explains why there were so many fatalities in the fire, the ladder only went up to the sixth floor and the building was much taller than six floors. So when the firefighter had no way to reach the workers on the higher floors, clearly they wouldn't be able to survive because no one would be there to help…show more content… The cause of the fire hasn't been identified so therefore, we can't just go ahead and blame whoever we see fit. The fire isn’t entirely the factory owner or the government’s fault, the workers themselves find themselves in the crossfire. There are some standards and rules employees must uphold at all times. Some things a worker should be familiar with is where all the fire safety equipment is located and where all the emergency exits are. In case of an emergency and the fire exits are barricaded or blocked, the workers should know to remain calm and do the most logical and safe thing to do. In the text, it says, “Meanwhile, workers on the eighth floor rang furiously for the two passenger elevators. Safety experts have always advised against using elevators in a fire. Heat can easily damage their machinery, leaving trapped passengers dangling in space, to burn or suffocate. Despite the danger, the operators made several trips, saving scores of workers before heat bent the elevators’ tracks and put them out of action” (Flesh and Blood So Cheap). Now although the hastiness and impulsiveness of these workers may have saved some of them, what they decided to do is an extreme safety hazard and if something wrong had actually happened, more workers would’ve been lost to the
