# And There Were Fire Trucks....



## emorrisey (Feb 9, 2010)

Last week during one of our final tech rehearsals of "Hello, Dolly!" the entire school was put on lock down. The cast, pit, and crew, was evacuated from the building in the freezing Buffalo air for over a half hour. It was a saturday morning so the stage crew was immediately blamed for the incident, but for the first time ever, we were not the cause of mass distruction in any way, shape, or form! Still the cast and pit scowled as they all defrosted when re-entering the building! We lost a lot of time due the fire drill, the various investigations with firemen, and the double checking to make sure nothing was burning. To this day any mistake we made during the run through of the show from that point forward I blamed on the fact that that fire drill f-ed us over! 

Can anyone relate?


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## Anvilx (Feb 9, 2010)

On the bright side, I would much rather have the fire drill during the tech rehearsal then during a performance. Was it a drill or a false alarm?


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## Les (Feb 9, 2010)

Back when I was in high school, some kid set a butcher paper poster on fire in the hallway right outside of the auditorium between the final bell and rehearsal. At first, the fire alarm going off wasn't very alarming (excuse the pun) but when I walked from the studio to the theatre and saw the fire I knew (obviously) that it was for real. A student put out the fire using a hoodie, against the administration's wishes. This was also the time that the cast and crew discovered that the electric roll up doors separating backstage from the hallway automatically close during fire alarms. They were sliding under them like that scene from Titanic, unbeknownst to them that they went back up if bumped from the bottom. 

The fire alarm continued to sound, then shut off, then resound for about 10 minutes until the fire department finally showed up and cleared the smoke. Good thing we didn't just let it burn! The fine arts addition was only about 2 years old at that point!

*Disclaimer: Your life is much more important than any fine arts venue. Use your better judgment and above all, be safe!*


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## zuixro (Feb 10, 2010)

Music Man. 4 years ago. 1630 hours. The fire alarm goes off. No smoke in the building with the gym. An administrator and I go into the upper school building. Smoke everywhere, and a very distinct smell. Burnt popcorn. We search all over the building. I find the microwave with the offending popcorn, grab the popcorn and throw it in the sink. No flames, but tonnes of smoke. I also got to use the key to turn off the fire alarm. Fire trucks show up about five minutes later. They offered to bring fans to clear out the smoke, but we just prop all the doors open. 

Apparently someone put a bag of popcorn in the microwave, and set it for 20 minutes, then forgot about it. 

The show went ok after that.


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## photoatdv (Feb 10, 2010)

Little kid at the house for a party did that once. It's AMAZING how much popcorn can smoke...


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## WestlakeTech (Feb 10, 2010)

Anvilx said:


> On the bright side, I would much rather have the fire drill during the tech rehearsal then during a performance. Was it a drill or a false alarm?



Try TWO false alarms during the SAME dance performance. One of my worst show memories to date. Rental sophomore year, Track 8 (maybe 7?)) the fire alarm goes off. We evacuate the ENTIRE building, which is not easy with the dance moms who think there can't be a fire anywhere they go. Fire department comes, turns out to have been a false alarm in the commons. But the show must go on so we pick up where we left off... 7 songs later, the alarm goes off again. You can just imagine the giant moan heard from the whole crowd. Thankfully it didn't happen again.

and as a side note: there's a massive difference in "lock down" and "fire drill."


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## wah0808 (Feb 10, 2010)

I've been in many venues (mostly schools) where the HVAC is not separate with-in the Theatre. Needless to say 30 seconds or so after using a smoke machine the fire alarms start. 

In one facility (which actually had a separate HVAC system in the Theatre) we set off the alarm during the first rehearsal (first time we had been in the space). From there on out we made sure that the facilities engineer checked that the A/C fan was set to low or off. Well, opening night guess who forgot to turn the fan off... First act of _J.C. Superstar_ and the alarm starts to sound... the band just kept playing (almost in tempo with the alarm) and we scrambled to get the darn thing reset. It cost the school dearly as the fire dept. showed up and they had to pay for a false alarm call... oh well. 

Always a good time!


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## museav (Feb 10, 2010)

Anvilx said:


> On the bright side, I would much rather have the fire drill during the tech rehearsal then during a performance. Was it a drill or a false alarm?


With the references to the stage crew being blamed, investigations and the fire department verifying that nothing was burning it sounds very much like a false alarm rather than a drill. And I'd much rather have a false alarm than a real emergency regardless of when it occurs.


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## bull (Feb 10, 2010)

WestlakeTech said:


> Try TWO false alarms during the SAME dance performance. One of my worst show memories to date. Rental sophomore year, Track 8 (maybe 7?)) the fire alarm goes off. We evacuate the ENTIRE building, which is not easy with the dance moms who think there can't be a fire anywhere they go. Fire department comes, turns out to have been a false alarm in the commons. But the show must go on so we pick up where we left off... 7 songs later, the alarm goes off again. You can just imagine the giant moan heard from the whole crowd. Thankfully it didn't happen again.
> 
> and as a side note: there's a massive difference in "lock down" and "fire drill."


There is DEFINITELY a big difference between "lock down" and a "fire drill." For instance, we were on lock down during rehearsal the other day, which ment you were locked inside whatever room you were in until the code green was called. We were on lock down because somebody got shot right next to the school. So. Back on topic, we don't have a seperate HVAC system for the theatre at my HS, so during Javert singing "Stars" in "Les Miserables" the hazers set off the fire system, Javert continued singing perfectly, and the band never missed a beat. There were however about 20 actors "asleep" next to the barricade on stage, and you could hear a few of them chuckling. Only 2 people left the theatre. Haha.


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## kiwitechgirl (Feb 10, 2010)

bull said:


> So. Back on topic, we don't have a seperate HVAC system for the theatre at my HS, so during Javert singing "Stars" in "Les Miserables" the hazers set off the fire system, Javert continued singing perfectly, and the band never missed a beat. There were however about 20 actors "asleep" next to the barricade on stage, and you could hear a few of them chuckling. Only 2 people left the theatre. Haha.



So let me get this straight: someone decided that it must have been the hazers which set the alarms off, so you didn't bother to evacuate despite the alarms? What's the point in a fire alarm if you decide that it's just the hazers and it's safe to carry on? Someday there'll be a real fire and the decision will be made that it's just the hazers and people will die....if there is an alarm, you get out of the building, no questions. We had a sprinkler go off in our foyer (due to me rigging a Pacific too close to it....although my boss then came in, looked at the lighting bars and now thinks they're actually hanging off the sprinkler pipes above the ceiling!) and the alarms went off as they're linked to the sprinklers; we knew there was no fire but we evacuated the building anyway. "Boy who cried wolf" is what comes to mind here.....


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## photoatdv (Feb 10, 2010)

kiwitechgirl said:


> So let me get this straight: someone decided that it must have been the hazers which set the alarms off, so you didn't bother to evacuate despite the alarms? What's the point in a fire alarm if you decide that it's just the hazers and it's safe to carry on? Someday there'll be a real fire and the decision will be made that it's just the hazers and people will die....if there is an alarm, you get out of the building, no questions. We had a sprinkler go off in our foyer (due to me rigging a Pacific too close to it....although my boss then came in, looked at the lighting bars and now thinks they're actually hanging off the sprinkler pipes above the ceiling!) and the alarms went off as they're linked to the sprinklers; we knew there was no fire but we evacuated the building anyway. "Boy who cried wolf" is what comes to mind here.....


Well it all comes down to the risk assessment/ procedures of the venue. Was it a situation where you know which alarm was sounding and the PLAN was it could go off and we kill it? My high school had a show that we knew there was a good chance we'd set one off... we set it to an early warning, so when it did, someone verified which alarm (and it was where we expected it to go off) and that there was no fire there, then shut it off. This wasn't decided mid-show though.


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## Les (Feb 10, 2010)

photoatdv said:


> Well it all comes down to the risk assessment/ procedures of the venue. Was it a situation where you know which alarm was sounding and the PLAN was it could go off and we kill it? My high school had a show that we knew there was a good chance we'd set one off... we set it to an early warning, so when it did, someone verified which alarm (and it was where we expected it to go off) and that there was no fire there, then shut it off. This wasn't decided mid-show though.





Was that "someone" by chance a fire marshal? To my knowledge, they are the only people who have that authority. Also, it sounds as though this venue is a High School and I highly doubt the risk assessment procedures allow this. How do you know it was the hazers in this zone, and not an overloaded lighting cable? There are lots of things in that fire alarm zone that can catch fire. Any time you feel like you need an override, call the fire department in advance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ALWAYS evacuate in this situation:


bull said:


> ...during Javert singing "Stars" in "Les Miserables" the hazers set off the fire system, Javert continued singing perfectly, and the band never missed a beat. There were however about 20 actors "asleep" next to the barricade on stage, and you could hear a few of them chuckling. Only 2 people left the theatre. Haha.



*Not* haha... Here's my response and reasoning taken from a similar thread:



Les said:


> Usually it's the fire protection system that automatically calls the fire department, much like a home or commercial security system. The building occupants rarely if ever have control over this, since they can not without any shadow of a doubt verify that there is in fact no fire. The building must be 'cleared' by the fire department in the event of a false alarm/smoke investigation. This is why it costs money. This is the same reason haze and fog costs money when they trip an alarm. Because in a large building, it is very hard to rule out coincidence. There could just so happen to be an actual fire somewhere at that same exact time, so normal 'all-clear' procedures must be adhered to.



*Don't play with fire, don't play with fire alarms, and don't risk lives.*


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## bull (Feb 10, 2010)

kiwitechgirl said:


> So let me get this straight: someone decided that it must have been the hazers which set the alarms off, so you didn't bother to evacuate despite the alarms? What's the point in a fire alarm if you decide that it's just the hazers and it's safe to carry on? Someday there'll be a real fire and the decision will be made that it's just the hazers and people will die....if there is an alarm, you get out of the building, no questions. We had a sprinkler go off in our foyer (due to me rigging a Pacific too close to it....although my boss then came in, looked at the lighting bars and now thinks they're actually hanging off the sprinkler pipes above the ceiling!) and the alarms went off as they're linked to the sprinklers; we knew there was no fire but we evacuated the building anyway. "Boy who cried wolf" is what comes to mind here.....


Was not my decision, I would have evacuated personally, however we had several Fire Personnel on site that night and our TD who is a former fireman, so they checked the system, identified the detector that had triggered the system, checked the building thoroughly, and within 3 minutes had identified it as a false alarm due to a haywire fog machine.


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## Les (Feb 10, 2010)

bull said:


> Was not my decision, I would have evacuated personally, however we had several Fire Personnel on site that night and our TD who is a former fireman, so they checked the system, identified the detector that had triggered the system, checked the building thoroughly, and within 3 minutes had identified it as a false alarm due to a haywire fog machine.



Sounds like you were pretty well covered then. Just so you know, my comments weren't directed at you personally. I just see it happen all too often where people fail to follow the correct protocol because they are _pretty sure_ they know what happened. There's just no room for "pretty sure" when it comes to fire alarms in theatres.


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## bull (Feb 10, 2010)

Les said:


> Sounds like you were pretty well covered then. Just so you know, my comments weren't directed at you personally. I just see it happen all too often where people fail to follow the correct protocol because they are _pretty sure_ they know what happened. There's just no room for "pretty sure" when it comes to fire alarms in theatres.


Yea, it's cool... I was actually acting in that show though, but right when the alarms went off, my technician side kicked in, made eye contact with the director and waited for a signal so I could help get everybody evacuated.


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## Anonymous067 (Feb 10, 2010)

We had this happen quite the incident at school yesterday...

A...person...(we'll leave it at that) accidentally left a bag of popcorn in the microwave too long. It started smoking and set off the fire alarms. So we all evacuate, and they did a good job of clearing it and letting us back in quick (<2 minutes!!).

As if that wasn't bad enough, it happened during lunch hour, so a lot of people got screwed out of a lunch.

Well, about 20 minutes later, a different person accidentally set off an alarm in a computer lab (accidentally opened the door and didn't know the alarm was set-apparently it never gets set and it was a once in four years time it was armed), so they put us in lockdown until they figured out what was going on (I was in the teachers class who set the alarm off, so we knew what was going on).

During the lockdown, (at this point the sheriff and fire marshal are both at our school...) the fire marshal informed admin that in order to reset the fire alarm system, the alarms would go off...again. This was during the lockdown.

So...we had an announcement come over the pa saying to disregard the fire alarm, and it was because of the earlier alarm.

Fun day. We didn't do anything in class during that period...


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## MNicolai (Feb 10, 2010)

I've noticed that, William, time and time again. You can go several months without any fire alarms (with exception to drills), but then in one day have multiple, unrelated alarms. This tends to make the fire department relatively confused and unhappy. The last time it happened to me we had done a drill and inspection with the fire department the night before, and then opening night of an event had it go off twice, for two completely different reasons. The one occasion even had the fire marshal removing a pull station from the wall, cutting the wires, and putting duct tape over the hole the in the wall. But again, both times we had to perform a full evac of patrons, inspect the facility on our own (event management only, always in radio communication with each other and in pairs), and then once the fire fighters arrived, had to walk through with them to try to determine the cause of the alarm.


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## MarshallPope (Feb 10, 2010)

MNicolai said:


> You can go several months without any fire alarms (with exception to drills), but then in one day have multiple, unrelated alarms.



This happened my junior year of high school with I think 4 bomb threats in a week... two of them in one day... Never had any more the whole time I was there.


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## photoatdv (Feb 10, 2010)

Yeah... we had a week like that. Several unrelated threats in the same week. Never saw so many police/school security/hired rent-a-cops on campus at the same time. We had a big show going on that week and a teacher called security over one of the freelance guys working on the show. Security showed up (who knew him) and proceeded to ask him to help them search the theatre for the stranger that was reported, and proceeded to describe him to himself . They never did figure it out... apparently he's good at keeping a straight face because he went along with it to see how long it would take them to figure out and they never did.


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## WestlakeTech (Feb 12, 2010)

Blah067 said:


> We had this happen quite the incident at school yesterday...
> 
> *A...person...(we'll leave it at that) accidentally left a bag of popcorn in the microwave too long.* It started smoking and set off the fire alarms. So we all evacuate, and they did a good job of clearing it and letting us back in quick (<2 minutes!!).



Happened in my dorm last week. Dang fire alarm always goes off in the middle of the night when I'm sleeping. Never once during daylight...


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## photoatdv (Feb 13, 2010)

If only I could convince my dorm to switch to the investigate-before-evacuating like arenas and large venues use...


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## dcollins (Feb 13, 2010)

photoatdv said:


> If only I could convince my dorm to switch to the investigate-before-evacuating like arenas and large venues use...



Arenas and large venues use investigate before evacuating because an alarm could cause a frantic rush for the exits, which makes people all sorts of likely to be injured, and there's presumably someone competent on site for said investigating. It's unlikely the the entire building will fill with smoke in the 5 minutes it takes to check, and obviously if there are blatant flames people will evacuate, however until there's confirmation it's more risk to evacuate than not.

This is not true in dorms. In fact, in most college dorms, a room could fill with smoke from burned popcorn in a microwave that someone opens the door to, letting the fire get oxygen and burn and suffocate people, and all that before fire officials would arrive. 

(The above is entirely a guess, I really have no idea)


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## Anonymous067 (Feb 13, 2010)

photoatdv said:


> Yeah... we had a week like that. Several unrelated threats in the same week. Never saw so many police/school security/hired rent-a-cops on campus at the same time. We had a big show going on that week and a teacher called security over one of the freelance guys working on the show. Security showed up (who knew him) and proceeded to ask him to help them search the theatre for the stranger that was reported, and proceeded to describe him to himself . They never did figure it out... apparently he's good at keeping a straight face because he went along with it to see how long it would take them to figure out and they never did.



Ugh...we had admin come into the booth during our last show of the talent show and tell us we couldn't go black anymore because they were "afraid that the people in the front row were going to rush the stage". I asked why they couldn't put admin by the front row, and they said because they didn't want to "scare them". WTH?


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## edmedmoped (Feb 20, 2010)

Blah067 said:


> Ugh...we had admin come into the booth during our last show of the talent show and tell us we couldn't go black anymore because they were "afraid that the people in the front row were going to rush the stage". I asked why they couldn't put admin by the front row, and they said because they didn't want to "scare them". WTH?


*ಠ_ಠ*

That face sums it up.


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## shiben (Feb 21, 2010)

dcollins said:


> Arenas and large venues use investigate before evacuating because an alarm could cause a frantic rush for the exits, which makes people all sorts of likely to be injured, and there's presumably someone competent on site for said investigating. It's unlikely the the entire building will fill with smoke in the 5 minutes it takes to check, and obviously if there are blatant flames people will evacuate, however until there's confirmation it's more risk to evacuate than not.
> 
> This is not true in dorms. In fact, in most college dorms, a room could fill with smoke from burned popcorn in a microwave that someone opens the door to, letting the fire get oxygen and burn and suffocate people, and all that before fire officials would arrive.
> 
> (The above is entirely a guess, I really have no idea)



During our dorm safety briefing, we were informed that a fire can move through a dorm at terrifying speed, and the building can be fully involved in under 5 minutes. Basically, if your asleep and the building is actually on fire, it is possible that you will be dead/trapped before you realize its time to evacuate. Even if the doors/walls/suppression systems work, people on floors 3+ really do only have less than 5 minutes before you wont be able to see due to the smoke. If you think about a large arena, what in there is super flammable? Possibly the concrete walls and floor? The chance of a fire having an arena entirely in flames is pretty low in the first place, I would imagine. In a dorm, everyone's room is filled with papers, books and clothes. If your room is like mine, its basically a tinderbox with all sorts of devices with which to light it off sitting around. Reason number one why I dont block the sprinkler/detector. Fire is not something that is to be f***ed around with, if there is an alarm, evacuation is really the best plan. Even if its 3Am and snowing outside, just do it. I have seen what fire can do to bodies, its not pretty. Also, you can replace your stuff. Just get out.


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## firewater88 (Feb 24, 2010)

We have had two alarms go off for two different shows in the past 5 years. The first one was a fluke, the guy in charge of the fog machine plugged it in to warm up, but had it pointing out the back stage door and when it poofed during warm up, it went right out he door and into the detector. I had NO clue that was what it was. I had to evacuate the whole building, standard protocol. I then found out what it was and reprimanded that guy for the rest of the run.

The second time was more my fault. We just got a new hazer and hadn't broke in the venue yet. We cranked it up for the final number and had a good haze on. As soon as the kids hit the last note of the show in rehearsal, the alarm went off. Everyone thought it was part of the show! You couldn't ask for better timing. I have since replaced the smoke detector (that tripped) on stage to a heat sensor. All the other detectors in the theatre are in the return air ducts, which I can now disable at the alarm panel of the building. (highly recommended for everyone who has access to doing this.)


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## GreyWyvern (Feb 24, 2010)

firewater88 said:


> ...All the other detectors in the theatre are in the return air ducts, which I can now disable at the alarm panel of the building. (highly recommended for everyone who has access to doing this.)



Have you gotten the OK from your AHJ to do that? Most places, you can only do that if there is someone from the AHJ present in the venue for the entire time the system is turned off. They usually have to walk the entire building (or at least the section that is affected) once or twice an hour. Just turning the system off without taking the proper precautions is dangerous *and not recommended to anyone even if you do have the access.*


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## firewater88 (Feb 24, 2010)

GreyWyvern said:


> Have you gotten the OK from your AHJ to do that? Most places, you can only do that if there is someone from the AHJ present in the venue for the entire time the system is turned off. They usually have to walk the entire building (or at least the section that is affected) once or twice an hour. Just turning the system off without taking the proper precautions is dangerous *and not recommended to anyone even if you do have the access.*



This was a feature programed into the fire panel when the building was built. I asked the FM once during a walk through and he said it was fine to shut it down during a performance only. It is password locked at the panel, so not just anyone can do it.

OK, I shouldn't have added that tag line (everyone should do it) Although I think heat sensors on stage are better to have than smoke detectors.


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## GreyWyvern (Feb 24, 2010)

If the AHJ said it is OK, then you should be alright, but I would make sure that is in writing somewhere. That way, if something does happen, you have your butt covered.


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## firewater88 (Feb 24, 2010)

probably not a bad idea to have it in writing. I don't think we have that anywhere. Next time I see him, I will ask about it.
Thanks


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## emac (Mar 10, 2010)

My school shares our building with another school which is 6-12 ( we are 9-12), so the other school is I think required to do a fire drill every month where as us as a high school only have to do it once a month..... So every time they have one the announcement comes over the P.A. "DO not leave the building the alarm is for the other school..." GRRRR


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## MarshallPope (Mar 10, 2010)

emac said:


> My school shares our building with another school which is 6-12 ( we are 9-12), so the other school is I think required to do a fire drill every month where as us as a high school only have to do it once a month..... So every time they have one the announcement comes over the P.A. "DO not leave the building the alarm is for the other school..." GRRRR



Good story, but I'm a bit confused - They have to have a drill every month while you guys "only" have to have one once a month??


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## emac (Mar 10, 2010)

MarshallPope said:


> Good story, but I'm a bit confused - They have to have a drill every month while you guys "only" have to have one once a month??




Yes. I think this is because they are a middle school as well as a high school..... So because we are only a high school we only have to do it every three months....... Its really wierd


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## photoatdv (Mar 10, 2010)

emac, reread what you wrote


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