# One "hot" play...



## slattery93 (Nov 26, 2009)

I was sitting in the back of the auditorium setting up a subwoofer, when one of the actors comes up to me and says "I smell fire" So me think, it's one of the speakers because we were just blaring music, so whatever I walk up, and it doesn't smell like speakers, it smelled like fabric was on fire. So I walked across the stage, look up. One of our swivel curtains are smoking. So I run down the janitors room, pull the lift out, go up and drench it with water, Get the fire out, so after 15 minutes of everyone freaking out and me trying to calm them down. My director said practice was over, I sat there for 2 hours to make sure it doesn't start again. So the next day, the janitorial staff tries to blame the fire on us. Thus saying "We moved the light" Which I never touch that certain light...lol. Other then that the administration sided with us. 

So there's my first post, and rant  

Anything like this ever happen to you?


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## mstaylor (Nov 26, 2009)

Set a leg on fire, absolutely. We set a leg on fire with a scoop. We focused, then the SM decided to change the curtain placement. She draped it over the light and we were aware of the change until we had a two foot hole.


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## kiwitechgirl (Nov 26, 2009)

Oh yes. We were about to paint the stage so the lighting designer picked up the star legs and piled them on top of some fixed set pieces (the top of them was wire mesh) which we were going to paint around. He was re-plotting some stuff while we painted, completely forgot he'd piled the star legs on top of the set pieces, and brought up the parcans which were inside the set, pointing up through the mesh.....some rather burnt star legs was the result. Fortunately the legs belonged to the designer's company, and he had no-one to blame but himself! I've also seen a metre-wide hole burnt in a brand new set of tabs when someone removed the tie holding them back off a worklight (which wasn't normally anywhere near the tabs, but we'd had to move it temporarily). I've also had to put a Mac600 out with a fire extinguisher, but that's another story.


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## Jinglish (Nov 27, 2009)

My predecessor did that once with a 360Q. I think the hole might still be in that leg.


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## Nikgwolf (Nov 27, 2009)

I once had to diagnose a light and ended up hot-patching it while it was on the floor. Not more than 15 seconds later, smoke had started to come out from under the fixture and we then realized that it had started to melt the paint off the stage.


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## tjrobb (Nov 29, 2009)

Only saw the aftermath of this one, but my high school has two holes in the floor of the FOH catwalk (wood). Seems they forgot which circuit was what and turned on a two-fer'ed pair of Source 4's that were pointed at the catwalk. A couple seconds after they noticed the distinct darkness on stage they killed the circuit and went upstairs. The fun fact - a Source 4 at 575W CAN burn THROUGH a 2x4 from 6" and ~30 degrees of pitch (oh yes, the hole goes through the decking).


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## bull (Nov 30, 2009)

Nikgwolf said:


> I once had to diagnose a light and ended up hot-patching it while it was on the floor. Not more than 15 seconds later, smoke had started to come out from under the fixture and we then realized that it had started to melt the paint off the stage.


oh yes, our old LT did that... i was unhappy


Well, this one is kind of different. During Into the Woods we dropped leaves from the catwalk and the grid when people died, and other times, kinda like a symbol for the giant. These happened to be fake leaves. One of the leave droppers dropped them too close to one of the electrics (granted, it is hard to miss them when dropping leaves) and soon after the big drop scene, somebody mentioned that they smelled smoke. I went up in search of said fire, couldn't find it. As soon as I got down the stairs, I walked out the back door of the theatre and was bombarded with smoke, turns out an actress left her hair iron on, and caught a costume, and a hat on fire. She got a veryyy long talking to.


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## shiben (Nov 30, 2009)

Nikgwolf said:


> I once had to diagnose a light and ended up hot-patching it while it was on the floor. Not more than 15 seconds later, smoke had started to come out from under the fixture and we then realized that it had started to melt the paint off the stage.



We were doing a 2 off show celebrating the arrival of the playwright and one of our visiting professors, and the lead actress thought it would be brilliant to soak her costume in tea to make it more dirty looking. It worked brilliantly, except that it was still wet 1 hour till go. I grabbed a couple of PARs and pointed them at the clothing, supported on a metal cage thing maybe 8" off the floor. I felt brilliant, and it dried out quickly. Anyhow, she grabbed it when it was dry, and forgot to mention this. I came down to find the brand new paint bubbling and smoking. The next day, I was getting paint out of the shop to re-do the space that I had burned up (hoping to avoid the ridicule of the TD, we have a humorous working relationship), and the TD walked in, and of course wondered what I was doing. I sheepishly told him, and he fell over laughing. Fortunately alls well that ends well, and there were no long term problems, like a theater burning down.


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## etc (Jan 1, 2010)

My Drama Teacher threw a 9volt battery into a closet, well the closet was full of steel wool use in set design, well that created a spark and me and a friend were the last one there, we did not notice it till about two hours later when we saw the smoke, well we got to the closet and right next to it was a fire hose and a fire extinguisher, The fire was so small that the extinguisher would of handled it, but i always wanted to use a fire hose, so me and my friend got to use a 150' fire hose to put out about a 19" flame... it was fun!


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## Javert (Jan 2, 2010)

Happened just a couple of months ago - the lighting board wasn't yet programmed properly, and the standard daytime setup was "All circuits at full." Turns out there was an ERS focused through a hole in the first left leg (neither the electric nor the leg had been flown for some time) until the time came to relamp for the first show of the year. The instrument then ceased to be pointed at a hole, and burned up our leg beyond usability. (Our set designer should be pleased, as this newfound spare will probably be used for stained glass windows in _Beauty and the Beast._)


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## ajb (Jan 2, 2010)

I know of one place that had an 80' wide wraparound cyc in use for a show. The crew had to drop it to clear a foul or some such, and left it on the ground when they went to lunch. Then the LD came back from lunch early and decided to do some programming notes. . . . with the cyc piled on top of four or five T4 strips that were lighting the center of the cyc from the bottom. When all was said and done, the middle ~40' of the 80' wide cyc was covered with regularly spaced rectangles, fading from charred through at the bottom to lightly toasted towards the top.

The bright side was that insurance covered the cost of a new cyc, and after some cutting and stitching they wound up with a couple of extra curtains for their studio space.


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## MillburyAuditorium (Jan 7, 2010)

Well, luckily, the only thing that has ever happened in our theater with fire was one time we installed a new lamp in a FOH spot and unknown to us someone had taken the lamp out of the packaging and was handling it with there hands, alot. So on goes the circuit and we soon have a little bon fire in one of our spots for a minute or so.


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## zuixro (Jan 8, 2010)

My senior year of high school. 2 booms in the house (gymatoriam) with 5 Acclaim Fresnels (I think, I didn't know much about lighting back then) each, and dimmer packs. We ran 3 extensions to one, then we ran out and ended up only running 2 to the other. The cable was rated for 20 amps, but the connectors weren't. First night goes ok. Second night, after intermission, backstage, I smell the familiar smell of an overheating extension cord. I run around and unplug everything backstage that could be causing it but it wouldn't go away. Fast forward to the end of the show, we start striking, I start pulling and coiling cable. Then I found the source of the smell. One of the extension cords, the one with 3 Acclaims on it, has melted a hole through the tarp covering the gym floor, and left a dark spot on the gym floor. Needless to say, we cleaned up quickly and covered it before the athletics director saw it.


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## shiben (Jan 8, 2010)

zuixro said:


> My senior year of high school. 2 booms in the house (gymatoriam) with 5 Acclaim Fresnels (I think, I didn't know much about lighting back then) each, and dimmer packs. We ran 3 extensions to one, then we ran out and ended up only running 2 to the other. The cable was rated for 20 amps, but the connectors weren't. First night goes ok. Second night, after intermission, backstage, I smell the familiar smell of an overheating extension cord. I run around and unplug everything backstage that could be causing it but it wouldn't go away. Fast forward to the end of the show, we start striking, I start pulling and coiling cable. Then I found the source of the smell. One of the extension cords, the one with 3 Acclaims on it, has melted a hole through the tarp covering the gym floor, and left a dark spot on the gym floor. Needless to say, we cleaned up quickly and covered it before the athletics director saw it.



A similar thing happened to us with a G300 Hazer. We plugged it in to a 20A circuit, but apparently neither connector was rated to 20A, even though the extension was supposed to be (jenky lighting package). Anyhow, we managed to fuse the extension cord to the floor pocket plug. Turns out that the reason the haze from the G300 would not stop was that it was smoke from the plug. Woops! Getting the plug out was kind of a PITA tho... And of course, did the hands on deck mention it smelled like burning? Nope, they were busy reading books.


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## RickBoychuk (Jan 8, 2010)

This is a scary thread. But it depends on definitions. With the use of the word "burn" do you mean flame? Or melt? Or cause to become ash without flaming?

Stage drapes should not burn. It is a fire code requirement. If your drapes flamed you may have big problems.

In a previous iteration in life I did safety inspections of stages in schools. One of the inspection items involved a flame test of drapery samples (all done in safe isolation from the stage and school). It is my experience that as much as 50% of stage drapes in schools are not compliant with the flame test of the fire code.

Did your drapes really burn? Tell someone in a position of authority. A stage with flammable drapes could be an inferno in less than a minute.


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## mstaylor (Jan 11, 2010)

Flame retardant curtains are exactly that, you can still burn holes in they with enough dirct heat. They shouldn't flame up but they will still burn to an extent.


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## dereklentz (Jan 11, 2010)

This past Christmas Eve, my church decided to line the edge of the stage with candles. Towards the end of service, we had a section devoted to the little drummer boy. We had extra drummers come in and stand on the floor in front of the stage. Halfway through the song, a man jumps up from the audience and starts patting the backside of one of the drummers because his coat caught on fire.


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## Edrick (Jan 14, 2010)

You should see what happens when one of our 100 AMP Bates connectors decides to get a bit toasty. :shock:

On our last set we had a bunch of 1K lamps plugged in. However to save running stingers they decided to plug two of them into a cheap plastic splitter. Now the instructor who was all knowing insisted the smell was not of burning plastic but something else and he knew this for sure! because he has had so much experience on set (he was bragging). Well I decided that he was wrong got up on a 18' ladder and got up to where the cabling was. Needless to say the Hubble male end had melted its self to the splitter and this was no kids extension cord. It was a full on stinger with hard plastic hubble ends.


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## firewater88 (Jan 21, 2010)

bull said:


> Well, this one is kind of different. During Into the Woods we dropped leaves from the catwalk and the grid when people died, and other times, kinda like a symbol for the giant. These happened to be fake leaves. One of the leave droppers dropped them too close to one of the electrics (granted, it is hard to miss them when dropping leaves) and soon after the big drop scene, somebody mentioned that they smelled smoke. I went up in search of said fire, couldn't find it. As soon as I got down the stairs, I walked out the back door of the theatre and was bombarded with smoke, turns out an actress left her hair iron on, and caught a costume, and a hat on fire. She got a veryyy long talking to.



Many moons ago we did Into the Woods (when I was in HS) and we had flash pots under a ramp on stage for one scene. Once during rehearsal, the kid that loaded it put way to much in it. It shot up and put a singe mark on the traveler track board about 18' up (still there today). He got a big lecture. Low and behold, the next rehearsal, he loaded it and didn't plug it in. From what I remember it was activated once plugged in. Well another kid cam by and saw something unplugged and decided to plug it in. POOF! off goes the flash pots and up in flames goes the silk trees (owned by the director). Everyone stood there with their finger in their behind doing nothing. I was working on a ladder on a set piece and immediately ran for a fire extinguisher to put out the flames. We were able to save most of the fake plant for the director. Lets say TWO people got a stern talking to that day.


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## photoatdv (Jan 21, 2010)

And that's why pyro isn't a joke.


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## DuckJordan (Jan 21, 2010)

also why pyro should not be done by high school students. TRAINED PRO's Only even if it comes with directions also. why was it a plug in and it goes system. That would indicate to me that it was cheaply made and most likely homemade. Two big red flags to me. we used flash pots once here at our school, our TD loaded it plugged it into our control box then went back to the booth, (ours was rigged to trigger off a midi signal). but not having a button on the device to set it off is a huge issue.


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## TheLightmaster (Feb 1, 2010)

kiwitechgirl said:


> I've also had to put a Mac600 out with a fire extinguisher, but that's another story.


I want to hear that one!


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## Tex (Feb 17, 2010)

I was Nathan in Guys and Dolls at a SPiT house. Just before "Good Old Reliable..." the USL leg catches fire complete with flames! We stopped the show and evacuated the theatre. 90 minutes later, the fire department let us back in and we finished the show for the entire audience who had patiently waited outside. When the grand opened there was about 2 minutes of applause. Go figure...


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## masterelectrician2112 (Feb 17, 2010)

What was the cause of the fire? That had to be scary.


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## Tex (Feb 18, 2010)

masterelectrician2112 said:


> What was the cause of the fire? That had to be scary.


Same as everyone else; drape too close to an elipsoidal. It was an Altman 4.5 x 6.5 if I remember correctly...


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## masterelectrician2112 (Feb 19, 2010)

That's pretty crazy that one light too close caused the whole thing to burst into flames. I have a tech week next week, so if you'll excuse me, I am gonna go find some wood to knock on!


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## gizm770o (Jul 19, 2010)

Theres a really nice hole in one of my HS's borders. a S4 left on for about 4 hours from about 3 feet away. Well at least the fire retardant worked!


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