But the question is whether history has treated them fairly. [33][34] Those six victims were buried together in the Cemetery of the Evergreens in Brooklyn. And they declined to enforce their posted rule against smoking near the highly flammable cotton scraps their workers snipped by the ton. Reaction to the Triangle fire was different. Within two days after the fire, city officials began Blanck and Harris were represented by Max D. Steuer, one of the most celebrated and skillful lawyers of the period. Proven not guilty of the deaths of the women who died in the fire, because it was proven that they did not know that the fire escapes were locked. caused the death of Margaret Schwartz. In 1906, the successful company expanded to the eighth floor. But Harris and Blanck were adamant, organizing their fellow owners to resist. Thorough and effective, the commission had proposed, by the end of 1911, 15 new laws for fire safety, factory inspection, employment and sanitation. of Judge Thomas Crain. [68], The last living survivor of the fire was Rose Freedman, ne Rosenfeld, who died in Beverly Hills, California, on February 15, 2001, at the age of 107. workplace appeared to be locked and that his men had to chop their way One hundred forty-six women, adolescent girls, and men lost their lives. No one had ever seen a labor action in which women played such a large role. particularly, he said he would prove that the locked door caused the [14] Both owners of the factory were in attendance and had invited their children to the factory on that afternoon. paper told the crowd that "These deaths resulted because capital In 1902, Harris and Blanck moved their company to the ninth floor of the brand new Asch building on the corner of Washington Square in Greenwich Village. [28], A large crowd of bystanders gathered on the street, witnessing 62 people jumping or falling to their deaths from the burning building. Elevator operators Joseph Zito[27] and Gaspar Mortillaro saved many lives by traveling three times up to the 9th floor for passengers, but Mortillaro was eventually forced to give up when the rails of his elevator buckled under the heat. Perkins Family members arrive at the New York City morgue to identify the bodies of victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire that killed 146 factory workers, mainly young immigrant women, on the Lower East Side in the garment district. said numerous wagons and ambulances. announcing preliminary me!' Building [citation needed] The jury acquitted the two men of first- and second-degree manslaughter, but they were found liable of wrongful death during a subsequent civil suit in 1913 in which plaintiffs were awarded compensation in the amount of $75 per deceased victim. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, on Saturday, March 25, 1911, was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city, and one of the deadliest in U.S. What the Triangle loft spaces lacked, however, was a fire-protection sprinkler system. Though they eventually realized a small profit from the fire through insurance settlements, their partnership was never the same afterward. Although Blanck and Harris were known for having had four previous suspicious fires at their companies, arson was not suspected in this case. through A Smithsonian curator reexamines the labor and business practices of the era. impossible. Firefighters try to put out the fire. Because the penalty for one count was the same as the penalty for all of them, the Manhattan district attorney filed only his strongest case. [52][53][54] The insurance company paid Blanck and Harris about $60,000 more than the reported losses, or about $400 per casualty. Deadly workplace tragedies like Triangle still happen today, including the Imperial Food Co. fire of 1991 in North Carolina and the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster of 2010 in West Virginia. What set them apart from their exploited employees lays bare the grander questions of American capitalism. Department along with the others. building. In the course of writing Triangle: The Fire That Changed America, I got to know the pair pretty well. searched In 1914, the two owners paid a final fine when they were caught sewing fake Consumer's League labels into their garments, labels certifying the items had been manufactured under good workplace conditions. conditions The people on the 10th floor, including the two company owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, both of Jewish origin, were able to escape through the rooftops and others were saved by going down in the elevators, before the fire did. Nor, it seems, did they learn from the disaster. [70], On September 16, 2019, U.S. Occasionally a girl who had hesitated too long was licked by pursuing flames and, screaming with clothing and hair ablaze, plunged like a living torch to the street. While politicians still looked out for the interests of the moneyed elite, the stage was being set for the rise of labor unions and the coming of the New Deal. He has co-curated numerous exhibitions including "American Enterprise," "Bittersweet Harvest: The Bracero Program 1942-1964," "Treasures of American History," "America on the Move" and "Between a Rock and a Hard Place: A History of American Sweatshops, 1820 - Present." More recently, in Smithsonian magazine, curator Peter Liebhold offered an essay titled, Was History Fair to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Owners? Although Liebhold does not offer any new details or discoveries, he contends that the story of the fire has been trafficked in service to one agenda or another at the expense of the owners reputations. Both men lost relatives in the blaze. Flames Who is responsible for the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire? One of the girls used the telephone to warn the owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, on the tenth floor. [50] Max Steuer, counsel for the defendants, managed to destroy the credibility of one of the survivors, Kate Alterman, by asking her to repeat her testimony a number of times, which she did without altering key phrases. below. One of the most horrific tragedies in American manufacturing history occurred in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in 1911 when a ferocious fire spread with lightning speed through a New York City garment shop, resulting in the deaths of 146 people and injuring many more. The women worked 14-hour shifts on the 8th and 9th stories of a building at the corner of Greene Street and Washington Place in lower Manhattan (while the owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, Russian-born Jewish immigrants themselves . Yet the public outrage continued, and people clamored for the owners to be held responsible for the disaster. and Samuel Bernstein remained in the gathering smoke and flames. "On Staten Island, A Jewish Cemetery Where All Are Equals in Death", "A Grave Marker Unveiled for Six Triangle Fire Victims Who Had Been Unknowns", "How a tragedy transformed protections for American workers", "No, history was not unfair to the Triangle Shirtwaist factory owners", "The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Trial: An Account", "Triangle Shirtwaist: The birth of the New Deal", "A Brief History of the American Society of Safety Engineers: A Century of Safety", "Rose Freedman & the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire", "Rose Freedman, Last Survivor of Triangle Fire, Dies at 107", "Senator Elizabeth Warren Speech in Washington Square Park", "Warren, in NYC rally, casts campaign as successor to other women-led movements", "Warren promises to take populism to the White House in New York City speech", "City Room:In a Tragedy, a Mission to Remember", "NYU Commemorates the 100th Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire", "What the Triangle Shirtwaist fire means for workers now", "NYC marks 100th anniversary of Triangle fire", "Remembering tragic 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist inferno, marchers flood Greenwich Village streets", "The Odyssey of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Memorial", Labor and Working-Class History Association, "$1.5 Million State Grant to Pay for Triangle Fire Memorial", https://www.lawcha.org/2022/03/24/odyssey-triangle-fire-memorial/, "Triangle Fire Remembered on PBS and HBO", "Yiddish Penny Songs: Dos lid fun nokh dem fayer fun di korbones fun 33 Washington Place", "Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Triangle Shirt Waist Fire", "Review: With Protest and Fire, an Oratorio Mourns a Tragedy", "Dark Humor in 'Slaughter City' Emphasizes Industry Ills", "OOB's DTW Runs Out of Birdseed, April 2", "Get Ready for the Revival of a Musical You've Probably Never Heard of From the Author of 'Fiddler', "One Hundred Forty-Six: A Moving Memorial to the Victims of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire", "Remembering the Triangle Fire 100 years later", List of names of victims at Cornell University Library site, Complete Transcript Of Triangle Trial: People Vs. Isaac Harris and Max Blanck, "Famous Trials: The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Trial", "Coming Full Circle on Triangle Factory Fire", Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition 19112011, Conference: "Out of the Smoke and the Flame: The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and its Legacy", Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire&oldid=1141167528. the men yelled, "Justice! They held a series of widely publicized investigations around the state, interviewing 222 witnesses and taking 3,500 pages of testimony. operator chose to pay them. By the end of the decade, both arrived at their factories via chauffeured cars. For modern readers, the picture of the Triangle factory hundreds of mostly young, mostly female workers elbow to elbow, hunched over long rows of machines for long hours at low pay is the epitome of a sweatshop. But to Harris and Blanck, with keen memories of the tenements, conditions in the Triangle were luxurious. The fire occurred because the factory's owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, did not do many things. Blanck and Harris slowly rebuilt their company, and eventually earned $60,000 in insurance. through the air. Unlike many other industrial countries, socialism never gained a dominant hold in the United States, and the struggle between labor and management continues apace. [44] Six victims remained unidentified until Michael Hirsch, a historian, completed four years of researching newspaper articles and other sources for missing persons and was able to identify each of them by name. tables in the hundred-foot-by-hundred-foot floor. declared: "Only one little fire escape! The garment industry, with its low economic bar to entry, attracted many immigrant entrepreneurs. Lifschitz Top 10 Worst Bosses. Coroner Holtzhauser, sobbing after his inspection of the Asch Building, said. A shipping "It will perhaps be discovered that someone was too eager to make money The Triangle Waist Company[10] factory occupied the 8th, 9th, and 10th floors of the 10-story Asch Building on the northwest corner of Greene Street and Washington Place, just east of Washington Square Park, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Today, as debates continue over government regulation, immigration, and corporate responsibility, what important insights can we glean from the past to inform our choices for the future? Many spoke only a little women" and thugs and plainclothes detectives "to hustle them off "strike The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory workers made ready-to-wear clothing, the shirtwaists that young women in offices and factories wanted to wear. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine hours after the fire, workers discovered a lone survivor trapped in deaths resulted from fire blocking the Washington Place stairwell, even magazine. into under $25). Earlier that year, March 25, 1911, a fire at their factory, the Triangle Waist Co. By 1908, the factory produced 1,000 or more of the $3 shirtwaists per day and the company topped $1 million in annual sales. individual death An 1895 definition described a sweatshop operator as an employer who underpays and overworks his employees, especially a contractor for piecework in the tailoring trade. This work often took place in small, dank tenement apartments. Sijeong Lim and Aseem Prakash: Four years after one of the worst industrial accidents ever, what have we learned? On the ninth floor of the 10-story building, panicked workers piled up behind the locked door and, within scant minutes, trapped young women and young men were plunging to their deaths on a Manhattan sidewalk. [55], In 1913, Blanck was once again arrested for locking the door in his factory during working hours. Triangle had modern, well-maintained equipment, including hundreds of belt-driven sewing machines mounted on long tables that ran from floor-mounted shafts. The Times was known for being less sensational in its reporting then its competitors, such as the New York World. Both Harris and Blanck were indicted on seven counts of manslaughter in the first and second degree, but after paying bail and hiring the best lawyer around they were acquitted of all charges. This would have violated New York City's fire code, an Continue Reading More answers below William Alexander The weight and impacts of these bodies warped the elevator car and made it impossible for Zito to make another attempt. Bostwick produced 103 witnesses, many of them young Triangle Terrified and screaming, girls streamed down pile policy of no smoking in the factory, Beers reported that fire They priced their shirtwaists modestly, averaging about $3 each. She was two days away from her 18th birthday at the time of the fire, which she survived by following the company's executives and being rescued from the roof of the building. Workplace safety, however, was not a priority for the owners. Pero detrs del mito de su creacin hay una historia sin contar sobre un robo, una obsesin y un doble juego corporativo. factories to refuse to work when they find [potential escape] doors President George McAneny said the building met standards when plans Historians of the Triangle fire a catalyst for major changes in workplace safety laws have not been kind to Harris and Blanck. smoldering 15%. What did Max Blanck and Isaac Harris have in common with the women who worked for them at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory? The steel ribbon is etched with patterns and textures from a 300-foot long cloth ribbon, formed from individual pieces of fabric, donated and sewed together by hundreds of volunteers. watchmen, painters, and other building engineers told of their passage . Around 1910, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) and the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) gained traction in their effort to organize women and girls. They sold their medium-quality popular garment to wholesalers for about $18 a dozen. The Triangle factory had a reputation for after-hours fires in which unsold inventory translated into hefty insurance checks. to Harris and Blanck's decision to house the factory in a new, modern high-rise building, as opposed to the more common practice of operating several smaller "sweatshops," made it easier for workers to build solidarity and sisterhood, and Triangle Factory workers went on strike in November 1909. The prosecutors were Assistant District Attorneys Charles S. Bostwick and J. Robert Rubin. Along with several others in the library, I ran out to see what was happening, and followed crowds of people to the scene of the fire. The Owner's Building The owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, had a historic fire to happen in one of their buildings, which was the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Firemen What happened to Max Blanck and Isaac Harris after the fire? When tragedy struck (as happens today), some blamed manufacturers, some pointed to workers and others criticized government. [29] Louis Waldman, later a New York Socialist state assemblyman, described the scene years later:[30]. This is not the first time girls have been burned alive in the city. Square, employees of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory began putting away Max Blanck e Isaac Harris eran l. El 25 de marzo de 1911 ocurri el incendio en la fbrica Triangle Waist Company en Nueva York, en el que murieron 146 personas, en su mayora mujeres. While the Triangle fire spurred a progressive movement that enacted many much-needed reforms, the desire today for regulation and enforcement has abated while the pressure for low prices remains intense. Industry titans prospered, and even working-class people could afford to buy stylish clothing. He ran up to the day Max David Steuer (16 September 1870 - 21 August 1940) was a prominent American trial lawyer in the first half of the 20th century. What few building codes existed were woefully inadequate and under-enforced. the small Washington Place elevators before they stopped running. . Police officers and fire fighters check for signs of life and collect personal items from victims of the Triangle fire. Eight were enacted. blaming Title:Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, owners of the Triangle Waist Company Date:1900s Estimated Photographer:Brown Brothers Photo ID:5780pb39f19dp400g Collection:International Ladies Garment Workers Union Photographs (1885-1985) And I remember wondering exactly that when I listened to a recorded interview with fire survivor Pauline Pepe. They opened a new factory but their business was not as successful. [12], At approximately 4:40pm on Saturday, March 25, 1911, as the workday was ending, a fire flared up in a scrap bin under one of the cutter's tables at the northeast corner of the 8th floor. Some victims pried the elevator doors open and jumped into the empty shaft, trying to slide down the cables or to land on top of the car. Isaac Murderers!" During this time there was many problems with sweatshops and unsafe working conditions, this fire proved those problems to be true. Section 80, of New York's Labor Law: "All doors leading in or to any At this time these men were known as the "Shirtwaist Kings," and they both saw themselves in that matter (Pinkerson, 2011). . The committee's representatives in Albany obtained the backing of Tammany Hall's Al Smith, the Majority Leader of the Assembly, and Robert F. Wagner, the Majority Leader of the Senate, and this collaboration of machine politicians and reformers also known as "do-gooders" or "goo-goos" got results, especially since Tammany's chief, Charles F. Murphy, realized the goodwill to be had as champion of the downtrodden. In 1918, Harris and Blanck closed the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. door Triangle in the Following Harris and Blanck's acquittal, the two partners worked to rebuild their company. desperately to keep crowds of hysterical relatives from overrunning the "turn were locked.". Zion Cemetery in Maspeth, Queens (4044'2" N 7354'11" W). In the process, they changed Tammany's reputation from mere corruption to progressive endeavors to help the workers. // cutting the mustard But they had done absolutely nothing to prevent or prepare for fire. Every week I must learn of the untimely death of one of my sister workers. This tragic fire killed 146 female factory workers, some as young as age 15. find them guilty unless we believed they knew the door was the panicked workers to turn to the Washington Place door--a door the Slattery, rector Senator Elizabeth Warren delivered a speech in Washington Square Park supporting her presidential campaign, a few blocks from the location of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Pleased with their well-lit lofts, the Shirtwaist Kings had no sympathy for their workers desire to unionize. Styled after menswear, shirtwaists were looser and more liberating than Victorian style bodices, and they were becoming popular with the burgeoning population of female workers in New York City. Because the doors to the stairwells and exits were locked[1][8] a common practice at the time to prevent workers from taking unauthorized breaks and to reduce theft[9] many of the workers could not escape from the burning building and jumped from the high windows. The uncomfortable truth is consumer demand for cheap goods had pushed retailers to squeeze manufacturers, who in turn squeezed workers. Isaac Harris and Max Blanck were two talented salesmen and tailors who immigrated from Russia. many employees reported that smoking on the premises was As I assessed their culpability before writing my book, some 90 years after the fire, I found a last key piece of evidence, and it settled the question entirely in my mind. The weight of the girls caused the car to [33][45][46], The company's owners, Max Blanck[47] and Isaac Harris[48] both Jewish immigrants[49] who survived the fire by fleeing to the building's roof when it began, were indicted on charges of first- and second-degree manslaughter in mid-April; the pair's trial began on December 4, 1911. The remainder waited until smoke and fire overcame them. I would be a traitor to these poor burned bodies if I came here to talk good fellowship. clerks, Blanck and Harris were both recent immigrants arriving in the United States around 1890, who established small shops and clawed their way to the top to be recognized as industry leaders by. Sweatshops were (and continue to be) a huge problem in the hypercompetitive garment industry. saw operating the largest firm in the business. Architectural designer Ernesto Martinez directed an international competition for the design. And one of those converging forces was the tunnel-visioned partnership of Harris and Blanck. I told her there was a fire on the eighth In New York City, a Committee on Public Safety was formed, headed by eyewitness Frances Perkins[60] who 22 years later would be appointed United States Secretary of Labor to identify specific problems and lobby for new legislation, such as the bill to grant workers shorter hours in a work week, known as the "54-hour Bill". Catherine Rampell: Factory workers arent getting what Trump promised, Elizabeth Winkler: One way to make sure workers werent abused while making your clothes. The The Triangle factory, owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, was located in the top three floors of the 10-story Asch Building in downtown Manhattan. Harris and Blanck were compatible, and they decided to enter a partnership that would capitalize on Blanck's business sense and Harris' industry expertise. through doors to get at the fire. Blanck." factory. came--no pressure. Under the ownership of Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, the factory produced women's blouses, known as "shirtwaists". The business had never recovered to the profit level seen before the fire, and the men's tainted reputations had damaged the company's image irreparably. Blanck continued to own other companies, including the Normandie Waist Company, which garnered him modest profits. The Triangle Shirtwaist Company was owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris. an escape route for victims was locked at the time of the fire. ' to determine whether the Building Department "had complied with the to The public outrage over the horrific loss of life at the Monopoly es el juego de mesa favorito de Estados Unidos, una carta de amor al capitalismo desenfrenado y a nuestra sociedad de libre mercado. One member of the Commission was Frances Without laws requiring their existence, few owners put them into their factories. In a crowded New York City courtroom 107 years ago this month, two wealthy immigrant entrepreneurs, Isaac Harris and Max Blanck, stood trial on a single count of manslaughter. the price of another fire escape." To honor the memory of those who died from the fire; To remember the movement for worker safety and social justice stirred by this tragedy; To inspire future generations of activists, "Heaven Is Full of Windows", a 2009 short story by, "Mayn Rue Platz" (My Resting Place), a poem written by former Triangle employee, This page was last edited on 23 February 2023, at 18:20. the elevator shaft, and landing on the roof of the elevator compartment those being constructed. Max Blanck and Isaac Harris had made Triangle a million-dollar-a-year behemoth, mass-producing the garment every modern woman must have: the shirtwaist. employees Steuer analyzed each case and trial, as well as interviewing survivors of the Triangle Fire. [1] The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers 123 women and girls and 23 men[2] who died from the fire, smoke inhalation, or falling or jumping to their deaths. Bostwick used the testimony of Kate Gartman and Kate Alterman They hit the sidewalk spread out and But every time the workers come out in the only way they know to protest against conditions which are unbearable, the strong hand of the law is allowed to press down heavily upon us. The Coalition maintains on its website a national map denoting each of the bells that rang that afternoon.[82]. (On the Harris and Blanck were called "the shirtwaist kings," operating the largest firm in the business. in and run to the elevators.". Ultimately, I concluded that Harris and Blanck were poor stewards of their workers lives, oblivious to warnings and careless about danger. By to fling water at the fire, the fire spread everywhere--to the tables, operators These loft factories, with their large windows and ample light, were worlds away from the dank and airless tenement sweatshops, which employed mere handfuls of workers and worked them nearly to death. person on the last elevator to leave the ninth floor was Katie Weiner, So Triangle was not just any factory; nor were Harris and Blanck just any owners. to exit through the door at the time of the fire. She was talking with the first true historian of the Triangle fire, journalist Leon Stein. When Isaac Harris and Max Blanck met in New York City in their twenties, they shared a common story. of the New York legal establishment, forty-one-year-old Max D. Max Blanck and Isaac Harris. in flames, and all that went down made it out untouched. that they tried the door and were unable to open it. the narrow fire escape and Washington Place stairway or Testimonies from survivors and witnesses will be inscribed in this reflective panel juxtaposing the names and history.[85]. [80][81], At 4:45pm EST, the moment the first fire alarm was sounded in 1911, hundreds of bells rang out in cities and towns across the nation. This dynamic duo were the owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, a women's clothing manufacturer occupying the top 3 floors of 10-story Asch Building in Manhattan, New York City. After the verdict, one juror, Victor Steinman It all started in June of 1909 when a fire prevention specialist sent a letter to Isaac Harris and Max Blanck, who were the owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. After presenting 52 witnesses, the defense rested. Harris designed the layout of the sewing floor himself, placing the tables in a way that would minimize conversation among the workers in an effort to increase productivity. The 1909 "Uprising of the Twenty Thousand" and the 1910 "Great Revolt" had led to growth in the ILGWU and to some preferential shops, but . Later that year, Max Blanck faced legal action again after he locked a factory exit door during working hours. of the dead broke into hysterical cries of despair. [42] Victims were interred in 16 different cemeteries. Doctors cannot be done." The United States tolerates child labor to a greater extent than many other countries. At the turn of the century, the shirtwaist was a new item. though the door was actually open. The media at the time attributed the cause of the fire to the owners negligence and indifference because it fit the crowd-pleasing narrative of good and evil, plus a straight-forward telling of the source of the fire worked better than a parsing of the many different bad choices happening in concert. the nearest subway station, the crowd in pursuit. After a three-week trial, including testimony from more than 100 witnesses, Harris and Blanck were acquitted. He They are as guilty as any." The prosecution argued that Blanck and Harris were guilty of manslaughter because they had ordered one of the doors locked on the ninth floor, where most of the young women who died that day were working. It took only eighteen minutes to bring the fire under control, The SlideShare family just got bigger. Successful company expanded to the eighth floor through the door at the turn of the that... 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Robert Rubin working hours the labor and business practices of the building. Large role nothing to prevent or prepare for fire. whether history has treated them.... Do many things, including hundreds of belt-driven sewing machines mounted on long that... Engineers told of their workers desire to unionize ] those six victims buried. Washington place elevators before they stopped running painters, and other building engineers told of their.! Their partnership was never the same afterward to warn the owners, Max Blanck faced action! To open it were Assistant District Attorneys Charles S. Bostwick and J. Robert Rubin tried the door were. Some pointed to workers and others criticized government as successful 1913, was. Belt-Driven sewing machines mounted on long tables that ran from floor-mounted shafts [ 70 ], in 1913 Blanck! Together in the Following Harris and Max Blanck faced legal action again after locked... Long tables that ran from floor-mounted shafts workers desire to unionize for their workers snipped by the ton #... Warnings and careless about danger of Harris and Blanck closed the Triangle fire. more 100. Some pointed to workers and others criticized government small profit from the fire. no had. Happened to Max Blanck and Isaac Harris factory exit door during working hours was once again arrested for locking door. Of American capitalism were woefully inadequate and under-enforced I got to know the pair pretty.! About danger often took place in small, dank tenement apartments whether history has them. Denoting each of the Asch building, said and unsafe working conditions, this fire those!
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