Fire procedure

[dvlasak]

Another resource is Doom's new book.
Practical Health and Safety Guidelines
for School Theater Operations Assessing the Risks in Middle, Junior and Senior High School Theater Buildings and Programs

I believe that everyone should have a copy on their shelves. It is a great resource on the topic of theare safety for all spaces - NOT JUST SCHOOLS!!

Find info on it at www.riskit.com or www.theaterhealthandsafetybook.com

Dennis

 

[Edrick]

this reminds me of the only actual training the school system got on our theater. we were going over the fire relay shutoff, because of things exactly like this. he said people have waited for instructions by the theater and don't do anything until they get instructions even if the alarm goes off in some cases.

in the event of a fire on stage and the release of the fire curtain which does not have a break on it and is unbalanced to a degree that it comes down within the code requirement but not too fast,

a) manual release via trigger on both sides of stage will set off a fire alarm by releasing a metal plate over a sensor unit up on the wall
b) release by thermal coupling, again setting off fire alarm.

and this last one i'm not 100% sure on but
c) i think they said in the event of an alarm being pulled in that zone it wll release the curtain. (just remebered we did get trained on the curtain system by B&E.

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in the event of any methods of the fire alarm going off the system goes into panic mode and shuts down by the relay in the back / front rack thus we are not allowed to make any announcements, evacuate period.

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in the event of a fire the lighting system goes into panic mode bringing the lights back on.

the only way for us to stop the system from going off is to have the fire department there on site.

 

[soundlight]

Now that's a good system.

 

[astrotechie]

b) release by thermal coupling, again setting off fire alarm.
and this last one i'm not 100% sure on but

One thing, the thermal coupling you are talking about is a meltable linkage and it will melt only at a temperature high enough that signals a fire.
And it is a good system but the fact is that is the code in the area to have such a system.

 

[Edrick]

that's what i meant by a thermal coupling once it hits a tempature or above the melting point it breaks.

 

[taylorjacobs]

as dumb as this system is...it almost makes sinse. i have personally been involved in setting of a fire alarm in various schools due to haze adn/or fog it would help prevent situations like that...but all in all safety comes first

 

[Dcdjdrew]

At my theatre we have 2 systems combined into 1 the fist is a standard fire alarm system with the exception of the following the smoke detectors in the theatre can be switched to work of the rate of rise detector instead of smoke (only for productions with fog onstage ) at the fire alarm panel. If the fire alarm is activated by a detector the stage manager will have a strobe light flashing in front of them along with an audible buzzer and have 30 seconds to hit a go no go button, of the alarm is not acknowledged within 30 seconds the bulling takes over and makes a fire announcement over the PA and rises the house lights to full and 45 seconds later closes the fire curtain and if the temature at any of the rate of rise dectotors increases above 100 the curtain drencher will activate. The second system involves other emergencies Weather Power ect a battery operated system causes every 3rd house light to rise to full and the building will make an announcement about exiting the building or taking cover in the basement. It is fairly complex but works well.

 

[Edrick]

i wish our fire alarm system talked for freaking 70 mill you'd think it would. you can manually talk over it and use it as a pa from the panel but it wont talk.

 

[chrizEHS]

wow.I am don't think the insurance people or the fire marshal would like him messing with the alarm.
I just love it when people make things more complicated than they have to be.
But some things aren't........ like fire
fire in a school = get out.
tell its that simple

Soory for sounding so redundant, but I just couldn't resist

 

[gafftaper]

Don't miss this new thread over in lighting about a fire in a High School.

http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4944

 

[cue1go]

Please consult your local fire marshall. In many places, disabling a fire detection system is illegal.

 

[avkid]

Please consult your local fire marshall. In many places, disabling a fire detection system is illegal.

Not to mention irresponsible and likely to get your insurance company ticked off to no end.

 

[Thranduil]

At the venue where I work we have a typical school fire system installed - it has a trouble mode and a alarm mode, and we have smoke heads all over. We also have a lazer in the house that makes a huge grid that if it cant talk to the other end of the grid, the alarm goes into trouble, and if staying there it goes into alarm after 1 minuet. This was installed after Modest Mouse lit a dressing room on fire, and the alarm didnt go off.

Its comprehensive, and it goes off no matter what. However, when Primus wants to haze, they are going to anyway, so we have to disable the lasers(which we can do). With this, the fire department has to come make an inspection at some point before house, which often they dont mind because of the big name acts that come thorugh. The firedoor/curtian/skylights systems are all orgional with the building - stage left and right are ropes with knives next to them, and all the doors have thermal ropes and counterweights for their opening and closeing.

Turning off a firealarm completely isn't just stupid, its down right dangerous. We all have moment where we are thinking about how the show is getting interupted, but it is far more important that everone is safe, than the show going on. The director is not a firemarshell. The director does not dictate firecode. Therefore, the director doesnt mess with the alarm. Its quite simple.

 

[tomed101]

Incidentally, today during a tech-run we set off the fire alarm with a fog machine. Big drama, fire dept within 4min (I was very impressed with the response time) and a $1000 fine, but the good thing is that we know that the system is doing its job and makes a hell of a noise when it goes off. Is there a fog/smoke fluid which does not set off smoke alarms? It is quite annoying not being able to use any fog. If there is and we get some, we will call the monitoring company and organize a test (so it doesn't cost another grand) Any ideas?

 

[Chris15]

You don't have the authority, means and procedures to arrange an isolation of sectors of the fire alarm?

 

[tomed101]

You don't have the authority, means and procedures to arrange an isolation of sectors of the fire alarm?

We can except the system we have only supports short term isolating which has to be re-isolated very regularly. The administration want some information about different smoke/fire detectors if we cannot find a differnt fogger. Anyone know of a smoke/flame detector that will be immune to stage fog/smoke?

 

[icewolf08]

We can except the system we have only supports short term isolating which has to be re-isolated very regularly. The administration want some information about different smoke/fire detectors if we cannot find a differnt fogger. Anyone know of a smoke/flame detector that will be immune to stage fog/smoke?

Actually, they are becoming a lot harder to find these days. As theatrical fog is a particulate in the air it behaves similar to smoke, thought the particle size is generally much smaller. The most common type of smoke detector that is tripped by fog is the photo-electric type. They are actually measuring the particle density in the air to determine weatehr to sound an alarm.

So, test away like you said, or find out if you can put a bag over the smoke detectors that cause the problems for you (provided that you only would do that during a show). Though it could have just been the fact that the Fire Marshall at my college let us do that because he was good friends with the staff.

 

[Footer]

We can except the system we have only supports short term isolating which has to be re-isolated very regularly. The administration want some information about different smoke/fire detectors if we cannot find a differnt fogger. Anyone know of a smoke/flame detector that will be immune to stage fog/smoke?

They can't tell the difference, nor would you want them to. Your best bet is to have the alarms shut off during a show, and then you would have to go into a firewatch. Basically, have one person standing around going "is there a fire, is there a fire, is there a fire....) and if there is they can pull an alarm/call the fire dept. Many times in many jurisdictions, the person doing the fire watch has to be a member of the fire dept.

 

[avkid]

Many times in many jurisdictions, the person doing the fire watch has to be a member of the fire dept.

Chances are good that a volunteer firefighter will do this for free or some dinner and tickets for their family.

 

[mixmaster]

THE FOLLOWING SUGGESTION IS FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY!!! THIS SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS ADVICE OR INSTRUCTION!!! If this is a regular concern for you, you may be able to reach a compromise with the local fire authority and install heat detetector in place of smoke detectors. Completely turning off a fire alarm system is a violation of so many codes (read NFPA 72 for info on fire alarms and NFPA 110 for info on life safty systems as it applies to gathering places and public buildings) and such a leagal liability it should not even be considered. However, using heat detectors would eliminate false alarms from your fog and still maintain coverage of the area in question. THIS SHOULD ONLY BE DONE IN ACCORDANCE TO LOCAL CODES, BY A QUALIFIED FIRE ALRM TECHNICIAN, WITH APPROVAL FROM YOUR LOCAL FIRE MARSHAL, INSURACE CARRIER AND POSSIBLY OTHER PEOPLE. THIS IS DEFINATLY NOT SOMETHING FOR A STUDENT TO DO, AT ALL, PERIOD. EXCLAIMATION POINT!!!!