Theatre Fire?

I like the idea of the '3 blind mice' warning signal, never heard that one before, but that simple inovation has merit Peter.

The Pohms always did seem to follow the Accom principle of the 'simplest solution being often the best' in those days.

I remember climbing into the roof viod of the Grand Theatre Byker on Tyneside in the UK when I was a wee'n, to help replace the pound of butter in the fire alarm system. In fact I think they used Lard or it could have been Magarine or dripping, because of the the war rationing which was still inforce in the1950's.

The fire alarm only actived a large Red bell thank gawd  & not the stage 'Iron' [fire curtain], which was a manual operation controlled hydrolicaly by the SM on the prompt side.

From memory I think the Grand Theatres Iron was powered by water & they used to say things like  " God's gaan'n on t' netty noo!" before &  "Harraway! He's aboot t' piss doon noo!" after each performance as a form of general warning to the crew.

I'm glad we don't bother here with the old Iron's as the Pohms have to do in their theatres, olthough these days they have much lighter fire curtains available rather than steel & asbestos. 

There again we tend get rediculous things like Fire deluge systems imposed on theatres from time to time by over zelous local Fire Authorities. I Believe MPAC here in Mandurah have a deluge suppresion system installed above the stage just behind the proscenium arch. Which when thier 'Fire Indicator Panel' goes into alarm, after about 90 seconds of a second detector going off, it will deluge the stage with water.

They found this out during the regular fire system testing just after it was first opened, the test was alegadly done unknowingly by a local Fire Company tester, who supposily inadvertly set off the deluge system. Needless to say the down stage lighting bar copped the full load of water along with all the equipment, untill the situation was rectified & the local Fire Brigade turned out, as it raised an automatic Direct Brigade Alarm - as the story goes?

Imagine the caos & panic it would cause if this was set off during a show & the cost of damaged to people & equipment?

{Fire deluge suppression systems, such as water, CO2 ect require at least 2 seperate detectors to trigger an alarm situation, to reduce the possibly of a false alarm from a faulty detector, setting it off.

[Unlike the movie myth with a fire sprinkler systems, where by breaking a single sprinkler head, sets off all the sprinklers in the building. A single sprinkler head being activated by heat from a fire, will rutpure & active water only from the that single sprinkler head. Not untill the fire spreads to within the  other sprinkler head zones, will the subsiquent heat activate indvidual particular sprinkler head by the glass breaking.]}