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Pyro Safety Equipment


TCass

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As we demonstrated on the pyro course, once pyro starts burning you'll not put it out. So it's down to considering what might be next to the burning pyro. In normal storage it's  usually going to be dry solids like cardboard and timber, so you'll need extinguishers suitable for those.

Once it's on stage then there are other considerations, but then everything around it ought/must be either inherently flame retardant (IFR) or durably flame retardant (DFR). In other words, it's either stuff which doesn't burn or stuff which has been treated so it doesn't burn. Even so, extinguishers suitable for material that might not be IFR/DFR ought to be on hand.

In transport, then the law in the form of CDGUPTER(2009) kicks in and the type, size, and quantity of extinguishers that MUST be carried is detailed.

It's worth considering that most pyro devices are short duration; by the time you've grabbed the extinguisher they will have finished. Hence the need to focus on what they might set alight to.

HTH.

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  • 2 weeks later...

As an example, observe that organised firework displays generally function even in exceptional rain, and any failures that do occur are often due to water in the electric firing circuits.

Marine distress flares function not just just in heavy rain but even if a wave breaks over someone holding a flare.

Whilst display fireworks and marine flares are not exactly the same as theatre pyrotechnics, they are closely related products.

Some types of illuminating flare work whilst continually submerged.

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Probably mid 70's my brother and his mate ran a mobile disco.

It was full of widow maker leads and door bell buttons running 240v to flash lights.

They decided that smoke would be good so bought a boating flare and had a bucket of water standing by. On being lit, an impenetrable cloud of orange smoke covered everything, dyed people Trump colour, and of course, continued when panic took over and it was plunged into the emergency bucket. They were lucky and it seems amusing now but things could have gone a lot worse.

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2 hours ago, Dave m said:

Probably mid 70's my brother and his mate ran a mobile disco.

It was full of widow maker leads and door bell buttons running 240v to flash lights.

They decided that smoke would be good so bought a boating flare and had a bucket of water standing by. On being lit, an impenetrable cloud of orange smoke covered everything, dyed people Trump colour, and of course, continued when panic took over and it was plunged into the emergency bucket. They were lucky and it seems amusing now but things could have gone a lot worse.

Oh I remember those days with a mixture of fondness and downright fear.

No my early 4 or 3 channel sound to light didn't use 8 pin Bulgins, I went the Octal valve base route, actually destroying valves recovered from old kit and their bases.  Widow maker style too.

We used to use a farmers barn every summer for a dance/BBQ and hang a 100W reflector bulb on each concrete upright - a cordgrip bulbholder with galve steel wire to form a bracket, a short length of random twin flex with a choc bloc and a harness for eack side made with recovered/scrap telephone dropwire which initially terminated into choc bloc on the back of the homemade switchbox and later changed to 12 way jones plug/socket. The switches being mostly P.O. key switches from a unit purchased in Lisle Street London WC2 before it turned into chinese restaurants.

Homemade flash pans - wooden box with 3 compartments and a pair of m4 brass bolts sticking out for each a 4 core flex on Jones plug, the 'fuse' being 5A tinned copper fusewire with a file run across it to form a weak spot and in our case a 3 gang domestic light switch to fire them. A number of times it took out the 13A fuse  or 15A MCB elsewhere and of course one had to remember to switch off after use to 'make safe'. I hate to think what chemicals we mixed to make different effects🤔.

Of course in those days H&S hadn't been invented so thing weren't dangerous🤣

Edited by sunray
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3 hours ago, sandall said:

Lisle Street - now there's a name from the past

I hate to think how much of my valuable pocket money I spent there (and if I'm honest wasted there too)... My first microphone, first multimeter - I was about 12, now 66, and still in use by my nephews,  19 set,  headphones - more sound came out  than went into ones ears...

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As Brian indicates, if you get as far as fire extinguishers you went wrong a way back down the trail. Think ERICPD and eliminate, reduce, isolate and control before thinking about protections. We held dry powder for transporting fireworks but used metal army surplus ammunition boxes to keep everything in anyway and once set out the only "extinguisher" was a bucket of water to dump misfires into. Once anything ignited it was all about the risk assessment you made earlier.

The maritime flares they talk of above won't get extinguished and end up with red hot or even molten metal tubes burning holes in the tarmac. 

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The best I know is that you buy from a known source, keep them as packed by the maker in transport and storage, and fire them with sufficient safety distance laterally and vertically. All pyro burns when wet but usually it only burns for a few seconds, it's everything else that may catch fire! You may need extinguishers for class A fires (wood paper cloth etc) BUT your safety planning should have eliminated anything that may burn from the vicinity of firing pyro before you actually fit the pyro to the stage.  

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A caveat for coloured smokes. Beware, they stain everything that the smoke contacts. Part of the design of distress smoke flares is that they leave a large stained area behind after they have burned out for easy visibility by rescuers. For performance art, this staining can mean a repaint every time.

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1 hour ago, Jivemaster said:

A caveat for coloured smokes. 

And even white smokes. I've had to clean down the railings around the Guards Memorial before now when they went from crisp shiny black to blotchy grey.  

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