Have you heard about the Joelma building there is some misticism about a fire there in 1974 and that the building was built on top of a house where three were assassinated the assassin who also lived there commited suicide and a fireman got a cadaver infection
🤯🤯🤯 Wow, I thought of the Shrirtwaste factory just after I woke up for some reason. I see my sub list, and saw this post. My HAIR STOOD ON END. This happens every once and a while. I am so freaking happy, others know about this 1-911 fire attack. Mind totlally blown. Now, what to make of it? Wow...that was a sad story too.
in the early 20th century the excesses of capitalism killed 150 people due to poor working conditions... a decade later, the excesses of socialism would starve 3-5 million people living on the most fertile soil in Europe... which set of ideas would you prefer run your economy?
@@archstanton6102 I was making a comparison of lose of life events within the same time period, spurred on by opposing ideologies... if you're about to launch into some socialist apologetics, save yourself the trouble, I'm already inoculated to the mind virus that is Marxism :]
Every U.S. firefighter learns about this event in the first chapter of our academy books. We have a long history of only changing our ways once a multitude of people die.
@@Chris.Pontius We weren't but if we were someone should point out that "criminal control" might be a much better option but it doesn't fit the agenda.
My grandmother born in 1904 worked as a sewing machine operator for years in New York, thankfully not at this establishment. Very sad story as I have a great deal of respect for those hard working women and men of the time.
"The kind of abuse leveled at workers of the Triangle factory, will never be tolerated in america again." *Exactly* That's why most products are now made in Asian and/or South/Central American countries. Where virtually none of the wage and safety laws exist (or even discussed). Keeping costs negligent, but profits(and prices) rising.
Fast fashion has multiplied the problem immensely. Fashionable clothes aren't made to last and (now out of sight) voiceless young women are still paying the price.
This is why it's important to not only buy based on price. It's hard, but buying American made items is as close to you can get to making sure the items you buy.... Ethically..... Created items.
@@KingJohnMichael Fast fashion (and luxury brands too, including ones that promise they were produced in Italy or the US) is overwhelmingly produced in Bangladesh. Which is in Asia.
I used to work in a high rise in Arlington and another in Ballston, Virginia. The tallest building was only 12 stories. Floors were not crowded. Office IT work. We would have fire drills. Would take 20 minutes to get to the 8th floor so that we could begin to evacuate. Stairwells were packed. Reason I bring this up is that I think about the major metropolitan cities with taller buildings. Need more and wider stairwells.
In New York City post 9/11 all new construction is required to have wider stairwells. It's very obvious when you're in a building built post 9/11 versus pre 9/11.
My daughter went to school at a catholic school called Our Lady of Pompeii nearby in Greenwich Village. Many of the bodies were brought to the church in the immediate aftermath as they were recovered. My daughter attended this school during the 100th anniversary and the school was involved in ceremonies to commenorate the disaster.
Safety costs money. Corporations, regardless of nation of origin, can't stand to lose money. Customers are easier to replace than majority stockholders. There's 3 facts for you.
Could you talk about Zone Rouge in France, aka the remnants of WW1 battlefields so toxic life is virtually impossible in some sections. Sorta like the Chernobyl exclusion zone of France
Not being a dick, but how would they know what laws to make or change until something bad happens? That's like saying we should have known to prevent people with box cutters from getting onto planes before 9/11. It's not a problem until it is.
pfft with almost 8B of them human lives are cheap, plentiful, abundant, and disposable. Dunno why people keep talking like humans are an endangered or rare species or something when the opposite is the case and there's too many.
*Simon* "Living in the modern world we tend to take a lot of things for granted. One of those is that when we go to work we do so knowing we're not being deliberately being put in an unsafe environment by our employer." *2013 Rana Plaza collapse* "Hold my non-alcoholic beer."
I'm so glad someone mentioned Rana Plaza. We lost over 1100 people that day, which is around 1/3 the number of people who died on 9/11, but I don't recall 1/3 the amount of outrage. People still consume fast fashion instead of thrift store finds.
I was in NYC a few years ago and stood outside that building for a while, reflecting. The whole block is just so...normal, just looking at the (rather beautiful)old factory building you'd never guess what happened inside it.
I did the same thing in 2016, had the same impression. It was a sunny summer day, and the only indication of the horror that happened there was a memorial plaque on the side of the building (is that the memorial talked about in the video? don't know). No ghosts, no sadness, just the knowledge I got from a book that something awful occurred at that spot...
Yes. There is a huge fuel load in a garment factory. After working for one, (and marrying the maintenance guy there) I'm less concerned about the fabric than I am the floor. Those old wood floors soaked in oil from the machines is the biggest problem after safe passage to exits.
Oil-soaked wood can burn a long time, but it's far less flammable than fabric dust. Fabric dust can flash-ignite, while oil-soaked wood needs to be held at ignition temperature for several minutes before it will sustain a fire.
Man Simon, as a cad tech, I spend a lot of time in front of a computer. Listening to your multiple channels makes my day go by quicker. Love your work and all the work behind the scenes your channel goes through. Love all of it. Keep it up.
"Working long shifts of sometimes 12 to 14 hours, rarely time to go to the bathroom. Foremen hounded the workers relentlessly, fining or firing any caught talking or making mistakes while assembling" So......Today's Amazon then? Yeah changed a lot in America hasn't it?
65 years old and I have never heard of this tragedy. This is a great episode in that such things should never be forgotten or, as in my case, never learned until now. Thank you, Mr. Whistler, for keeping the memory of those poor workers alive.
When I was high school history class we watched the film about this incident. I remember being really angry that some of my classmates were not taking the film seriously especially when they talked about the people that died. So, to make sure they never did it again I brought in Eyes on the Prize the Civil Rights documentary. We got to Emmett Till funeral and you could hear a pin drop since his mother decided to have a open casket. Never heard those classmates make fun of a historical event again. I just hope they learned some empathy as they got older. I just wanted them to know that these events hurt real people and could happen again if we don't take history seriously.
Businessmen even to this day care very little about their workers, they just want the money fast and in great quantity, spending only the minimum required to meet health & safety regulations... :(
@@hooper4581 Not just the US either - unions are being blocked, and health and safety are being undermined the world over to compete in a global economy where some countries can take advantage of their own lax safety laws. I mean it was only a few years ago that we heard of the disasters in india in garment factories there... which have conditions similar to the triangle fire.
"The kinds of abuses towards workers a the Triangle Shirt Factory would never be tolerated in America again." Well if you ignore the warehouse, meat packing, and restaurant industries, then your right.
That's exactly why those industries like to hire immigrant workers (illegal especially). They're often unaware of the law forbidding those unacceptable conditions and stay out of desperation/fear.
Let’s put it this way so it amazes you less bro. Imagine you have $100,000, and you can start a company that’s 100% safe for workers but it’ll cost all $100,000 or you can skip that and it’ll probably cost $70,000 and that’s $30,000 in the pocket brother. It’s not because a lack of regard for human life, it’s because of greed. It’s fucked up but it is what it isssss
ahaha I love that he says 'cue the basement jokes" even though this is geographics not business blaze. Honestly Simon's personality has creeped into his more professional channels as buisness blaze has progressed and I really like it.
I read somewhere that one of the owners lost relatives in the fire, and yet they still continued to ignore some safety regulations in their other buildings well after the fire. This makes absolutely no sense to me.
In the Seconds from Disaster series, the episode with the department store collapse in South Korea (caused by corruption, greed and a wildly unsafe building design) one of the survivors words at the end about advocating for building safety REALLY resonated with me- "If you're going to build a building, you should build it like it was for your own family."
This story is a lesson all across the board and as someone in a union now, and who has worked in kitchens where, though no where near as abhorrant, the system of pushing and cutting costs via 'losing hour' and other methods to cut how much you pay workers are still pretty rampant, as are many of the same issues of lack of health and safety, though again no where near the disgusting rampant ways it was here, one of the key lessons. Your employer is NOT and NEVER will be your friend. Not now, not ever, they are not your friends. They are not your allies, they are not your kindred, or any of that tripe. Employee to employer will always be an adversarial relationship at worst and an unwelcome armistice at best. Such is the way of capitalism and corporatism.
This reminded me of the fire at the "Innovation" departement store in Brussel in 1967, a lot of people died due to negligent or laxism ,One of the biggest disasters in Belgian history. Perhaps a good idea for a video
Running a successful business _never ever_ requires actively endangering workers' lives. If owners resist sensible workplace safety measures (emphasis on sensible), it means they're _not confident_ in their earning potential. These owners get kicked around by flighty investors, and panic when the pressure's on. This is not a product of any economic system. It's not a symptom of greed or excess. It's just meekness.
"Here's a major disaster that happened to a business. It killed dozens! Start your own with squarespace!" That's gotta be the most awkward sponsorship ever.
Was going to say this. And how despite much campaigning, council blocks still have flammable cladding on. Because their appearance to the gentrified is more important than the lives inside!
@@terryenby2304 And how our tory government yet again has shot down a law to force the building owners / builders to change / remove the cladding instead of passing the cost onto the people who live there and are now living in tinderboxes.
My friend did a projection based memorial for the workers on the anniversary of the fire in 2017. And almost every year someone leaves flowers on the sidewalk. I haven't been frequently in the area since graduation so I'm not sure if they still do it. (Also thought it might be interesting to note, the Brown Building houses the Chemistry department.)
The most terrifying part for me is that it all happened within ~30 minutes. All that death and destruction in half an hour. If anyone’s interested in a fictional book about this, Hear My Sorrow from the Dear America series is a diary of a girl who worked in the industry. It’s a young adult book, quick read, but it shows the perspective of a young immigrant girl in those conditions.
@Josey Bryant And our boi with his words spoke wisdom beyond his years. I have never understood if your rich, why would you chose to be a dick to the people who enabled you to attain your capitalist riches.
@@fvckyoutubescensorshipandt2718 y’know, generally speaking, in terms of business practices and management of employees, if you have to HIDE HOW YOU RUN YOUR BUSINESS, it’s probably because there is something inherently WRONG about it. If it wasn’t wrong, you wouldn’t have any reason to “not get caught”
@@WickedChild97 right and wrong are matters of opinion. If a business owner's opinion differs from that of his customers (or lawmakers) that alone is reason enough to hide it. And that's even before considering the legal reasons.
Today, two of my favorite channels (Geographics and Weird History) tell about fires, and there's more: today in Riga, the capital of my country Latvia, a deadly hostel fire took a place (8 persons dead). Just a coincidence?
I'm absolutely certain that if we knew the code and wrote down all the words Simon says from the script we could see his pleas for help. We just need to work out what the key to the code is.
I think at this point he's given up and just writes extremely long intros to wear Simon down until he can't take any more and let's them go out of sheer exhaustion. Allegedly.
My grandmother’s aunt worked at the Triangle Shirt factory when it burned down. She happened to stay home that day to take care of her sick child. Saved her life.
Fires are always the worst disasters to here the details of. You either choke, burn, jump to end it all the more faster, or are simply crushed by the sheer mass of everyone trying to escape.
I’ve known about this for years. With the current tread of republican efforts to deregulate the market and kneecap safety organizations such as OSHA it is abundantly clear that the lesson has faded from our collective memory. If you haven’t done do you should do a segment of the Our Lady of Angels school fire in 1950’s Chicago. About 90 elementary students were killed along with some adults. Unbelievable.
Had to watch this because it's one of the events we focused on briefly in my US History 2 course at my college right before the pandemic really took hold A lot of this was admittedly just a refresher for me. One that I think is incredibly important.
its of small comfort to those that realise the only thing they can offer to make a better world is their lives, in the hope someone might notice and finally pay attention. its easy to look back and condemn, but for many this is still true today.
I wrote my thesis on this fire in my Fire Department Management class while getting my Fire Science and Engineering degree at West Virginia State University in 1983. My prof, Captain Jackson was very impressed. Absolutely unbelievable!!
The 2013 Dhaka garment factory collapse in Bangladesh killed 1134 workers. Building owners were warned of structural cracks but ignored them. Attitudes toward workers don't change, they just move elsewhere.
Amazon overworks their employees to the point of exhaustion, and that is a problem, but it's also an order of magnitude better than what these women endured. No native-born American alive today can understand what sweatshop work is like.
Could you do a video on the Piper Alpha oil rig disaster? This was Britain's equivalent of this situation and led to many of our workplace safety laws being re-written and more stringent standards being expected from employers. It was the first case study I researched while I was training to be a health and safety advisor in construction.
I just read an article about the collapse of Pueblo society that was really interesting. I don't think the subject on it's own is necessarily an entire video but I really enjoy hearing about civilization in America before Colonization so if there's something there for a video I'd absolutely watch it. Love the channels, I appreciate how thorough your research is, and your transparency when differing theories exist.
I remember learning about this back in my high school American History class. It was such a tragic event that shouldn't have happened in the first place and like you stated near the beginning of the video, it was completely avoidable. Unfortunately back then if you didn't have the money people wouldn't listen to you.
That's great that you learned about this in your high school American History class. I was busy learning about how the virtuous settlers had to deal with the savages they encountered in their new land.
Lol. I'm in my 50's and unfortunately went to schools that had very out of date media. Every filmstrip I saw from 1976 - 1978 about space travel included talk about someday reaching the moon.
So many disasters have prompted change. The Coconut Grove and Hartford circus fire are good examples. Preventable disasters like this are reminders of why deregulation can be so bad.
The timing of this video is extremely appropriate... April 28 is Canada’s National Day of Mourning to remember who have suffered work-related disability, disease and death. The Canadian Labour Congress first declared the Day in 1984... more than 100 countries now observe the Day...
I'm a seamstress too. (Not in a factory, though I was trained in that method and I have a home-based business- though since I mostly make plush toys these days, I have a bit of an assembly-line going with multiple machines and tables and as much automated as I can. Call it a two-room factory plus storage unit, I guess. :P) When I got sick of haggly customers wondering why I wasn't charging $5 for our work like it was made in China, I put up a statement and a sign- "This small business fully complies with health and safety laws, will never cut corners, and insists on paying living wages that skilled workers deserve. We will not allow the Triangle Shirtwaist fire to happen again just so you can save a few dollars."
since I was about 4 or 5 years old, I remember being in this factory, without ever having heard the story, I only learned about the story there for my 10 and 9 years old, and when I googled images, the factory was identical, I was VERY SCARED, I don't know if it's reincarnation, but anyway, I remember standing at the factory door and taking a deep breath, the factory on fire and a reporter outside, and she said like this: are you okay? i took a deep breath and took 3 steps back, at that, the fire increased and i kinda died, i just remember waking up to this life at 3 years old, it's pretty crazy
The way this is written, you'd think workplace deaths and fires, never happened again. The sweatshop owners, slum lords and nightclub owners CONTINUE to get away with premeditated murder to this day. Due diligence and duty of care remain easy to avoid through plausible deniability. How many property owners or business managers have been convicted of negligent manslaughter, AND served lengthy jail sentences for the same? The developed world, happily trades with third world shit holes using sweat shop labor. Transnational companies who know better, refuse to obey the spirit of labor laws in the developed world. Any person who owns a building regularly occupied by more than 50 people, that does not have an automatic sprinkler system, is guilty of owning a death trap. This was true LONG before the Triangle fire. Every structural engineer, architect and master builder knew this long before the Triangle fire. There is no excuse.
Here we are in 2021 and so many of these labour gains have been rolled back. There are also lots of Triangle type factories in the developing world where the same (or even worse) conditions are the norm. It's just disgusting what people are able to do to others just so they can make their obscene profits.
You should look into the Bellingham Washington disaster. Very interesting. And the first time oil company employees went to jail for not ensuring a safe pipeline.
Sadly a lot of the gains made after this have been lost, Unions are almost nonexistent, there are laws that are on the books called "right to work" laws that mostly are there to make Unions a thing of the past. The laws we do have in the US to stop union busting are never enforced anymore and in many cases where just removed when people didn't notice.
@@chrisdugas1226 Its a way to strip money from unions and make it harder for them represent the workers if a company has a union in place or votes one in it can not be all or nothing. you still get the benefits of the union contracts often but don't have to pay the small amount of dues into the union to keep it running, and its now perceived that the dues are such a burden for workers taking money from pay checks. What is sad is that due that come out are more than made up in what the union does for you, higher pay rates, a check on employers abuse, and floor safety.
Disasters like that continue to happen in the overseas factories where most clothing now sold in rich nations is made. The problem has simply been moved out of sight of consumers.
Before the 1909 strike a lot of the sweatshops didn’t provide sewing machine to their workers, they had to bring their own to work every day and back then the machines were made entirely of metal. Some sweatshops had women working from home but at lesser wages.
On Sept 3 in Hamlet NC a chicken processing plant caught fire. The windows of the single story plant were boarded up and all the exits locked to prevent theft. The plant had no fire alarms or sprinkler systems and had never been inspected. The result, 25 dead, 54 injured, many severely. We may learn but then we forget.
This reminds me of all the stories on the Fascinating Horror channel. Once you find out how much blood those fire codes, occupancy codes, etc. were written in, Dear God do you have more respect for them.
and once union busting came back strong in the 80s and off shoring happened.... we moved NEARLY all of our garment manufacture over seas to poorer, browner, countries. where people still burn alive in buildings that have the doors chained shut ... we just dont usually have to look. Cheap clothing costs blood.
Check out Squarespace: squarespace.com/GEOGRAPHICS for 10% off on your first purchase.
Have you heard about the Joelma building there is some misticism about a fire there in 1974 and that the building was built on top of a house where three were assassinated the assassin who also lived there commited suicide and a fireman got a cadaver infection
🤯🤯🤯 Wow, I thought of the Shrirtwaste factory just after I woke up for some reason. I see my sub list, and saw this post. My HAIR STOOD ON END. This happens every once and a while. I am so freaking happy, others know about this 1-911 fire attack. Mind totlally blown. Now, what to make of it? Wow...that was a sad story too.
in the early 20th century the excesses of capitalism killed 150 people due to poor working conditions... a decade later, the excesses of socialism would starve 3-5 million people living on the most fertile soil in Europe... which set of ideas would you prefer run your economy?
@@turdferguson9356 Are you suggesting only 150 people were ever killed by capitalism?
@@archstanton6102 I was making a comparison of lose of life events within the same time period, spurred on by opposing ideologies... if you're about to launch into some socialist apologetics, save yourself the trouble, I'm already inoculated to the mind virus that is Marxism :]
Every U.S. firefighter learns about this event in the first chapter of our academy books. We have a long history of only changing our ways once a multitude of people die.
Speaking of gun-control...
@@Chris.Pontius We weren't but if we were someone should point out that "criminal control" might be a much better option but it doesn't fit the agenda.
Someone once said "Fire codes are written in blood". Sad but true...
@@Chris.Pontius
Guns have been readily accessible for over a hundred years.
Guns aren't the problem.
@@MatrixRefugee That's a terribly accurate statement.
My grandmother born in 1904 worked as a sewing machine operator for years in New York, thankfully not at this establishment. Very sad story as I have a great deal of respect for those hard working women and men of the time.
"The kind of abuse leveled at workers of the Triangle factory, will never be tolerated in america again."
*Exactly*
That's why most products are now made in Asian and/or South/Central American countries. Where virtually none of the wage and safety laws exist (or even discussed). Keeping costs negligent, but profits(and prices) rising.
Naomi Klein's book "No Logo" is a real eye-opener on this subject.
Fast fashion has multiplied the problem immensely. Fashionable clothes aren't made to last and (now out of sight) voiceless young women are still paying the price.
I think you meant africa
This is why it's important to not only buy based on price. It's hard, but buying American made items is as close to you can get to making sure the items you buy.... Ethically..... Created items.
@@KingJohnMichael Fast fashion (and luxury brands too, including ones that promise they were produced in Italy or the US) is overwhelmingly produced in Bangladesh. Which is in Asia.
I used to work in a high rise in Arlington and another in Ballston, Virginia. The tallest building was only 12 stories. Floors were not crowded. Office IT work. We would have fire drills. Would take 20 minutes to get to the 8th floor so that we could begin to evacuate. Stairwells were packed. Reason I bring this up is that I think about the major metropolitan cities with taller buildings. Need more and wider stairwells.
In New York City post 9/11 all new construction is required to have wider stairwells. It's very obvious when you're in a building built post 9/11 versus pre 9/11.
They need a fire pole going down the center of the stairwells so people have an alternate way down. :-)
People need to be able to walk fown stairs faster too. Basic physical coordination is sadly lacking in modern humans.
What basement? As one bearded blazer once said:"Do not write down your crimes!"
Allegedly!
OGBB
@@nellom.8771 precisely.
🙈🙉🙊
Your comment brought me happiness 😌
Showing the new employee the supply closet in the basement.
You: and this is where the rest of the workers come to cry on their breaks.
No... Its where they live lol
You need to move Danny out of there first.
Reminds me of when I worked in hospitals
At Amazon it was the back isles where they put the overflow pallet boxes.
At my current job as a park ranger it's nice to be able to cry in the woods.
My daughter went to school at a catholic school called Our Lady of Pompeii nearby in Greenwich Village. Many of the bodies were brought to the church in the immediate aftermath as they were recovered. My daughter attended this school during the 100th anniversary and the school was involved in ceremonies to commenorate the disaster.
FILL ME WITH FACTS, FACT BOI!!
This building is right by Washington Square park and NYU.
*He-man meme*
Safety costs money. Corporations, regardless of nation of origin, can't stand to lose money. Customers are easier to replace than majority stockholders.
There's 3 facts for you.
I can't tell If this is a threat or if your praising him as "fact boi"
Fact: your choice of words is unsettling. ;D
Could you talk about Zone Rouge in France, aka the remnants of WW1 battlefields so toxic life is virtually impossible in some sections. Sorta like the Chernobyl exclusion zone of France
Yes! That sounds interesting and important to know about.
Damn, never knew that about the former WW1 Battlefields.
Good one
Oh wow. I’d watch that video.
Simon: poor work conditions would never be accepted again
Apple: 拿著我的啤酒瓶子
It's a damn shame that human lives have to be sacrificed in order for laws to be made or for change to be made
Greed at its finest
Not being a dick, but how would they know what laws to make or change until something bad happens? That's like saying we should have known to prevent people with box cutters from getting onto planes before 9/11.
It's not a problem until it is.
@@lovelessissimo So the answer to everything is love less? Yeah, I can see how that's working for us.
No, not even remotely. You can plan ahead to prevent a disaster before it happens.
pfft with almost 8B of them human lives are cheap, plentiful, abundant, and disposable. Dunno why people keep talking like humans are an endangered or rare species or something when the opposite is the case and there's too many.
*Simon* "Living in the modern world we tend to take a lot of things for granted. One of those is that when we go to work we do so knowing we're not being deliberately being put in an unsafe environment by our employer."
*2013 Rana Plaza collapse* "Hold my non-alcoholic beer."
I'm so glad someone mentioned Rana Plaza. We lost over 1100 people that day, which is around 1/3 the number of people who died on 9/11, but I don't recall 1/3 the amount of outrage. People still consume fast fashion instead of thrift store finds.
Amazon employees: “Hold my pee bottle.”
I was in NYC a few years ago and stood outside that building for a while, reflecting. The whole block is just so...normal, just looking at the (rather beautiful)old factory building you'd never guess what happened inside it.
I'm guessing the proposed memorial hadn't erected at that time?
@@linda10989 Nah this was in like...2012?
@@Replicaate 1911, I think?
@@Replicaate Oops, my bad.
I did the same thing in 2016, had the same impression. It was a sunny summer day, and the only indication of the horror that happened there was a memorial plaque on the side of the building (is that the memorial talked about in the video? don't know). No ghosts, no sadness, just the knowledge I got from a book that something awful occurred at that spot...
Yes. There is a huge fuel load in a garment factory. After working for one, (and marrying the maintenance guy there) I'm less concerned about the fabric than I am the floor. Those old wood floors soaked in oil from the machines is the biggest problem after safe passage to exits.
Oil-soaked wood can burn a long time, but it's far less flammable than fabric dust. Fabric dust can flash-ignite, while oil-soaked wood needs to be held at ignition temperature for several minutes before it will sustain a fire.
@@deusexaethera true. The bottom line is safe egress.
Man Simon, as a cad tech, I spend a lot of time in front of a computer. Listening to your multiple channels makes my day go by quicker. Love your work and all the work behind the scenes your channel goes through.
Love all of it. Keep it up.
"Such abuses will never be tolerated again" *laughs in fast food and delivery worker*
Or any factory worker in Bangladesh.
America: We work with no AC
Israel: We have conscription
Mexico: We work in a drug war
Danny and Sam: You guys have laws?
Didn't Callum join them?
Your right, let's just say he's in a different basement then
Israel: We have *Apartheid
You guys have drugs?
"Working long shifts of sometimes 12 to 14 hours, rarely time to go to the bathroom. Foremen hounded the workers relentlessly, fining or firing any caught talking or making mistakes while assembling"
So......Today's Amazon then?
Yeah changed a lot in America hasn't it?
65 years old and I have never heard of this tragedy. This is a great episode in that such things should never be forgotten or, as in my case, never learned until now. Thank you, Mr. Whistler, for keeping the memory of those poor workers alive.
When I was high school history class we watched the film about this incident. I remember being really angry that some of my classmates were not taking the film seriously especially when they talked about the people that died. So, to make sure they never did it again I brought in Eyes on the Prize the Civil Rights documentary. We got to Emmett Till funeral and you could hear a pin drop since his mother decided to have a open casket. Never heard those classmates make fun of a historical event again. I just hope they learned some empathy as they got older. I just wanted them to know that these events hurt real people and could happen again if we don't take history seriously.
There is also a book about it called Ashes of Roses. Read in middle school
Businessmen even to this day care very little about their workers, they just want the money fast and in great quantity, spending only the minimum required to meet health & safety regulations... :(
This is why labor unions are needed in this city (country)
I have a bachelor's in business, literally the first thing they teach us is that the company's only obligation is to increase shareholder value.
@@hooper4581 not much better
@@hooper4581 Not just the US either - unions are being blocked, and health and safety are being undermined the world over to compete in a global economy where some countries can take advantage of their own lax safety laws. I mean it was only a few years ago that we heard of the disasters in india in garment factories there... which have conditions similar to the triangle fire.
I suppose you do not actually know or ever talked to any business owner, it is very ignorant of you to think that
"we go to work knowing we're not being put in harm's way" cue laughter from anyone who's worked in food production
For those of you with "basement jokes", those are OSHA approved shackles and an OSHA approved radiator that Danny's attached to.
I didn't know the OSHA lot had any jurisdiction in the Czech Republic....... :P
@@twocvbloke Nor Argentina🤷♀️ Now we know better I guess
They’re not shackles...they’re employee retention devices 😉
OSHA approved candles
The head of OSHA is ETA. So it's all good
Sam and Dannys chain is 2 links to short to reach the complaint box
"Cue the basement jokes"
Good to know you know your audience Simon
It’s not a crime if Danny never gets out
"The kinds of abuses towards workers a the Triangle Shirt Factory would never be tolerated in America again."
Well if you ignore the warehouse, meat packing, and restaurant industries, then your right.
That's exactly why those industries like to hire immigrant workers (illegal especially). They're often unaware of the law forbidding those unacceptable conditions and stay out of desperation/fear.
What scares me is how states are trying tonskirt around these regulations. I feel like we're coming back full circle and I don't like it.
Humanity will never cease to amaze me with our complete lack of reguard for human life
Let’s put it this way so it amazes you less bro. Imagine you have $100,000, and you can start a company that’s 100% safe for workers but it’ll cost all $100,000 or you can skip that and it’ll probably cost $70,000 and that’s $30,000 in the pocket brother. It’s not because a lack of regard for human life, it’s because of greed. It’s fucked up but it is what it isssss
Our complete lack of the regard for any form of life
@@arnouxkriel8258: Cats. Cats are nice.
@@arnouxkriel8258 see that’s better, now we’re getting it
Welcome to india
ahaha I love that he says 'cue the basement jokes" even though this is geographics not business blaze. Honestly Simon's personality has creeped into his more professional channels as buisness blaze has progressed and I really like it.
Yes it’s the best
I read somewhere that one of the owners lost relatives in the fire, and yet they still continued to ignore some safety regulations in their other buildings well after the fire. This makes absolutely no sense to me.
In the Seconds from Disaster series, the episode with the department store collapse in South Korea (caused by corruption, greed and a wildly unsafe building design) one of the survivors words at the end about advocating for building safety REALLY resonated with me- "If you're going to build a building, you should build it like it was for your own family."
Rewatching this after seeing the Bangladesh factory fire on the news today. Events at that fire are eerily similar to this.
This is discussed in business school. It's a great example of why deregulation is bad
That's a foolish blanket statement. Regulations are different, duh.
@@PrezVeto Wow!! Let's take a guess. You're against nationwide regulations 'cause, you're a republican🤔!!!
@@rogerrendzak8055 Can you read?
Wow when the fire escape stairs collapsed, it is evident how much neglegence there was in that entire company.
This is how labor unions became so important.
This story is a lesson all across the board and as someone in a union now, and who has worked in kitchens where, though no where near as abhorrant, the system of pushing and cutting costs via 'losing hour' and other methods to cut how much you pay workers are still pretty rampant, as are many of the same issues of lack of health and safety, though again no where near the disgusting rampant ways it was here, one of the key lessons. Your employer is NOT and NEVER will be your friend. Not now, not ever, they are not your friends. They are not your allies, they are not your kindred, or any of that tripe. Employee to employer will always be an adversarial relationship at worst and an unwelcome armistice at best. Such is the way of capitalism and corporatism.
This reminded me of the fire at the "Innovation" departement store in Brussel in 1967, a lot of people died due to negligent or laxism ,One of the biggest disasters in Belgian history. Perhaps a good idea for a video
Running a successful business _never ever_ requires actively endangering workers' lives. If owners resist sensible workplace safety measures (emphasis on sensible), it means they're _not confident_ in their earning potential. These owners get kicked around by flighty investors, and panic when the pressure's on.
This is not a product of any economic system. It's not a symptom of greed or excess. It's just meekness.
"Here's a major disaster that happened to a business. It killed dozens! Start your own with squarespace!" That's gotta be the most awkward sponsorship ever.
4:15 sounds like amazon today, its so great that we are getting back to our good old fashioned american roots!
IKR?
You should do a story on the Grenfell tower fire in London.
Was going to say this. And how despite much campaigning, council blocks still have flammable cladding on. Because their appearance to the gentrified is more important than the lives inside!
@@terryenby2304 Don't forget the new and improved asbestos free fire retardant on the beams of the World Trade Center.
@@terryenby2304 And how our tory government yet again has shot down a law to force the building owners / builders to change / remove the cladding instead of passing the cost onto the people who live there and are now living in tinderboxes.
My friend did a projection based memorial for the workers on the anniversary of the fire in 2017. And almost every year someone leaves flowers on the sidewalk. I haven't been frequently in the area since graduation so I'm not sure if they still do it.
(Also thought it might be interesting to note, the Brown Building houses the Chemistry department.)
The most terrifying part for me is that it all happened within ~30 minutes. All that death and destruction in half an hour.
If anyone’s interested in a fictional book about this, Hear My Sorrow from the Dear America series is a diary of a girl who worked in the industry. It’s a young adult book, quick read, but it shows the perspective of a young immigrant girl in those conditions.
I don’t know how Simon can handle Geographics, biographics, top ten, mega, side projects, and be Coyote from Brave Wilderness. Amazing.
That’s what the cocaine and “indentured” staff are for.
maybe you could talk about the radium girls on Biographics? another story about factory women and how they changed workplace laws
"...bribing police officers to beat them with nightsticks and arresting them when they fought back." Some things never change.
Who today bribes cops to do that?
@@PrezVeto they dont need to be bribed, it seems that they do it anyway
A wise man once said something along the lines of, "yea let's be capitalists, but let's not be dicks."
Can we put the fact boy in charge?
Nothing wrong with being a dick as long as you are not caught or at least not held responsible.
@Josey Bryant And our boi with his words spoke wisdom beyond his years. I have never understood if your rich, why would you chose to be a dick to the people who enabled you to attain your capitalist riches.
@@fvckyoutubescensorshipandt2718 y’know, generally speaking, in terms of business practices and management of employees, if you have to HIDE HOW YOU RUN YOUR BUSINESS, it’s probably because there is something inherently WRONG about it. If it wasn’t wrong, you wouldn’t have any reason to “not get caught”
@@WickedChild97 right and wrong are matters of opinion. If a business owner's opinion differs from that of his customers (or lawmakers) that alone is reason enough to hide it. And that's even before considering the legal reasons.
What basement? Danny is absolutely enjoying his living arrangements, Allegedly
An almost identical event happened in London in 1902 at the GEC factory. Thankfully the death toll was much lower but still very preventable
This was the event/story that first gave me a love of history! Thank you for covering it!
Today, two of my favorite channels (Geographics and Weird History) tell about fires, and there's more: today in Riga, the capital of my country Latvia, a deadly hostel fire took a place (8 persons dead). Just a coincidence?
Poor Danny can’t get his conditions changed in the basement as he can’t get out to complain 😱
I'm absolutely certain that if we knew the code and wrote down all the words Simon says from the script we could see his pleas for help. We just need to work out what the key to the code is.
@@itarry4 true! There must be a key to some of what Danny says. I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. Must watch closer., 🤔
I think at this point he's given up and just writes extremely long intros to wear Simon down until he can't take any more and let's them go out of sheer exhaustion. Allegedly.
@@PaulTheFox1988 poor Danny we’ve been so invested in the poor soul since business blaze started and now sam might be going the same way 😂
2:15 - Chapter 1 - The means of production
5:15 - Chapter 2 - The triangle
7:10 - Mid roll ads
8:30 - Chapter 3 - Burned to ashes
12:00 - Chapter 4 - Aftermath
13:20 - Chapter 5 - The reform movement
15:15 - Chapter 6 - Legacy
My grandmother’s aunt worked at the Triangle Shirt factory when it burned down. She happened to stay home that day to take care of her sick child. Saved her life.
Fires are always the worst disasters to here the details of. You either choke, burn, jump to end it all the more faster, or are simply crushed by the sheer mass of everyone trying to escape.
I’ve known about this for years. With the current tread of republican efforts to deregulate the market and kneecap safety organizations such as OSHA it is abundantly clear that the lesson has faded from our collective memory.
If you haven’t done do you should do a segment of the Our Lady of Angels school fire in 1950’s Chicago. About 90 elementary students were killed along with some adults. Unbelievable.
Had to watch this because it's one of the events we focused on briefly in my US History 2 course at my college right before the pandemic really took hold
A lot of this was admittedly just a refresher for me. One that I think is incredibly important.
When the most sophisticated fire fighting equipment is barely a step above a bucket chain, I’m shocked anyone survived.
There's a saying, "It always takes a tragedy to change the laws."
its of small comfort to those that realise the only thing they can offer to make a better world is their lives, in the hope someone might notice and finally pay attention. its easy to look back and condemn, but for many this is still true today.
And it's close cousin: "never waste a tragedy."
Sad but true.
And sometimes even that isn't enough to change laws.
Thanks for all the entertainment and information you give me. You look a little tired,I hope you're doing ok.
I have had a copy of this documentary made by PBS American Experience, for a few years now, the door was locked.
Too bad the owners were left with no repercussions whatsoever. I hope they died painfully...as bad as their workers did!
I wrote my thesis on this fire in my Fire Department Management class while getting my Fire Science and Engineering degree at West Virginia State University in 1983. My prof, Captain Jackson was very impressed.
Absolutely unbelievable!!
The 2013 Dhaka garment factory collapse in Bangladesh killed 1134 workers. Building owners were warned of structural cracks but ignored them. Attitudes toward workers don't change, they just move elsewhere.
Those poor people......
Someone send this to Jeff Bezos and tell him not to let history repeat itself.
Amazon overworks their employees to the point of exhaustion, and that is a problem, but it's also an order of magnitude better than what these women endured. No native-born American alive today can understand what sweatshop work is like.
Someone send this to the communist countries to improve their workplace!
Amazon treats their employees like children but it’s no dangerous or unsafe . Just annoying
I know it's a silly thing to be excited about but I recommended this and this just makes me all giddy.
Could you do a video on the Piper Alpha oil rig disaster?
This was Britain's equivalent of this situation and led to many of our workplace safety laws being re-written and more stringent standards being expected from employers.
It was the first case study I researched while I was training to be a health and safety advisor in construction.
This is why Simon is important to the education of many.
I just read an article about the collapse of Pueblo society that was really interesting. I don't think the subject on it's own is necessarily an entire video but I really enjoy hearing about civilization in America before Colonization so if there's something there for a video I'd absolutely watch it.
Love the channels, I appreciate how thorough your research is, and your transparency when differing theories exist.
Simon, you should do a video on the Rhoads Opera House fire too. It changed most of the fire safety laws in the U.S.
A few years ago I read David Von Drehle's book on this and highly recommend it.
I remember learning about this back in my high school American History class. It was such a tragic event that shouldn't have happened in the first place and like you stated near the beginning of the video, it was completely avoidable. Unfortunately back then if you didn't have the money people wouldn't listen to you.
That's great that you learned about this in your high school American History class. I was busy learning about how the virtuous settlers had to deal with the savages they encountered in their new land.
@@mariawesley7583 I really highly doubt you were taught that unless you're like 70 years old.
Lol. I'm in my 50's and unfortunately went to schools that had very out of date media. Every filmstrip I saw from 1976 - 1978 about space travel included talk about someday reaching the moon.
So many disasters have prompted change.
The Coconut Grove and Hartford circus fire are good examples.
Preventable disasters like this are reminders of why deregulation can be so bad.
My grandfather told me once that we lost a distant cousin in that fire.
they should make a movie on this from the Elevator Operators POV
The timing of this video is extremely appropriate... April 28 is Canada’s National Day of Mourning to remember who have suffered work-related disability, disease and death. The Canadian Labour Congress first declared the Day in 1984... more than 100 countries now observe the Day...
As a NY native and a garment seamstress by trade I think about this incident all the time
I'm a seamstress too. (Not in a factory, though I was trained in that method and I have a home-based business- though since I mostly make plush toys these days, I have a bit of an assembly-line going with multiple machines and tables and as much automated as I can. Call it a two-room factory plus storage unit, I guess. :P)
When I got sick of haggly customers wondering why I wasn't charging $5 for our work like it was made in China, I put up a statement and a sign- "This small business fully complies with health and safety laws, will never cut corners, and insists on paying living wages that skilled workers deserve. We will not allow the Triangle Shirtwaist fire to happen again just so you can save a few dollars."
since I was about 4 or 5 years old, I remember being in this factory, without ever having heard the story, I only learned about the story there for my 10 and 9 years old, and when I googled images, the factory was identical, I was VERY SCARED, I don't know if it's reincarnation, but anyway, I remember standing at the factory door and taking a deep breath, the factory on fire and a reporter outside, and she said like this: are you okay?
i took a deep breath and took 3 steps back, at that, the fire increased and i kinda died, i just remember waking up to this life at 3 years old, it's pretty crazy
I appreciate the new music in the background, it is a good addition to the videos.
The way this is written, you'd think workplace deaths and fires, never happened again. The sweatshop owners, slum lords and nightclub owners CONTINUE to get away with premeditated murder to this day.
Due diligence and duty of care remain easy to avoid through plausible deniability. How many property owners or business managers have been convicted of negligent manslaughter, AND served lengthy jail sentences for the same?
The developed world, happily trades with third world shit holes using sweat shop labor. Transnational companies who know better, refuse to obey the spirit of labor laws in the developed world.
Any person who owns a building regularly occupied by more than 50 people, that does not have an automatic sprinkler system, is guilty of owning a death trap. This was true LONG before the Triangle fire. Every structural engineer, architect and master builder knew this long before the Triangle fire. There is no excuse.
This dude is everywhere and I’m so here for it
Here we are in 2021 and so many of these labour gains have been rolled back. There are also lots of Triangle type factories in the developing world where the same (or even worse) conditions are the norm. It's just disgusting what people are able to do to others just so they can make their obscene profits.
This is why labor unions are a necessity
Unions have become just as corrupt as the businesses they are supposed to protect workers from.
@@JohnDoe-vn1we That shouldn't surprise. They are themselves businesses, except they don't even have to compete with one another.
Sounds like working at the warehouses of a certain online retailer.
You should look into the Bellingham Washington disaster. Very interesting. And the first time oil company employees went to jail for not ensuring a safe pipeline.
I swear about half of youtube is Simon now.
👍👍👍👍
Amazon is a modern day sweatshop.
Awesome! Literally just opened up the app!
Sadly a lot of the gains made after this have been lost, Unions are almost nonexistent, there are laws that are on the books called "right to work" laws that mostly are there to make Unions a thing of the past. The laws we do have in the US to stop union busting are never enforced anymore and in many cases where just removed when people didn't notice.
Isn't a "right to work" law just a law that makes joining a union voluntary?
@@chrisdugas1226 Its a way to strip money from unions and make it harder for them represent the workers if a company has a union in place or votes one in it can not be all or nothing. you still get the benefits of the union contracts often but don't have to pay the small amount of dues into the union to keep it running, and its now perceived that the dues are such a burden for workers taking money from pay checks.
What is sad is that due that come out are more than made up in what the union does for you, higher pay rates, a check on employers abuse, and floor safety.
Disasters like that continue to happen in the overseas factories where most clothing now sold in rich nations is made. The problem has simply been moved out of sight of consumers.
Simon, thanks again for a great program.
Reminds me of an Amazon fulfillment center.
Another reason why regulations are needed on companies, if not, well this happens.
Before the 1909 strike a lot of the sweatshops didn’t provide sewing machine to their workers, they had to bring their own to work every day and back then the machines were made entirely of metal.
Some sweatshops had women working from home but at lesser wages.
When I attended NYU during the 2000s, the Brown building was designated the chemistry building where fire alarms were activated more than in others.
As the "aftermath" heading came up, got a midroll ad! For the flame grilled burgers of hungry jacks
On Sept 3 in Hamlet NC a chicken processing plant caught fire. The windows of the single story plant were boarded up and all the exits locked to prevent theft. The plant had no fire alarms or sprinkler systems and had never been inspected. The result, 25 dead, 54 injured, many severely. We may learn but then we forget.
I'm glad you're talking about this.
Also if you could do a video on the Rana Plaza fire that would be awesome too.
This reminds me of all the stories on the Fascinating Horror channel. Once you find out how much blood those fire codes, occupancy codes, etc. were written in, Dear God do you have more respect for them.
and hopefully more anger when some corporation tries to take them away, *Cough* AMAZON *Cough*
@@Simon-hb9rf Indeed
and once union busting came back strong in the 80s and off shoring happened.... we moved NEARLY all of our garment manufacture over seas to poorer, browner, countries.
where people still burn alive in buildings that have the doors chained shut
...
we just dont usually have to look.
Cheap clothing costs blood.