The Grover Shoe Factory disaster was an industrial explosion, building collapse and fire that killed 58 people and injured 150 when it leveled the R. B. Grover shoe factory in Brockton, Massachusetts on March 20, 1905. Following a boiler explosion, the four-story wooden building collapsed and the ruins burst into flames, incinerating workers trapped in the wreckage.
The Grover disaster brought new attention to industrial safety and led to stringent safety laws and a national code governing the safe operation of steam boilers.
Read more about Grover Shoe Factory Disaster: The Factory, Explosion, Collapse and Fire, Financial Assistance, Failure Theories, Inquest, Bankruptcy, Legacy, See Also
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—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“I cannot believe that our factory system is the best mode by which men may get clothing. The condition of the operatives is becoming every day more like that of the English; and it cannot be wondered at, since, as far as I have heard or observed, the principal object is, not that mankind may be well and honestly clad, but, unquestionably, that the corporations may be enriched.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“From disaster good fortune comes, and in good fortune lurks disaster.”
—Chinese proverb.