My apologies for jumping around with this, but I lost parts of it a few times. Also, I'm glad that you seem to have a good relationship with your
AHJ.
Fire and fire-like occurrences are your biggest concern (Tommy hitting his thumb with a hammer every week doesn't count), sorry, get used to it. One fire (even a false alarm), can kill more people than your building combined with carelessness and stupidity will over its life.
I worry more on your seeming perception that you won't suffer a fire, or the possibility of one, than I do your building actually catching on fire. But, it is a very real possibility, and there is always a risk. Just because you haven't heard about a "significant" fire doesn't mean fires don't happen, and similarly that things you may think are a fire won't happen. Fire prevention mechanisms do not guarantee your
safety, your patron's
safety, nor the buildings. They will all help, but keep in mind we still have fires going up left and right even though there is a 635
page almanac of the basic fire codes, and there are the other thousands of pages written in the other 100's of code documents. Speaking of which, I assume you have copies of at least
NFPA 1, 30, 70, 70E, and 101 on
hand (depending on your fire systems, storage, and manufacturing there's a number of other ones you should probably get), that you've at least
skimmed through all of them, and that you strictly adhere to the practices outlined or better. At least, that is what I am assuming from how you speak of your buildings highly unlikely ability to catch fire.
Forgive me, but I forget does your
venue deals with students and student workers on a frequent basis? Yes, it's relevant, but we'll get to that later.
Now, I do see this meeting as a good idea, but more aligned between you and Footer than against one of you. Yes, walk them through the space, they will probably forget it but they can
point things out that you aren't aware of, and ask you questions they have. Do not lecture them, they know exactly why schools, community theaters (some, NOT all), and parties/weddings break the most codes. They know they are too cheap, don't care, or "but it's only for one night." If someone wants to light their art on fire, they have this festival in the desert I've heard about, don't waste their time. I don't really see why you getting fired from something is relevant here, but I'm still going to go with, don't waste time. Do
point out hazards, like yes a fly
system is a hazard, but if your
fire curtain is down, and no one is inside, they won't be standing under them. Not to forget that there are many more hazards than a fly
system. Yes, formulate a solid evacuation plans, let them spend their time working on this, and coming up with a safe and proper procedure that you will document and place everywhere later. On that part, making sure that someone on each
shift is designated to be communicating with the fire department in the case of a fire, someone that will know how many people should be standing in the evacuation area, where the fire is, and intimate knowledge of the building, you have no idea how much time this can save. Ask them what the local restrictions for materials, liquids, and gases are, document this and post it later. Similarly, find out what their requirements on
soft goods are. Don't forget about storage either, raw lumber, liquids, gasses,
soft goods, tools, vacuums, equipment,
etc.
Now, I'm not an expert on fire
curtains, but if it isn't down before the fire department gets there and the fire is in the
venue, you did something wrong. If the fire is enough you called 911, you should be evacuating and dropping that
fire curtain, long before anyone gets there. The whole
point of one is to contain the fire so the building can be properly evacuated. As your drapery soaks, it should sink down gradually to a
point until the weight is relieved enough from the
batten that the
arbor side is once again in balance, it shouldn't come crashing down on anyone, not that anyone should be in there by that
point anyways.
While you shouldn't
throw them under the bus, if they didn't take care of the situation to the advice of the
AHJ, you should or your boss should. There shouldn't be any blame on the costumes department, you're a team, you fall as a team, you didn't remedy it either. It should never be, "yeah, costumes will take care of their mess eventually," it should be, "oh, we'll take care of our mistake and not do it again."
If the high school's drama teacher is engaging in unsafe practices, you have a duty to step in and rectify, or have your boss do it. The only way to stop those practices is to act on them and find a better solution together.
Now, since we're talking about
safety here, you're also planning on talking about natural disasters, right? Tornado, earthquake, flooding,
etc. Do you use fall prevention devices? If you do you'll be talking about a rescue plan, right? You've got a plan for gas and CO2, also, right? What if the fire starts when no one is there, will someone be contacted, if so, whom?
One more thing, your entire building staff has been trained to use a fire extinguisher, right? If not, you should be getting someone from the fire department out there now to do it.
--
So story time, just to help get some of my
point across, particularly that a walkthrough is a good idea, that having an appointed delegate to the fire department in an emergency is needed, that you don't here about everything that gets reported, and that your seeming disbelief that a fire or fire-like emergency will be a problem in your
venue.
About 3 years ago now, we were in rehearsal with a production, I believe it was the night before opening but it might have been two out. Anyways, about 9:00 we start smelling something funny, you know, that smoldering type of smell, none of the alarms went off, and it could only be smelled from back of
house and the booth. We let rehearsal go on while we searched so as to not cause a panic, but had the
stage manager ready to evacuate. We searched everywhere on the main floors, couldn't find a source, still no fire alarm. We report back and alert the
stage manager we we're going to the basement, none of us are thrilled about this.
We head into the basement, and there it is. The smell was much more concentrated, but no
smoke, no heat, no alarm. We moved deeper, into the unfinished portion, and the smell was so thick we turned back knowing that if there was a fire, it was there, and if there was that we had no way of fighting it with our puny extinguishers and little lighting. We jolted back up and evacuated everyone and called it in exactly as what we thought, "that something smells like its burning but there is no visible
smoke or fire.
About two and a half minutes later there were more ladders, engines, police, and I think there was an ambulance too, than we could see or count. Their first question, "is everyone accounted for?" Yes, our
stage manager had already accounted for everyone and lead them to the evacuation zone. Next question, "where is the source?" We said we believed it was in the basement, and they asked for someone to show them. Thankfully, there were people familiar with the building there that night, because the basement is an interesting one to say the least. Had this happened the week earlier, those firefighters would have been going in
blind. Anyways, they search it out, and come back to report they smelled it too, that it didn't smell normal, and that they were going to search the rest of the building, once again, one of the people intimate with the building went in with the teams and the others stayed out talking about the building and where possible sources were with the captain. They come back and searched everything but a few of the closed off areas, and needed once again, the person who knew the building and the state that those closed off portions were in to guide them. Anyways, after about an hour and a half, they concluded that it must have been the furnace burning off dust. They said that we did right by calling it in and having the place evacuated and to
call them back if it happened again.
There was no fire, but had this happened with an audience, we would have evacuated immediately. We had multiple people that knew the building and could help the firefighters. Even though we closed off two streets with fire trucks, nothing was ever in the papers,
theatre back channels, the staff had no idea until we brought it up. So don't plan on the fact that things don't happen just because you don't here about them. A fire emergency, doesn't always consist of a fire. After this, everyone was given a building walk through, and pointed to hazardous items.
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My
point is that there are risks you take, and risks you don't. Thinking a fire emergency is low on your list is one risk you shouldn't be taking.