Privatize Fire Departments. The Triangle Shirtwaist fire proves it.

Rex Curry

The Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire of 1911 is often misused as a example of the need for child labor laws and safety codes. It is actually a warning to employers and employees to beware of the misdeeds and negligence of other employees. It is also shows the need for private fire departments instead of government-run fire departments.

The workers were 17, 18, and 19 years old or older. So workers were not children, would not be controlled by present child labor laws and thus the incident provides no support for child labor laws.

Though there are persistent myths that doors were locked and fire escapes were faulty, the owner of the building and the proprietors of the Triangle Co. were exonerated by a judge, and an insurance company gave the men $64,925 for property damage.

In comparison, the government-operated fire department was slow to arrive, it's ladders could not reach beyond the 6th floor, to the fire that was raging on the 9th floor. The building was 12 floors high, and NYC at that time had buildings 50 stories high.

There was one door locked, though there were multiple exits that were used by many to escape, including stairs, a fire escape and two elevators that were used heroically by the operators.

The fire started on the 8th floor, and everyone on that floor escaped. Most people on the 10th floor escaped. The 9th floor suffered the greatest loss of life where 100 of 250 people still escaped. There were about 500 people in the building, 350 escaped and about 150 died. The fire did not burn downward and the building is still standing to this day.

What is telling about the persistent myths is how they lay blame upon the workers. One popular claim is that remote doors were locked because workers would use them for stealing or use them for unauthorized breaks for smoking cigarettes (thereby goldbricking and also breaking factory rules against smoking). Not only does this persistent myth lay blame upon the workers for creating the reason for the alleged locking of the doors, it also suggests the source of the fire: unauthorized and negligent smoking by employees.

The popular use of the Shirtwaist story is misplaced, and the fire is a warning to employers and employees to beware of the misdeeds and negligence of other employees. The Shirtwaist fire shows the need for private fire departments instead of government-run fire departments.

Socialists deliberately lied about the Triangle Shirtwaist fire in order to blame capitalism and to cover-up for the usual failures of socialism.

In a market system with private fire departments, there is a more direct incentive for the users of the fire prevention service to make sure that the department is properly equipped to address their particular building's needs, or for customers to provide for their own safety and fire equipment.

And, of course, thanks to capitalism, and the incompetence of government, there is a strong incentive to create ways of avoiding dependence on government fire departments. Sprinkler systems, cheap and widely distributed smoke detectors, and appliances that do not rely on actual flames to operate as they did in the past (stoves, now cooking with microwaves), materials that are flame retardant, etc.

The book "Triangle: The Fire That Changed America" by David Von Drehle busts a lot of myths. The book explains that Triangle was not a sweatshop. The fire was not arson by the owners.

Most references to the fire lack detail. Most references to the fire are simply vague anecdotal references in left-wing writings that use the fire as a call for more government regulation. Von Drehle's book is full of detail.

Another interesting bit from Drehle: Fiorello La Guardia was a socialist before he became a republican.

Von Drehle has also drawn comparisons to the World Trade Towers on 9-11-2001, including people leaping to their deaths. And what about the much vaunted government regulations imposed after shirtwaist? The Trade Towers collapsed completely, whereas the Shirtwaist building still stands in NYC today. Government fire departments didn't have ladders to reach the Shirtwaist fire, and they didn't have ladders to reach the Trade Tower fire.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Company owners suffered greatly, but the government fire department didn't. It is fortunate that the Shirtwaist company was not operated by the government, or the loss of life would have been even greater.

All of the fire safety for buildings like the Trade Towers comes from capitalism and its technology, not from government. Government angers foreigners into flying private planes into private businesses, and then government security fails to prevent it from happening.

Von Drehle says that the Shirtwaist fire might have been extinguished but for a problem with a water hose for fires that did not function. It was probably from a government water system that failed.

The Triangle Shirtwaist fire points out the absurd myth of safety from government regulations, including those that were imposed after the fire, and it shows that safety comes from capitalism and its technology.

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Rex Curry is published worldwide as a libertarian and a lawyer with a degree in journalism. http://RexCurry.net is the only site on the internet that collects and displays historic photographs of the original Pledge of Allegiance. Rex collects historic photos that show how socialism has harmed the U.S., and his hobby is also photography and graphic art, displayed on the website. His predecessors helped settle Key West back when Florida's government was virtually non-existent. The Curry Mansion (historic home of Florida's first capitalist millionaire) is still on the local tour.

Rexy@ij.net