Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
Disaster: Factory catches fire trapping workers. (Pre-image of 9/11.)
Date: March 25,1911
Deaths: 145
Lesson Learned: 1. Owners must take responsibility for their workers.
2. All buildings have to meet fire regulations.
Interesting Fact: "Within 18 minutes, 145 lay dead" (History.com)
In the early 20th century in New York City, rights for workers were very few. Many factory employees were young women and children working long hours in bad conditions and with little pay. History Channel claims that each worker would receive $15 per week after working 12 hours everyday. Due to the bad conditions many people (especially women) protested for workers rights. In order to prevent protests managers locked doors at work. Including the Triangle Factory.
On a Saturday afternoon just before the work day was over, a cigarette or pipe was tossed in a rag bin catching fire. A manager, notified by one of the 600 workers, threw a pail of water over the bin, but the fire had already gotten out of control. Panicked workers (on the eighth floor) ran for the exits leaving the building. A lady on the eighth floor called up to the tenth floor yelling "Fire! Fire!" The operator quickly went to notify the tenth floor never giving the news to the ninth floor.
Exits were limited with doors either locked or impassable, a fire escape and one operational elevator. Some women took the fire escape which collapsed under their weight killing a dozen women. Others went down a staircase that proved to be impassable trapping them. All 49 women in the stair case were buried alive. Not long after, the fire reached the elevator (on the fourth trip) closing the last possibility for escape. Women started jumping when then knew their sentence was death. Three people at a time jumped from the ninth floor making a big thud sound as they hit the ground. They were killed instantly.
The whole event took less than one hour.
The owner Max Blanck was questioned and ordered to spend five days in the slammer or pay $20. The article 100 Years Ago: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire describes Blanck's reaction. “He smiled, pulled out a ‘roll’ of money as thick as his arm, peeled off a $20 bill and walked off.”
History.com sums up the whole disaster in the following sentence "The tragedy brought widespread attention to the dangerous sweatshop conditions of factories, and led to the development of a series of laws and regulations that better protected the safety of workers."
Pre-Image of 9/11
The reason why this fire was a pre-image of 9/11 is because many workers on high floors were trapped as the fire spread throughout the building. Firefighter ladders could not reach the floor and finally people started jumping as their last option. This event also occurred in New York City. Due to the disaster being on a Saturday afternoon people were out strolling enjoying the outdoors when they witnessed the horror.
Info from:
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/triangle-shirtwaist-fire-in-new-york-city
http://www.history.com/news/2011/03/24/100-years-ago-the-triangle-shirtwaist-fire/
Monday, March 19, 2012
Tri-State Tornado
Date: March 18, 1925
Deaths: 695Injured: 13,000
Damage Cost: $17 Million
Facts:
Tri-State Tornado is the worst tornado in the U.S.
The town of Griffin, Indiana was wiped out.
Tornado was a mile wide.
Tornado was a mile wide.
Around 1p.m. outside of Ellington, Missouri an F5 tornado (the worst on tornado scale) rips through southeast Missouri, southern Illinois and southwest Indiana. Recorded as the deadliest tornado in U.S. history the Tri-State Tornado is also the longest tornado track with 219 miles(NOAA.) The huge tornado was on the ground for three hours with winds faster than 70mph, taring up towns, injuring and killing people. In roughly 40 minutes 541 people were killed and 1,423 injured in Illinois.
Due to radar and satellite imagery not being invented residents received little if any warning of the disastrous storm heading towards them. In fact "Tornado Watch" and "Tornado Warning" were never heard of. NOAA claims that "even if a watch/warning program were in place, the message would have never been disseminated in such a fashion to give people the necessary lead time to seek shelter."
Quotes from NOAA:
"The handful of unscathed citizens from Griffen and surroundings districts were confronted with destruction so complete that some could only guess where they had once lived."
-Mr. Felknor
Griffin, Indiana
"Then the air was filled with 10,000 things. Boards, poles, cans, garments, stoves, whole sides of the little frames houses, in some cases the houses themselves, were picked up and smashed to earth. And living beings, too. A baby was blown from its mother's arms. A cow, picked up by the wind, was hurled into the village restaurant."
- St. Louis Post-Dispatch Newspaper
March 20, 1925
Griffin, Indiana
"Then the air was filled with 10,000 things. Boards, poles, cans, garments, stoves, whole sides of the little frames houses, in some cases the houses themselves, were picked up and smashed to earth. And living beings, too. A baby was blown from its mother's arms. A cow, picked up by the wind, was hurled into the village restaurant."
- St. Louis Post-Dispatch Newspaper
March 20, 1925
Info from:
Photo from:
Monday, March 12, 2012
Indian Ocean Tsunami
Date: Dec. 26, 2004
Deaths: At least 225,000
Countries affected: 12
Countries most damaged: Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Maldives, and Thailand
Just before 8am local time, a 9.0 earthquake rumbled the Indian Ocean. In 8 hours, wave after wave of tsunamis hit the South and Southeast parts of Asia. People ran for their lives as the Indian Ocean rushed in.
With large numbers of reported deaths History Channel claims that at least 225,000 were killed. As populated as Asia is, not all of them were resident's. Included in the death numbers are tourists from around the world.
Photos from:
http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack_files/03files/Endangered_Earth_Subduction_Zone_01.html
Monday, March 5, 2012
The Courrieres' Mine Disaster
Date: March 10, 1906
Deaths: 1,060
Injuries: Over 1,000
Location: Courrieres, France
Lesson: This disaster is a reminder that mining is dangerous. So many people have either died or suffered from diseases caused by toxic gas or burns from fires while mining.
Interesting Fact: The mine explosion in France on March 10, 1906 is the worst mining disaster in Europe's history.
On the afternoon of March 9 a fire started in one of the "complex series of mines"(history.com) in Courrieres, France. Coal, dug up by men and boys, was mostly used for the manufacture of gas. History Channel goes on to say that the miners chose to close openings near the fire in order to reduce oxygen eventually killing the fire. What the miners were not aware of was that flammable gas found it's way in through fissures. Since there were so many other mines men went back to work the next day.
At 7 am on March 10, a spark triggered by the gas caused a huge explosion. Fire came shooting out all exits killing some people outside the mines. Even a roof of a mine office building was "blasted" off. As desperate as people needed help rescuers could not enter the mine due to the fire still burning and tunnels no longer stable. Even thou it was dangerous to enter a group of 40 men risked their lives in order to save others. All 40 men of the rescue group died when the tunnel the were traveling in collapsed.
In the end over a 1,000 people were killed. An even greater number were injured. Many of those victims suffered from major burns. History.com claims that there was so much "chaos" outside the mine that French soldiers had to step in for help. It wouldn't be until weeks later that all the bodies were found and identified.
Friday, March 2, 2012
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