Hundreds evacuated in fire at NW Indiana theater

[planetmike]

Reported by the Associated Press, published in the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/entertainment/2011/02/hundreds-evacuated-during-fire-nw-ind-theater Hundreds evacuated in fire at NW Indiana theater

Authorities evacuated about 1,800 people from theater in Merrillville after a fire broke out during a performance on stage Wednesday night.

The event was not a play, but "Shanghai Circus Live." There are conflicting tales about how the evacuation was handled. The difference could be the "official" story, and how it actually looked being one of the 1,800 people in the audience.

[KMC]

Aaanddd this is why it's important to maintain equipment!  Thankfully nobody was hurt in this one.

[On_Headset]

Fun fact: one of the main reasons that all buildings have extensive safety equipment these days (backlit exit signs, crash bars, external fire escapes, etc.) is because of all the people who died in theatre fires and stampedes. It used to happen on a fairly regular basis, thousands of lives were lost, and it actually gave theatres quite a bad reputation. So this:

No injuries were reported.

is much more of a blessing than it may seem.

[planetmike]

And an update: Reported by the Associated Press, published in the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/entertainment/2011/02/shows-go-ind-theater-despite-fire Shows to go on at Ind. theater despite fire

The Times reports investigators determined the fire broke out when a performer accidentally kicked over a high-powered light.

So the light was in a bad place? The performer should have told someone? Maybe the performer didn't know it tipped? Maybe there wasn't an ASM type person nearby?

[nick_tochelli]

It also could have happened instantaneously. Performer kicks instrument, knocks it over, instrument breaks, sparks and sets fire to the curtain.

It obviously wouldn't pass NY fire inspection if the curtain went up as quickly as it seems to have. That's my question: Why isn't the road house getting a finger pointed at for the curtain/the circus for having an unsafe, non-fire proofed curtain? You can blame a performer, or lack of an ASM if you want, but there should be redundancies in safety like fire proofed curtains in case a person can't be around that area of the stage 100% of the time.

[planetmike]

Here's a news report, with video shot from inside the theater as it was being evacuated. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chibrknews-fire-empties-star-plaza-theatre-in-merrillville-20110210,0,2035102.story

[loebtmc]

an amusing side note, the news guy, trying to sound like he knew something, said it happened stage right - when it happened stage left.....unless the photo was inverted somehow -

[lsears]

Michael thanks for the first post and for all the follow ups, I'll be talking about this with my students in class tomorrow.  It goes along nicely with this month's Equity News snippet about evacuation procedures in NY theaters.  Thank you!

[planetmike]

One of the mailing lists I'm on they were discussing this incident. Someone pointed out that drawn curtains can create a funnel or chimney in the folds when they catch fire. So maybe the curtain should have been closed? So spread the fire over a larger area, but it would have allowed suppression efforts to get to the fire.

Someone else pointed out that if this was indeed caused by a light resting against the curtains/drape, it may have been beneficial to have turned the stage lights off. I'd guess it depends if the stage work lights can be turned on from the booth before plunging the stage into darkness.

I don't know what the best process would have been.