Fwd: Fire Put Out at Saguaro High Auditorium

This is definitely the case. People see the gel in front of it and figure that oh its plastic, it must not be too hot. Then they grab it and have nice blisters where their hand touched the metal.

And I must admit, I would have figured the same thing until I actually got some hands on experience. Therefore, you can't really expect the person swiveling the leg in front of the 1k par to know that what he is doing is not only disrespectful but extremely dangerous unless you brief everyone beforehand. I guess the moral should be that non-lighting people don't necessarily need to know the operating temps of a stage light, but they do need to be taught to keep things the way they found them and that if they don't know how to do something, or aren't sure exactly where something goes to ask for help. Obviously, this is a topic that non-lighting people (and unfortunately sometimes lighting people too) just don't think about.
 
I want to know how this happens. I've hung quite a few lights in quite a few venues and have never had any problem where any lights were about to light anything on fire. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me like you'd have to be downright stupid to find yourself in this situation.

Not sure how stupid this qualifies as - but a couple of years ago we were doing a production of "Thoroughly Modern Millie' with shin busters. We had a shin buster just downstage of the proscenium mounted on a floor stand. The house electrician saw where it was placed and approved it. The stage manager saw it in place. On the last performance, the curtain billowed as it was being opened and it wrapped around the light. No one noticed it until the smoldering of the grand drape had started.

What saved us was proper fire proofing of the drape. We had a hole in the grand ( which the venue was able to disguise by swapping sides ).

The point is that stuff happens. A number of things can go wrong and cause a dangerous situation. Keep your flame proofing up to date.
 
Let me tell how tough they are out here in Ca. The fire Marshall shows up before EVERY event and does a walk through. When he see drape he actually cuts a piece of drape off and burns it at the back dock. If it burns he shuts you down.

Yes he ruins the drape which kills me.

Rather than fight the system I became a licensed fire retardant applicator. Actually it puts more money in my pocket because I now charge an extra fee for the fire retardant.

I fire retard the fabric ONCE and charge a fee every time it goes out.

My customers feel safe as do I, knowing the things I bring in are a safe product.
 
This is definitely the case. People see the gel in front of it and figure that oh its plastic, it must not be too hot. Then they grab it and have nice blisters where their hand touched the metal.

I had "Colortran" burned into my palm for a few weeks once after I grabbed the vertical adjustment knob of once of their ERS's, not knowing the light had been on for 15 minutes. Who thought it would be a good idea to make the knobs out of metal? Not everyone wears gloves ALL the time.
 
Let me tell how tough they are out here in Ca. The fire Marshall shows up before EVERY event and does a walk through. When he see drape he actually cuts a piece of drape off and burns it at the back dock. If it burns he shuts you down.

Yes he ruins the drape which kills me.

That seems odd. Soft goods should have extra material sewn in that can be readily removed without damaging the curtain for the sole purpose of flame retardant tests. On the other hand, when you do it so often throughout the life of the fabric, I imagine the amount of samples you would need becomes outrageous.
 
I had "Colortran" burned into my palm for a few weeks once after I grabbed the vertical adjustment knob of once of their ERS's, not knowing the light had been on for 15 minutes. Who thought it would be a good idea to make the knobs out of metal? Not everyone wears gloves ALL the time.

I find it very odd that the yoke on the side of the 5/50 is plastic, but that the top one is metal. I've done the same thing multiple times (thankfully without any real consequence) and it seems like a real design flaw. That, and the really hard to reach and really easy to drop focus knob that makes it surprisingly easy to brush one's forearm along the barrel when focusing.

Bottom line, focusing lights without gloves isn't a great idea, and focusing Colortran fixtures without gloves is just asking for trouble.
 
I find it very odd that the yoke on the side of the 5/50 is plastic, but that the top one is metal. I've done the same thing multiple times (thankfully without any real consequence) and it seems like a real design flaw. That, and the really hard to reach and really easy to drop focus knob that makes it surprisingly easy to brush one's forearm along the barrel when focusing.

Bottom line, focusing lights without gloves isn't a great idea, and focusing Colortran fixtures without gloves is just asking for trouble.

Doing S4s without gloves is not at all a problem. However, the Altman units that one venue I worked at had made me a believer in gloves...
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back