Fire Marshall

[saxman0317]

Im speaking from both a techie and a fire fighters sides here. Number one, alot of those rules are completly insane, and ill be the first to admit to it. Along with OSHA stuff and Workers Comp board, and everyone else. Alot of those things are there because someone screwed up and loooked for someone to blame. But on the other side of it, theres good reasons. Theres been firemen killed because a fire extingushier wasnt where it was supposed to be or he couldnt get a hose line out. Even something as small as a wedge is a pain... A closed door will stopa fire in its tracks. The best prtection for first responders is to not even go dont forget, and sprinklers are very sensitive, and hanging things can detroy them so they dont work properly. But like i said, alot of the things are just stupid for the sake of look, i did something stupid like putting a blow torch to my boot to see if would melt and set the stage on fire and now a torch has to be lit 50.253 feet from any flammable surface..(dont know if its true, but heck, it fits) type deal.. Dont be stupid, and remember its not only your butts your saving, but the people saving your butts..

 

[Logos]

I have had a couple of interesting situations. I was almost closed once because I didn't have what used to be called a fire hook. It was a very long pole with a sharp curved blade on the end to cut down burning scenery. These blades were heavy enough and sharp enough to cut fly ropes with a single cut from the gallery. I didn't have a fly tower. I had three sets of lines to put backdrops on that topped out just short of the ceiling and were operated solely as hand lines from floor level. I certainly wasn't going to cut something down on my own head. It was apparently in an old handbook he had and it was his first theatre inspection. My favourite story however may well be just a legend. Apparently an open air theatre was once refused permission to use smoke machines or pyro's because it was not fitted with the approved exhaust fans. Apparently the one God built is not good enough.

 

[Chris15]

I wish that I were, they actually moved some of their stuff around and one is not blocked anymore, but the other one is.

When I made that comment, I was referring to my school...

 

[What Rigger?]

Hanging a disco ball on a fire sprinkler head? Food storage on/near fire hoses? Oh man, your venue deserved every one of the violations you got. Wow.

 

[chieftfac]

Here's a good one... Did you know, according to the Fire codes in the state of North Carolina, it is a violation to go completly dark during blackouts. Even with four exit lights in the house, I still have to leave the house lights at 20%. (we don't have isle lights and we only seat 335) The local theater group still doesn't understand that one. One of the few times I've had to say "That's the rules of this theater, don't like it, don't rent the hall"

 

[ricc0luke]

Speaking of blackouts, what precautions do you take reguarding power outages?

I have only even been in the theatre once during an outage- and it was a rehearsal during the afternoon when there was still light outside. The theatre has a few emergency lights scattered, dieing out in about an hour. Some faster, some slower. There's a set in the shop, the backstage hall, on a dim set on SL, one in the house and one in the lobby. I'm not sure there are any upstairs at the theatre, I consider it was a good thing no one was up there as I know the stairs (which have other issues making them very dangerous- and they do have a track record) are not lit.

But the stage was almost completely black, backstage with the exception of SL was completely black. The restrooms in the lobby, the dressingrooms, the green room- all completely black.

This was the community theatre, -I know the high school has an old battery backup for the egress lighting, but believe it no longer holds a charge.

I also know that in the past flashlights are not standard... I am often the only one with one. There is too much reliance on the running lights.

What precautions do you take if any for power outages? Rehearsal and performance.

 

[Foxinabox10]

We actually had a power outage during a performance about 5 minutes before intermission. We finished out the act and took about a 45 minute intermission until it came back on. It turns out that there was a car crash right outside the school.

We relied solely on the emergency lighting system that runs for the entire school. That consists of 6 recessed can lights in the house (which seats almost 700) and a few flourescents on stage and in the wings. It worked out fine for us.

 

[soundlight]

We actually had a power outage a few hours before a show - we completely freaked out. There was a huge storm outside, and we were hoping that the power wouldn't be out for long. It wasn't, but it was out to the whole campus of Bucknell for about 20 or 30 minutes.

So, before the show that night, we double-checked disks, computers, the light board, dimmers, all of that stuff. When we checked the dimmers, we realized that the power was now 57 hertz. The computer power supply for the computer that was running SFX was one of the power supplies that has a switch in the back for 50 or 60 hertz (doesn't operate between the two), and it wasn't happy.

But the contingency plan for the power going out is to end the scene and have an intermission. We've got enough house and overhead lights that are on the backup generator to do that. But if the power fails during a dance concert, well, that's just that...show stops. No sound, no lighting, just house and overhead lights.