I've been pondering fire safety at my school's theatre (and school in general) a lot lately. It seems, to me at least, that we break codes right and left. I've been trying to mentally think through what needs to happen in case of fire or evacuation, and how to go about preparing for a possible fire. Half or so of the buildings at my school are old, and all wood (150 years). These predate any sprinklers, fire suppression system, or thought into fire escape. The only thing we have are alarms (no to negligible amount of extinguishers) in some buildings. Some, more modern buildings, have fire safety in mind. I don't think these buildings have sprinklers though (unless they are recessed into the drop ceiling and drop down when the alarm is triggered.). I'm worried about these buildings because we regularly break fire code in them. For instance, when we have grade wide meeting in the student cafe, 70 person capacity, we not only break capacity, but we move 90 chairs in-front of the main doors, making them in accessible. I assume that not providing a clear route of egress is another violation. But enough about these buildings.
The theatre is another older building. It is not as old, but I think it is old enough, with a high enough wood content, to be a note worthy concern for fire safety. When the building was acquired, it was retrofitted with sprinklers and a fire alarm system. I am led to believe that the sprinklers could be installed incorrectly, do to an inconsistent vertical alignment. Our fire doors, of which we have many, are consistently wedged open; even the big sign reading "FIRE DOOR DO NOT BLOCK". During performances, 2 fire exits signs are partially obscured from view by curtains in the house. There is no fire suppression system in the theatre itself, just surrounding hallways and rooms, but not offices and I think not storage rooms. We have a fire curtain that, apparently, is operated when the stage heats up enough, though I am weary of anything told at my school. The fire screen is also consistently blocked by the set, or set elements. We have some vents in the roof over the stage, behind the proscenium that I believe are to be used in the event of a fire, as they can not be closed once opened, unless you climb on the roof. Though no one is quite sure how to open them (apparently there is a rope somewhere in the mess that is our rigging). We have a few fire doors in the lobby that I think are on solenoids, presumably connected to the alarm, but may just be magnetically held open. Regardless of how they are held open, they are blocked by trash cans and a piano. Extinguishers and hoses are also often blocked by set pieces backstage, or other junk. Another concern for fire is that apparently we have an abnormal power supply that does some funky stuff with our equipment, and has blown a few lamps. In addition, due to additions to the building, egress seems to be a maze. And on a normal assembly, when we are at 1/3 capacity, it takes a solid 5 minute for everyone to leave, through the narrow isles and hallways. Oh wait, did I mention capacity? We occasionally break capacity. At a recent assembly we had about 1,000 people in our theatre. We are only allowed 815. What people don’t realize is that the house is built on a precarious situation. It’s built on a 4 foot raised crawlspace, of questionable integrity. The 815 person limit is due to load bearing concerns. Oh, and our houselights are not connected to the alarm system. Our houselights are actually just par cans in the catwalks. Due to what I’ve seen first hand, a likely source of fire in the theatre is the lights itself. I touched a twofer that houselights were on the day, and it was physically HOT to the touch. That unsettled me a little bit. Oh, and in terms of fire containment all the windows in this place are these old metal things, NONE of which provide a seal. We have fresh air leaking in all the time, but it would not be adequate to allow smoke to escape.
I’m unsure of how to proceed with the situation. We’ve had no formal training on the worst-case-scenario, and have little to no adult supervision during the running of shows. As I am often SMing or ASMing I feel as if I should take the responsibility to make sure the house and my crew are ready for such an eventuality. So what I have so far in my mind, should a fire be identified. (I’ll probably get flak for some of the stuff on the list, but I’d like to learn, so by all means critique it.)
1. Since I’m already on headset, I’d tell board op to black out, and I’ll bring up the houselights to 75% intensity. The controls are 3 feet away. I’d say 75% because I am worried about the electrical system. Though I don’t think we have any emergency lighting.
2. Notify audience. A 3 second sprint from the stage manager’s position is the fire panel. It has a built in microphone which PAs through the alarm(I think), which (if I read the panel correctly) when activated also activates the alarm. I intend to say: “We are experiencing technical difficulties. Please proceed to the nearest exit.”
3. Should the fire be small and nearby, I intend to grab the extinguisher next to the panel and attempt to subdue it. Should the fire be larger and on stage, I intend to manually activate the fire curtain. I believe it is on automatic release, but I’m sure there is an automatic release, though I haven’t been able to figure it out. Should there be significant smoke risk, I’d open the vents above stage.
4. I’d then proceed to evacuate, stopping to help anyone who is having difficulty getting out, and clearing anything that may have gotten in the way of an exit.
Sorry to write out such a long post, but safety is an issue I take seriously. Please let me know what you think.
Thanks, Charlie
The theatre is another older building. It is not as old, but I think it is old enough, with a high enough wood content, to be a note worthy concern for fire safety. When the building was acquired, it was retrofitted with sprinklers and a fire alarm system. I am led to believe that the sprinklers could be installed incorrectly, do to an inconsistent vertical alignment. Our fire doors, of which we have many, are consistently wedged open; even the big sign reading "FIRE DOOR DO NOT BLOCK". During performances, 2 fire exits signs are partially obscured from view by curtains in the house. There is no fire suppression system in the theatre itself, just surrounding hallways and rooms, but not offices and I think not storage rooms. We have a fire curtain that, apparently, is operated when the stage heats up enough, though I am weary of anything told at my school. The fire screen is also consistently blocked by the set, or set elements. We have some vents in the roof over the stage, behind the proscenium that I believe are to be used in the event of a fire, as they can not be closed once opened, unless you climb on the roof. Though no one is quite sure how to open them (apparently there is a rope somewhere in the mess that is our rigging). We have a few fire doors in the lobby that I think are on solenoids, presumably connected to the alarm, but may just be magnetically held open. Regardless of how they are held open, they are blocked by trash cans and a piano. Extinguishers and hoses are also often blocked by set pieces backstage, or other junk. Another concern for fire is that apparently we have an abnormal power supply that does some funky stuff with our equipment, and has blown a few lamps. In addition, due to additions to the building, egress seems to be a maze. And on a normal assembly, when we are at 1/3 capacity, it takes a solid 5 minute for everyone to leave, through the narrow isles and hallways. Oh wait, did I mention capacity? We occasionally break capacity. At a recent assembly we had about 1,000 people in our theatre. We are only allowed 815. What people don’t realize is that the house is built on a precarious situation. It’s built on a 4 foot raised crawlspace, of questionable integrity. The 815 person limit is due to load bearing concerns. Oh, and our houselights are not connected to the alarm system. Our houselights are actually just par cans in the catwalks. Due to what I’ve seen first hand, a likely source of fire in the theatre is the lights itself. I touched a twofer that houselights were on the day, and it was physically HOT to the touch. That unsettled me a little bit. Oh, and in terms of fire containment all the windows in this place are these old metal things, NONE of which provide a seal. We have fresh air leaking in all the time, but it would not be adequate to allow smoke to escape.
I’m unsure of how to proceed with the situation. We’ve had no formal training on the worst-case-scenario, and have little to no adult supervision during the running of shows. As I am often SMing or ASMing I feel as if I should take the responsibility to make sure the house and my crew are ready for such an eventuality. So what I have so far in my mind, should a fire be identified. (I’ll probably get flak for some of the stuff on the list, but I’d like to learn, so by all means critique it.)
1. Since I’m already on headset, I’d tell board op to black out, and I’ll bring up the houselights to 75% intensity. The controls are 3 feet away. I’d say 75% because I am worried about the electrical system. Though I don’t think we have any emergency lighting.
2. Notify audience. A 3 second sprint from the stage manager’s position is the fire panel. It has a built in microphone which PAs through the alarm(I think), which (if I read the panel correctly) when activated also activates the alarm. I intend to say: “We are experiencing technical difficulties. Please proceed to the nearest exit.”
3. Should the fire be small and nearby, I intend to grab the extinguisher next to the panel and attempt to subdue it. Should the fire be larger and on stage, I intend to manually activate the fire curtain. I believe it is on automatic release, but I’m sure there is an automatic release, though I haven’t been able to figure it out. Should there be significant smoke risk, I’d open the vents above stage.
4. I’d then proceed to evacuate, stopping to help anyone who is having difficulty getting out, and clearing anything that may have gotten in the way of an exit.
Sorry to write out such a long post, but safety is an issue I take seriously. Please let me know what you think.
Thanks, Charlie