At around closing time 100 years ago on March 25, 1911, a fire broke out on the eighth floor of the Asch Building in New York City.
It was the start of what would be known as the deadliest workplace disaster in the city until the attack on the World Trade Center. Due to the fire and the horrific manner in which it took the lives of 146 people, a new kind of insurance was born in New York, and building safety standards were instituted—standards insurers still verify when underwriting a commercial property policy today.
Unlike insurers in 1911, insurers today focus on life-safety and fire-prevention maintenance, says Mike Barry, spokesman for the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.). Insurers in 1911 focused on selling more and larger policies, not risk reduction.
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