146 garment workers died behind a locked door. That's why exits can't be locked today

Every "exit" sign, every door you can push open from the inside, every fire code that says a route out can't be blocked — a lot of it traces back to one afternoon in New York.

The fire

On March 25, 1911, at about 4:40 p.m., a fire started on the eighth floor of the Asch Building near Washington Square, home of the Triangle Waist Company. Most of the workers were young immigrant women who sewed blouses ("shirtwaists").

The fire spread through piles of fabric scraps. Within about three minutes, one of the stairways was unusable.

The locked door

On the ninth floor, the door to the Washington Place stairway was locked. Management locked it to stop theft and to check workers' bags on the way out. People trapped on that floor had almost nowhere to go.

The single fire escape twisted and collapsed from the heat and the weight, dropping about 20 people to their deaths. Firefighters' ladders only reached about the seventh floor. Crowds on the street watched people jump from the windows — 62 jumped or fell.

146 people died: 123 women and girls and 23 men.

The owners

The two owners were tried for manslaughter and acquitted. In the civil suits, they settled for about $75 per victim — and their insurance reportedly paid out more than their actual losses.

In 1913, one of the owners was arrested again, this time for locking a door in his factory during working hours. He was fined $20, the minimum possible.

What changed

The public outrage was enormous. New York created a Factory Investigating Commission, which recommended 64 new laws; 60 of them passed between 1911 and 1913, covering fire safety, exits, sprinklers, and working conditions.

One of the people who watched the fire from the street was a young reformer named Frances Perkins. She went on to become U.S. Secretary of Labor — the first woman ever in a presidential cabinet — and later said the New Deal began on March 25, 1911, the day the Triangle factory burned.

What this means for you

Federal workplace rules today say exit routes must stay unlocked from the inside and can't be blocked. If you see a chained, locked, or blocked exit at work, that's not a minor issue:

• Tell your manager, in writing if possible
• You can file a complaint with OSHA (osha.gov or 1-800-321-6742), including confidentially, and it's illegal for your employer to retaliate
• Know two ways out of anywhere you spend a lot of time — work, home, and anywhere you sleep

At home, the equivalent is working smoke alarms in the right places. Where they actually need to go.

Quick reference

• March 25, 1911: 146 workers died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire
• A locked door and a collapsing fire escape trapped many of them
• The owners were acquitted and paid about $75 per victim
• 60 of 64 recommended safety laws passed in New York within two years
• Today, workplace exits must stay unlocked from the inside — report blocked exits to OSHA