Theatre Fire?

It's in the middle of a perrformance, there is a full house a lot of smoke & the venue is plunged in to darkness - What would you do?

If the theatre is already full of smoke, then isn't it a little late? Surely something would have been done before then.

It would also depend very much upon the theatre, location of the exits, etc. Obviously the first thing would be to get everyone out the exits of which the EXITS LIGHTS would not be affected by power blackouts as if they are properly installed will have a secondary power source.

Calling Emergency Services would also be useful.

EDIT: Feel like a N008. Just re-read what I wrote and it didn't make sense.

Absit invidia (and DFT :nono:)

Jeff Watkins
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Community Spirit

That's a good clue Don!

This can be taken from any aspect, as there is a dolly mixture here on the forum, you could take it as from your normal position or function in theatre. As either a punter,  in FOH, on Stage in the dressing room or Bio box.

Being plunged into darknesss could be from a blackout cue extended because of a malfunction of equipment, the operator has keeled over or fallen asleep. All you know is there is a heap of smoke, it's dark & you have not a clue what's going on. As fire can happen at any time during any performance, what would you do?

By the way the emergency lighting won't activate unless the venue power supply is disrupted in some way &/or the Mains Power is switched off.

Good piont logos I have changed the header by adding a ? instead of a'!' - which I should have done orginaly - sorry about that.

The question [as it now is ] is assumptive, which in the case of heaps of smoke & dakness would sugest a probable fire situation.

However sadly there is a lot of places here used by comeatres that don't comply with H&S Act public building emergency & evacuation facilities or even instigate any policy or procedures.

I'm in the habit of looking for smoke detectors & emergency light fittings when I go into a venue these days or any idication of signage what to do in an emergency. Because over the years I found it is far to late worry about it if something does happen.

I don't know many ameatres who have a designated Fire Warden or have a clue what to do in an emergency situation.

Lets hope the Stage & FOH Managers would take charge & control of the situation, without hitting the Big red panic button or causing chaos.

But would they be able to evacute & account for the all the people in atendance or just run in ever deminishing circles like a headless chook or the mythical awkawk bird?

This probably won't concern a lot of the Commitees, as they would deem it as being someone elses problem & that is why they have an SM, FOH &/or Techies to do all that crap.

But who will be in the box seat at a Coronial Inquirey or bitch when the Insurace Company knocks back any claims & even take back all thier umbrellas?

The Pohms do tend to go over the odds, with H&S when doing shows, mainly because of the ECU regs they have to comply with.

Every production must produce a 'Risk Assement' for every departmental facit of the production, along with  with ensuring all materials used & worn on stage are treated with fire retardant & the PAT testing is up to date. Not counting the amount of paper work that has to be archived concerning the venue &  each season production. Wich I believe has to be kept for at least 7 years & available for inspection. There again it always seems that the pohms have to be regulated in everything they do or it just doesn't happen.

Eons ago something as simple as hanging a light on a fly bar over there, was a major production & it invaribly it used to take  3 bods at least, just to hang one lantern & plug it in. So it looks like not much has changed over there.

So we get off very lightly here, which is all well & good, because no one cares here or gives a monkeys anyway! To the piont of even if it's pionted out & brought up, you are either ignored or sent to coventry. {So why bother?}

Years ago we used to have the Stage Doorman double up as the theatre Fireman. Although I remember on more than on one occasion of a fire, the fireman was always the last to attend. His usual retort was "You could have kept it going, untill I finished polishing me helmit".

So the attitude has not changed much these days. What nearly all comeatres tend to think is "don't worry about the bodies! - more importtantly, is our insurance policy paid up?"

Wonderful story. Loved it.

Absit invidia (and DFT :nono:)

Jeff Watkins
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Photographer
Community Spirit

With heritage listed buildings I would have thought in SA they would have opted for the 'VESDA' [Very Early Smoke Detection Aparatis].

http://xtralis.com/p.cfm?s=30&p=352

 From memory, when I was acredited in the fire engineering game, I think they are an SA based company. The system was first developed by Telecom for thier remote unmanned exchanges. But for whatever reason they shelved it & it was purchased by a mob in SA, who went on to develop it further & it is now worldwide.

Basicly they are an air asperation system & a very simple unobtrusive system of installed conduit [pipe] work. That constantly samples the air via small holes drilled aqt regular intervalls in the pipe work.

Unlike normal smoke/heat detectors & sprinkler heads, that have to be changed out completrly over a 10 year period, at 10%/year. Besides regular testing only the air sampling chamber needs to be changed out every 5 years, for a factory reworked replacement chamber. A phase VESDA would use occasionaly, was the system could forcast a fire, upto 2 days before it happened. Which they could site cases where this did aqctualy take place. With there latestest Laser series this has been easily proved thru electronic read outs gained from the indivual units. The instalation is suprisingly cheaper than wire to wire method fire systems.

I'm not sure but I think the Old Mill in South Perth, could be heritage listed & they have had a fire sprinkler system installed a while ago in the building. But like almost all things each State differs with localised Acts & rules.

The Phoenix Theatre in Hamilton Hill [WA] is in an unlisted heritage building, while they have a Fire Alarm System they didn't go down the Sprinkler Fire Suppresion route.

Great story Tony!

It never fails to amase me in theatre how these strange policies come about & are practiced religiously.

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.]}