GridGirl Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 Story here Not sure how a curtain which should be fireproofed if not IFR could burn so successfully. Fortunately everyone got out, but it seems the building is badly damaged. I've done some work there - nice space, hope it can be rebuilt quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.elsbury Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 Agreed, will be curious to both the cause and the explanation. The other half is supposed to be going to a show in the attached studio (black box) space next week, hopefully it goes ahead. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigclive Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 I can just imagine someone saying. "This is how you test drapes for flame retarding." as they hold a lighter to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gibbothegreat Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 Is it just me whose imagination is finding plenty of material to work with in this sentence from the news report: "The Engineering Revue, a show put on by the faculty of engineering at the university, was scheduled to start at the theatre tomorrow"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themadhippy Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 curtains may well be IFR,but what about the dust build up,especially on fixed boarders,it gets more exiting when amdrams decide to test fire "reduced height" silver jets without the house crew being aware,nor bothering to check the pyro is actually what they thought it was.Of course such things would never happen in the uk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 Not sure how a curtain which should be fireproofed... Thats your Brit experience talking there. Despite the Guide to safe working practices in the New Zealand theatre and entertainment industry requiring flame retardent materials, it is some way from universal practice in NZ. In the UK, theatres used to burn with regular monotony, people failed to exit, and people died, which resulted in highly effective regulation and the enforcement of the use of flame resistant materials. In NZ, building are mostly highly combustible, and thus we hope people leave quickly, as by the time the heros arrive with hoses, there isn't likely ot be much left. I've witnessed two shows here that had polystyrene scenary. Having done shows under the auspicies of the GLC, I cant even begin to think what the inspector whould say, but am sure lots of it would not be repeatable in polite company, other than the word "no". Thus I'm not surprised at all that an alleged hot light / curtain interface moment resulted in a fire. The above-mentioned guide is a damned fine read; it was written to be read, unlike many such publications, and actually has a large common sense component. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roderick Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 And is Dean Parker's "Midnight in Moscow" the new Scottish play? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GridGirl Posted April 4, 2013 Author Share Posted April 4, 2013 Official statement is saying it was a curtain which ignited from a stage light. Circa Theatre in Wellington is next to produce the play - hope they get it up and running.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gyro_gearloose Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 curtains may well be IFR,but what about the dust build up,especially on fixed boarders,it gets more exiting when amdrams decide to test fire "reduced height" silver jets without the house crew being aware,nor bothering to check the pyro is actually what they thought it was.Of course such things would never happen in the uk And nor would the stage manager drag the scope onto stage, climb it with fire extinguisher in hand, and put the fire out, rather than dropping the iron and then making sure cast and crew got out safely. <_< It was a good that it was just a rehearsal so there was no audience to deal with as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonp Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 Reminds me of something I did recently. Went to a fairly large concert hall/theatre venue, house tech had no idea of his patch numbers and ummed and ahhed about it for a while before he decided on what I should try patching to. The venue was one of those with a fixed rig of S4 Pars on flybars that come in for orchestral shows, and standard fresnels/pars/whatever bars for everything else, with whatever set of lights not being used disappearing up into the grid. Of course, he'd mistakenly given me one of the numbers for the orchestral system, which I'd left patched on one of my keylight channels, so it stayed on in the grid the whole show. Unfortunately up there next to it was a leg we'd had flown out to make way for monitor world. Changeover into headline band we notice a funny smell onstage but it's not too bad, but by the end of the headline it's nauseating throughout the venue, this S4 Par had burnt a 18" hole clear through a thick black wool serge leg. Luckily it was fire retardent so as much as the hole got bigger, it never went up. I always wonder what would have happened if it hadn't have been fire retardent... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Evans Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 Reminds me of something I did recently. Went to a fairly large concert hall/theatre venue, house tech had no idea of his patch numbers and ummed and ahhed about it for a while before he decided on what I should try patching to. The venue was one of those with a fixed rig of S4 Pars on flybars that come in for orchestral shows, and standard fresnels/pars/whatever bars for everything else, with whatever set of lights not being used disappearing up into the grid. Of course, he'd mistakenly given me one of the numbers for the orchestral system, which I'd left patched on one of my keylight channels, so it stayed on in the grid the whole show. Unfortunately up there next to it was a leg we'd had flown out to make way for monitor world. Changeover into headline band we notice a funny smell onstage but it's not too bad, but by the end of the headline it's nauseating throughout the venue, this S4 Par had burnt a 18" hole clear through a thick black wool serge leg. Luckily it was fire retardent so as much as the hole got bigger, it never went up. I always wonder what would have happened if it hadn't have been fire retardent... This sounds very much like a story I heard from the Anvil in Basingstoke ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew C Posted April 20, 2013 Share Posted April 20, 2013 Saw very similar 1st hand myself. A set of pre-rigged cans on the deck behind curtains. 24 almost identical scorch marks on the floor! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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