# High School Safety



## NewChris (Jan 8, 2014)

I have a few concerns and questions about my high school auditorium.

First is we have some rigging that has never been inspected. How often should it be inspected? I am in Massachusetts. No one knows how to use it and we are going to get a professional in to look at it. IS there a good way to find professional riggers?

Second is our fire curtain. I don't think it has been inspected for a while. What are the laws with a fire curtain and how often do they need to be tested? Who would we bring in to inspect it?

Third is about the architecture of the auditorium. There are a lot of wires and panels that we don't know what they go to. How could we find out? Would architectural plans for the school have them? How would we get them?

Fourth, outside our auditorium is an inspection sheet thing with the occupation maximums. It was issued in 1993 and expire in 1994. How would we check to see if it has been reinspected? Is this necessary? Would we go to the town to get it reinspected? 

Finally, a more general question, is we are planning on selling our followspots soon. How do you ship them? We don't have any cases for them. They are Altman 1000Q's.

Thanks.


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## Footer (Jan 8, 2014)

Where in Massachusetts's? 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk


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## egilson1 (Jan 8, 2014)

Send me an email [email protected] 
Were in Mass


Ethan


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## NewChris (Jan 8, 2014)

I am in Winchester. Suburb of Boston.


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## NewChris (Jan 8, 2014)

The other thing I forgot to mention, is I don't think any of our lights have safety cables on them. Where can you get them, and how do you mount them?


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## Footer (Jan 8, 2014)

NewChris said:


> The other thing I forgot to mention, is I don't think any of our lights have safety cables on them. Where can you get them, and how do you mount them?



Email Ethan, he will help you out. Sounds like you need a site visit and inspection, after that he will help you proceed. Alps is the place to call for eastern Mass.


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## josh88 (Jan 8, 2014)

And alps is full of wonderful helpful people who are great to work with. They will get you sorted out.


Via Tapatalk


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## gafftaper (Jan 9, 2014)

Your best bet is to bring in someone who is an ETCP Certified Rigger to inspect your theater and help you figure out how to proceed... and look there's one right there. Aren't you lucky. 

egilson1 said:


> Send me an email [email protected] Were in Mass Ethan



I'm sure Ethan will do his best to make the inspection reasonably priced, but it won't be free. I'm assuming you are a student which may bring complications. You, have to convince your administration that it's important to have your theater inspected, and that can be difficult in some schools when you are seen as "only" a student. If you want some backup, I know several people here on CB who have very impressive resumes, who would be happy to spend 10 minutes on the phone with your administration answering questions about why an inspection is so important. Let me know. Another route to take is contacting the district Risk Management office. Odds are they don't have a clue about how dangerous your theater may be. They can be very influential... but they can also close your theater until they decide it's safe, so this is not always the preferred route to take. 

Another thought is to contact a nearby college, university, or theater. I know lots of people around here who are happy to donate a little time to stop in and help out a struggling school (I've done it myself). They aren't going to do a lot of work for you, but they may be willing to teach you some safety and help you identify problems that you need to pay someone to fix. Make some phone calls, get to know some people, and ask them if they are willing to come help you out a little when they have some free time (summer). 

Safety cables $2.50 each follow this link.  This is an absolute must purchase item. C-clamps are cast iron and are actually somewhat fragile. If they are over tightened, they can snap in half quite easily. Safety cables keep people alive and are dirt cheap. As for how to use them. The easiest thing to do is just make a loop around the batten (pipe) and the yoke (the metal bracket that holds the light). Like this: 



If you have ETC Source four light fixtures, follow this link to find a technique I've been using for safety cables for a few years now and I really like the extra safe redundancy, and the fact that the safety cable is always attached to the fixture.


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## NewChris (Jan 9, 2014)

Yup, it is going to be hard to convince my tech advisor and the administration. I have mid year exams coming up so I will be plenty busy studying and won't have time to argue with the administration. All of these replies have been great so far!


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## BillConnerFASTC (Jan 9, 2014)

Rigging should be inspected annually and fire safety curtains are required to be inspected annually.

I was not certain if the 1992 inspection placard might have been from when the school was first opened but in that case the original drawings should be out there and the architect if around might be the best place. A district facilities office is often the best option. The older the building the harder to find the drawings but that said, working on a 1897 school with major 1921 addition and the district has all the drawings.

It feels like the auditorium and stage could benefit from an overall review by a theatre consultant who will look at and document all of the deficiencies and opportunities. I'm guessing there are many more shortcomings than just deferred rigging maintenance.


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## theatricalmatt (Jan 9, 2014)

NewChris said:


> I have a few concerns and questions about my high school auditorium.
> 
> First is we have some rigging that has never been inspected. How often should it be inspected? I am in Massachusetts. No one knows how to use it and we are going to get a professional in to look at it. IS there a good way to find professional riggers?
> 
> ...


 
I'll "third" Ethan and ALPS for a rigging inspection. You should have a rigging inspection of the entire facility every year. More critical or more heavily used elements should be inspected more frequently. You would always want to visually inspecting each rigging element as you use it. You might also want to ask the school to purchase some theater handbooks; Jay Glerum's "Stage Rigging Handbook" is one of the fundamentals.

The rigging inspection should include the fire curtain. It should also be inspected annually. USITT has a decent introductory article on their website: http://sightlines.usitt.org/archive/v46/n02/stories/CurtainsSafety.html. Do you know how it's operated?

Architectural plans for the school probably won't include electrical wiring. You may find the wiring in the building plans or, more likely, an electrical plan developed by a subcontractor. The subcontractor should have turned over a manual or set of documents as part of the turnkey process. If that doesn't exist, I would check the bottom drawers of desks, filing cabinets, and book shelves, as silly as that sounds. Depending on the age of the school, the builders and contractors may still be around to ask for documentation. It sounds like the school's at least twenty years old, though.

Another route is to examine the panels for labels, or note the types of connectors used; often the type of connector helps define its use, and getting a sense of its purpose would help understand what it connects to in the building. A female XLR connector on the face of the stage is likely a microphone input (for a podium at center), which probably leads back to the booth. Unfortunately, poorly-labeled panels and wiring is not an easy curse to lift.

The maximum occupancy of a room is determined by the fire marshal. I would bring this up to the principal and the head of facilities. Ask them to have it re-inspected and re-certified. Understand that it costs money to do so, and schools don't have unlimited budgets. Let them know it's important to you.

For large and unwieldy objects, I'll often take a larger box (like a refrigerator or computer box), cut it down to the right proportions, then fill it with packing material. Styrofoam's okay for a base, those inflatable packing bags are great; Styrofoam peanuts are awful, however, because they find their way into the guts of lighting equipment. You might ask ALPS if they're willing to sell them on consignment for you. I believe GearSource (www.gearsource.com) will also sell things on consignment. There's also eBay, as well as this website (the Classifieds section).


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## gafftaper (Jan 9, 2014)

Are you in a public school? If yes it may not be legal for you to sell that followspot. In my state, anything that is owned by the school is state property and has to go through a surplus process. This means it becomes freely available to anyone in the district to take, then they either ship it to a state property warehouse for auction or the district auctions it off in their own auction. As for convincing school staff and administration that this inspection is a priority, you might start by printing out this thread.

Be careful with your attitude when you do finally present this to administration. It's easy to get passionate and worried about this, but be careful that doesn't turn you into a pushy jerk in their eyes. Even though every event that happens without an inspection is potentially more and more dangerous, you have to be patient if you are going to be effective. Your goal is to teach and make people aware of the dangers of not having things inspected. They aren't used to having a student teaching them, so be really careful about your attitude. Keep your attitude, "I don't know everything, but I've researched this as best I can and I know that we have not had any inspections in a long time and we have not had any training in how to safely operate potentially dangerous equipment". Often there is money left in the school budget in June that has to be spent or it goes away. Contact Ethan directly for a price quote so you have an exact number you are asking for. As you are making your sales pitch to administration, ask them if they can pay for it out of this end of the year money or to set it aside in next year's budget.


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## BillConnerFASTC (Jan 9, 2014)

This is from Chapter 20 - Fabric Fire Safety Curtains - of NFPA 80 which is referenced by the Life Safety Code, the International Building Code, and The International Fire Code. Good chance one of those apply if your facility is in the US.

20.9 Care and Maintenance.
20.9.1 The rigging system shall be inspected annually.
20.9.1.1 The annual rigging inspection shall be performed by a qualified person.
20.9.1.2 Inspection shall include all components of the fire safety curtain assembly and operation, including 20.7.3.
20.9.1.3 Retraining of the owner and staff shall be mandatory during each annual inspection.
20.9.1.4 Signed and dated inspection reports, including a list of who attended the training, shall be kept on file with the owner for review by the AHJ as an ongoing acceptance procedure.
20.9.2 Unless temporary measures have been approved by the AHJ, repairs required for emergency operation of the fire safety curtain assembly shall be completed before the facility can be occupied for an event with an audience.
20.9.3 Repairs not affecting the emergency closing of the fire safety curtain shall be completed within 30 days.
20.9.4 Maintenance shall be carried out in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendations and schedule.
20.9.5 All repairs and maintenance shall be recorded in a repair/maintenance log.
20.9.5.1 This log shall include the date, the name of the person repairing or maintaining, and a description detailing parts affected, maintained, adjusted, and/or replaced.
20.9.5.2 This report shall be kept on file with the owner for review by the AHJ as an ongoing acceptance procedure.

Note 20.9.1 refers to the fire safety curtain's rigging, not the stage generally. There is no such statutory requirements for rigging, beyond the general requirements requiring you to protect people from hazards.


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## NewChris (Jan 9, 2014)

I am in a public school so i will have to look at legality for selling the lights. Our school was built in the 1970's. I am going to try to find out if any of the contractors are still around. I have a basic idea on how to operate both the rigging and the fire curtain just from looking around. I did get a copy of _The Stage rigging Handbook _ I found it very useful and will get my own copy. I will try to figure out where connectors are going based on the type. Is there a good website or article with a list with photos of connector?


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## cmckeeman (Jan 9, 2014)

Is this the same rigging that you posted about a month or so ago?


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## NewChris (Jan 9, 2014)

cmckeeman said:


> Is this the same rigging that you posted about a month or so ago?



Yes, this is the same one I was told to destroy with fire.


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## RickR (Jan 9, 2014)

NewChris said:


> Is there a good website or article with a list with photos of connector?



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEMA_connector has the current standard types. You may well have some non-NEMA ones that are harder to track down. I've found http://www.hubbell-wiring.com/ to be pretty useful. 

Of course posting a photo here will track down any real odd-balls.


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## cmckeeman (Jan 9, 2014)

NewChris said:


> Yes, this is the same one I was told to destroy with fire.


Has it been looked at by a professional?


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## NewChris (Jan 10, 2014)

cmckeeman said:


> Has it been looked at by a professional?



We have not yet. Before break was crazy with a show and we were getting a grant in so we were busy with that.


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