First off. There is
no such thing as "Fire Proof". It's fire
retardant. While it may seem like I'm being picky, it's a VERY important part of theater
safety to keep in mind the difference. EVERYTHING in theater will burn EVENTUALLY if you put enough heat to it long enough. In the case of a fire retardant treated curtain or set, the standards say that to be classified as retardant it has to put itself out after the source of flame is removed. Got that subtle difference? The code DOESN'T say that it will not catch fire in the first place, it doesn't say it is an impenetrable barrier to fire... it just has to put it self out AFTER the source of flame is removed. That is NOT the same thing as "Fire Proof".
From the Don't try this at home kids file...
I took a theater
safety class last year and we had fun with fire afternoon. We took old and new pieces of
curtains, we got them wet with plain water, washed them in soap, washed with dry cleaning fluid, we took an old theater seat... and we burned them all with both a lighter and blow
torch. It was fascinating to see results.
Theater seats are treated to prevent them from catching fire. However when you put a flame to them for a long enough period of time eventually the treated exterior disintegrates exposing the foam interior. Once that happen, that baby's going up fast and putting out nasty toxic fumes too! As for the curtain samples we found that just getting a curtain wet with
clear water can have a devastating
effect on the retardancy. You could actually see white "stains" in the fabric... that's the retardant material that has been leached out of the fibers and is no longer useless. Those of you with old theaters that you have no idea the history of, take a close look at your
curtains for white powdery looking water marks... if you see them you have a big problem. A curtain washed in drycleaning fluid held up nearly as long as the control. The most interesting thing was what happens if you take a brand new treated curtain and put a blow
torch to it. It doesn't "burn" but it slowly turns to charred ash and disintegrates... it's like the retardant is preventing the flame but the thing is still smoldering to oblivion.
I'm 90% sure national code says soft good should be fireproofed every 5 years. I'm not aware of a code that requires fireproofing for sets and painted surfaces.
However, national code (
NFPA 72) also gives local authority (your
fire marshal or city inspector) the right to make any local rules he wants, so you MUST!!!! check with him/her.
Not true... and you answered your own question why. It's totally up to the local authority. You should definitely have them tested every 5 years but there are plenty of 20 year old
curtains out there that are still fully retardant. We tested an old curtain that was at least 30 years old and it still passed the local standards. As has been said over and over it's all about local standards.
Are dropping fire
curtains required by law??? Or is is that one of those "it depends on your locality" things?
The need for a
fire curtain (or deluge/water
system) is determined based on how high your fly space is in relation to the height of your
auditorium. If the fly space is very tall it requires a
fire curtain (or other
system). If you have a lower fly space then the code defines the entire
auditorium as one room and you don't need a
fire curtain. I'm sure some areas require one no matter what. I know a local theater with a
grid that is about 45' off the
deck that isn't required to have a
fire curtain... craziest think I've ever seen... but that's what the formula for the local fire code determined.
I have seen a
Fire Marshal conduct a "match test" as follows: Cut a one inch square
swatch of material from a seam or other unnoticed location. Hold a lit paper match to it for ten seconds. Once the flame is removed, the material must self-extinguish and not be able to sustain the flame on its own.
The fireproof test has a time
element as well. It's something like flame is applied for 15 seconds and it must self extinguish in 5 seconds. I don't remember the exact numbers and they probably vary according to local
fire marshal anyway.
One last thing, don't just go cut off a corner of your curtain and test it yourself. You need to have it done in cooperation with the local
fire marshal or the test is not valid.
Call them and say... "Hey we haven't had our
curtains fire retardancy tested in 8 years and we want to have it done what is the process you would like us to follow?"