{"id":4514,"date":"2019-01-11T16:01:17","date_gmt":"2019-01-11T21:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/?p=4514"},"modified":"2019-01-11T16:01:17","modified_gmt":"2019-01-11T21:01:17","slug":"pemberton-mill-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/2019\/01\/11\/pemberton-mill-collapse\/","title":{"rendered":"Yesterday in Workplace Safety: Pemberton Mill Collapse"},"content":{"rendered":"

I somehow missed the Pemberton Mill disaster<\/a> that happened on January 10, 1860 when the\u00a0large, 5-story factory\u00a0in\u00a0Lawrence,\u00a0Massachusetts,\u00a0 collapsed without warning in what is likely “the worst\u00a0industrial accident\u00a0in Massachusetts history”\u00a0and “one of the worst industrial calamities in American history”.\u00a0An estimated 145 workers were killed and 166 injured. Most were recent\u00a0immigrants, either\u00a0Irish\u00a0or\u00a0Scots,\u00a0many of them young women.<\/p>\n

As the rescue efforts went into the night,\u00a0someone accidentally knocked over an\u00a0oil lantern, spreading flames across the cotton waste and splintered wood\u00a0\u2014 some of it soaked with oil — killing the survivors waiting to be rescued from the ruins.<\/sup><\/p>\n

The Boston Globe<\/i>\u00a0described the carnage more vividly:<\/p>\n

The scene after the fall was one of indescribable horror. Hundreds of men, women, and children were buried in the ruins. Some assured their friends that they were uninjured, but imprisoned by the timbers upon and about them. Others were dying and dead. Every nerve was strained to relieve the poor unfortunates, when, sad to relate, a lantern broke and set fire to the wreck. In a few moments the ruins were a sheet of flames. Fourteen are known to have been burned to death in the sight of their loved ones, who were powerless to aid them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, the disaster was not just unpreventable act of God. Extra\u00a0heavy machinery\u00a0had been crowded into the upper floors of the factory built with substandard construction methods: “The brick walls were improperly\u00a0mortared\u00a0and supported. The\u00a0iron pillars\u00a0supporting the floors were cheap and brittle but had been installed nonetheless.”\u00a0 And, as with many disasters, “the tragedy became a rallying point for efforts to improve\u00a0safety standards\u00a0in industrial workplaces.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday marked the 159th anniversary of the Pemberton Mill collapse that killed an estimated 145 workers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[169,239],"tags":[116],"class_list":["post-4514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-immigrants","category-this-day-in-history","tag-massachusetts"],"yoast_head":"\nYesterday in Workplace Safety: Pemberton Mill Collapse - Confined Space<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Yesterday marked the 159th anniversary of the Pemberton Mill collapse that killed an estimated 145 workers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/2019\/01\/11\/pemberton-mill-collapse\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Yesterday in Workplace Safety: Pemberton Mill Collapse - 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