Poll: Operation of fire curtain

[derekleffew]

From this thread, we've learned that The Life Safety Code, NFPA 101, 13.4.5.7.6.3. (G) states

Curtain Position. All proscenium curtains [fire curtains] shall be in the closed position, except during performances, rehearsals, or similar activities.

The poll is anonymous, so be honest.

edit: If you don't have a fire curtain, you needn't bother responding. You'll skew the poll.

[cdub260]

I voted other on this pole because my venue has no fire curtain. The stage building ends at the upstage side of the orchestra pit and the audience is outside.

[sk8rsdad]

Same reason as cdub260.

Our stage is classified as a "performance platform" so we do not have/need a fire curtain. The auditorium and stage are considered a single room. If we had a fly tower (aka chimney) it would be a different story.

[MNicolai]

What are we considering a proscenium curtain? Does that include only the fire curtain, or only the main curtain, or both? It would be both, I would assume...

[SteveB]

Our 2 Prosc. spaces have motorized fire curtains, with fused link activators, as well as "cut the rope with adjacent knife".

The motor system is in excess of 50 years old and we have been told that lowering/raising on a daily basis, which was the practice up to about 5 years ago, was inadvisable. Thus it's left up.

Steve Bailey
Brooklyn College

[derekleffew]

Originally Posted by SteveB

...as well as "cut the rope with adjacent knife." ...

Lemme guess--the knives are so rusty and dull that they wouldn't even cut soft butter, and you'd die in the fire while trying to saw though the 1/2" hemp line?

[RichMoore]

20+ years ago, when I worked as an installation rigger for theatrical equipment, I installed many fire curtains and I do not remember any of them having to come in and go out on a regular basis. They were rigged with fusable links and with a one pound lead ball secured with a half hitch around the operating lines and of course the obligatory "knife in a box" mounted on the wall.

I do remember hearing of the practice on Broadway of the fire curtain being lowered and raised before each performance, but not of them being down when the theatre is dark. Is that a new-ish regulation?

Rich

[Clifford]

The theater at our school has no fly system, so the fire curtain is a big installed thing of curtain. It will come down only when you pull a big red ring on the wall. The only time I've ever seen it down was when a freshman pulled the ring. It took six guys a day to raise and secure again. We're not allowed to touch those rings.

[Footer]

Most of the fire curtains I have seen in the last few years are the accordian type. When the ring/rope is pulled it drops a control line that starts spinning a fly wheel. The curtain drops in about 20 seconds or so to the deck. You then have to go up to the grid with a crank and crank the whole thing back up. I could not imagine having to do that daily.

For the house that the fire curtain (or fire wall as it usually is) is motorized, I still have never brought it in daily. Neither of my current spaces have one.

[dramatech]

Our fire curtain was installed in 1977 with no provision to lower and raise at will. When you cut the rope or the link breaks, it is a major effort to raise. It came down about three years ago during a hurricane. Water coming in through a leak in the roof set off the fire alarm and it broke the link.
I installed an ice skating rink on the stage of the "Deutsches Theatre" in Munich Germany about 5 years ago, and the regulations there required that the firecurtain, (a solid wall about 4 inches thick with lead covering on both sides) was to remain down at all times, unless there were two fire marshalls in uniform sitting in special seats just behind the proscenium with a viewing port for seeing the apron and the house. The only exception was for rehearsals with no more than 9 people in the house, and a certified stage hand watching the rehearsal from one of the fire marshalls seats. The certification process for the stage hand was intensive.
It was a very expensive production because of all of the rules and guild (union) requirements. The show was a classical Ice ballet version of Swan Lake, presented by the St Petersburg ballet on Ice from Russia.