Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: What's that noise... Oh, it sounds like the Fire Alarm...

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Posted by Jim Alexander (Member # 226) on 01-30-2004, 09:03 PM:

Not sure if this topic has been broached, but tonight we had a fire alarm sound off at my theatre. Being it was my day off, I was at home enjoying a nice peaceful evening when the phone rang. One of my staff was kind enough to call and tell me that the fire alarm had sounded and there were police and fire fighters all over the place.

By the time I got to the theatre all the "unpaid" guests had left after determining one of the smoke/heat detectors had given a false alarm. Staff told me that the alarm had gone off 20 minutes into the show and it was shut down and lights turned on so that customers could vacate orderly.

The question I have is what do other theatres do in a case like this. Seeing as there were only 40 customers to this show, I decided to offer a free small pop and small popcorn to everyone. The show was restarted and everyone was happy. Being the owner of a single screen, I have this luxury, however, if the show had been delayed to long, I'm not sure what I would have done. The priority is to keep the customer happy and the books balanced, but to what level?

Posted by Kyle Caudill (Member # 1252) on 01-31-2004, 02:16 AM:

I have had two fires in the past 2 monthes. Two days before Thanksgiving I had a 10 year kid set fire to one of my auditoriums. It was/is extremely damaged and suffered smoked damage in the booth and other auditoriums.
Two weeks ago, I had a kettle catch on fire.

To handle the situations we gave out rainchecks to every customers that had purchased tickets that had stayed around until the fire department let us back in the building. For those that had left if they still had their stub we let them back in. Fortuantly my theatre is a dollar theatre, so a lot of people did not argue if they did not have their stub. As for concessions, handled it on a per customer basis. If they brought there stuff back we just exchanged it or gave money back and if they said they had bought something we would try and meet there needs. But, we did not want to be taken for a loop.

To help prevent fire alarms from being pulled. We have a protective case over the fire alarm that sends out a signal just at the pull station. This usually scares the prankster and he/she runs out. Instead of having a whole building cleared we just have on auditorium to handle.

Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 01-31-2004, 09:07 AM:

As any multi-plex manager knows, fire alarms, when proven false, are the most difficult situations to handle.

MOst importantly, it is imperative to get everyone out to a safe area, be it in the main lobby or outside. A good Fire Alarm panel will tell you exactly where the trouble is so that you can investigate the nature of the alarm.. FOr whatever reasons, our booth was not req'd to have automatic shutdowns tied into the fire alarm system, but I know that many booths do. When we have an alarm, I have an operator quickly go thru and stop all shows. I have asst's and doormen go thru and help people exit the auditoriums and/or building. I personally (when present) investigate into what wnet wrong where and either silence the alarm and do a system reset or follow up by getting everyone out of the building. Fortunately, all alarms have been false.

How to hanlde patrons is another story all in itself. Most patrons are fine with a 15-20 minute delay. Those that are not get refund tickets or cash back if they leave. There are *always* those that feel they are entitled to both refund passes AND cash back AND still be allowed to watch teh show after the delay. I always want to ask if they bumped their head, but I don't. Acccidents DO happen. I think that a resonable person should be willing to accept that fact. I love it when there is a really bad electrical storm which knocks the power out briefly... and people want to know what I'm going to do about it. [Roll Eyes]

I like to say that I'm going to cross my fingers and hope the power comes back on quickly.. or that I'm going to phone God up and ask that he quit playing with nature for the sake of their movie... but I don't.

In all seriousness, any time you have a fire alarm go off, it is VERY IMPORTANT that it be treated as if there were an actaul fire present. The one time you don't will prove to be the time you are wrong. Personal, Employee & Patron safety are all paramount and should be placed above anything else. The building and it's contents are insured for such perils. Life is not as easily replaced and/or rebuilt.

Posted by Jim Alexander (Member # 226) on 01-31-2004, 10:08 PM:

This fire alarm was only the second we=ve had in seven years. The first was about a month after we took over the theatre and had no clue as to what procedures to follow. We got everyone out and the fire department checked out the situation.

This time, however, we knew what to do. Luckily we are less than a minute from the Fire Hall and they were able to clear us to go back in within 10 minutes of the alarm going off. Customers were really understanding and didn't mind that we couldn't rewind the movie for them... one of the draw backs to platter systems. All in all it went quite well, but it got me to wondering what other establishments did in this type of situation.

As to power failures, we to have had to deal with it, and normally wait about 20 minutes before calling it a show. power doesn't come back on, anyone who wishes to leave is given a choice of a refund or a free pass. It doesn't happen often and customers around here are really understanding. Seldom do we get a complaint. Guess it is the joy of being in a rural area.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 02-02-2004, 01:47 AM:

Fire alarms are one of my biggest bugbears, because I once spent a year working in a newly opened site with a system that kept triggering false alarms. There were two underlying problems: firstly the system had been badly installed (e.g. the panel had not been programmed to display any meaningful information as to the location of an activated detector), and secondly the fact that it was a new building meant there was lots of dust in the air which had a habit of getting into the photoelectric smoke heads.

At one stage it was so bad that there were two or three evacuations a week, and the fire brigade even threatened to disconnect the automatic 'phone link from our alarm. What made things even worse was that we rented out two areas of the building as restaurant units, and all three alarm systems had to be interlinked. The manager of one of these units was an utter moron - she shouldn't have been in charge of a broom cupboard, let alone premises licensed to serve alcohol! She didn't even know how to reset her alarm until I showed her, and on another occasion she kept her place open - and serving customers - while the sirens were blaring and 400 cinemagoers were stood out in the rain waiting for the fire brigade to let us back in!

Eventually things got to the stage at which duty managers would reset the alarm (and often disable the activated head) first and check out the suspect location later. If there had been a real fire I'm convinced people wouldn't have reacted as quickly as they should have done - because the whole staff were just so used to hearing the damn thing go off and knew it would be a false alarm. That thing was effectively an electronic version of Aesop's boy who cried wolf. If these systems are to do their job properly, they should be maintained so as to never go off except in a fire drill or when something's actually burning.

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 02-02-2004, 09:35 AM:

At my first theater, we had some wise-ass teenagers grab the fire extinguisher in one of the auditoriums, and ran around spraying it in the air. The dust from the extinguisher set off the fire alarm, and naturally everyone came out... to find the hallways full of the extinguisher dust... thought it was smoke... and FREAKED OUT! [Eek!]

The ushers ran in the auditorium and naturally, grabbed the extinguisher looking for the fire. One guy runs up to the booth to see if it's something up there. Instead of getting out and getting the people out, the staff is running around looking for the fire...

Police and firefighters had arrived before I knew the whole story, and they had the kids who supposedly did it. But they had no proof. The fire extinguisher had the employees' prints on it, and the few people that were in that auditorium either already left with their refund, or went into the other screen showing the movie after they all restarted.

The only people left who actually saw the kids do it was a man and his 8-year-old son, who said they don't want to get involved and just wanted to finish their movie. The kid seemed distraught by the whole incident. SO, the police threaten the customer with obstruction of justice!! The customer throws a fit, grabs his kid and leaves.

The perpetrators' parents arrived later and had a nice long talk with the cops from what I heard. But if the kids are that bad already, I doubt they're getting the required dose of discipline at home.

Lesson for the day: Follow procedures and keep the brain spasms to a minimum.

=TMP=

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 02-02-2004, 10:44 AM:

Reminds me of an incident described in a fire safety lecture, the moral of the story being 'always read the instructions, however obvious it may seem.' This was when fire extinguishers were pretty new, and it wasn't common knowledge that you had to pull the safety pin out. The fire brigade arrived at the scene of a fire in a departure lounge at Heathrow Airport. They discovered that the place was pretty much gutted, and near the seat of the blaze were about 20 fire extinguishers which were charred, blackened and dented, but which had not been discharged.

What had happened was that the first person to see the fire, an airport security guard, had grabbed the nearest extinguisher, aimed it at the seat of the blaze and pulled the trigger. Because the safety pin was still in place, nothing happened. Thinking that it was jammed and faulty, he then threw the extinguisher into the fire; his rationale being that it would eventually rupture in the heat and release its contents. A crowd of onlookers saw this. They assumed that someone in uniform must know what he's doing, so they all ran round the terminal collecting extinguishers - and threw those at the fire, too! [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 02-02-2004, 02:25 PM:

Great story, Leo!
After reading about the airport fire, I asked our receptionist to show me how she might use our extinguisher to put out a smoldering wastebasket fire if she were alone. Sure enough, I had to hint at removing the safety pin.
So your tale served an instructive purpose. Thanks!
Gerard

Posted by R. Andrew Diercks (Member # 1725) on 02-02-2004, 04:38 PM:

We have been open for a mere 9 months and had about 9 false alarms. None for several months as we gradually fixed causes of problems when they occurred. The first few were on our Grand Opening weekend which we carefully planned a month after actual opening as to make sure bugs were worked out. They weren't. A lobby smoke detector was the root of the problem which was relocated twice before it solved the issue. The other 4 or 5 times were the result of some kid pulling the alarm in an exit area so I installed a pre-alarm cover to eliminate that.

During all of these, we evacuated very quickly but our neighbors in the mall did not, and it's a resturaunt in which the manager is a volunteer firefighter. [Confused]

He said they're always false in this mall so he doesn't bother.

Posted by Andy Muirhead (Member # 712) on 02-02-2004, 06:11 PM:

Leo, That situation reminds me of when our building was being renonvated. However, we didn't link our alarm system to control until after all the dusty business was concluded, and also had what i called 'detecter condoms (basically plastic covers)' over the detectors in dusty area's.

The problem of other premises not evacuating is something we used to see a lot - a nightclub in the same building kept setting off alarms with smoke machines, and they NEVER evacuated, while we did EVERY TIME.

I think it's very good practice to evacuate every time, even if you personally set them off by accident. The fire brigade would take a very dim view of not evacuating, and besides it is good practice for staff.

Posted by Adam Budweg (Member # 1901) on 02-02-2004, 10:53 PM:

ive got a good story. happend round thanks giving. some kid decided to pull the alarm. so in teh lobby ppl just start around wondering what the noise is. a few people leave but not many. the people already oin teh movies just continued to watch like nothing was going on (alarms do sound in theaters). but what makes it worse is taht teh controlls that have the sclience switch and pa system was locked. no i had made it clear taht a key should be accessable or the pannel unlocked for such an event. but what do i know im just teh projectionist. we one of teh managers finially decided to go get the key, but the firedepartmet was there and had the alarm manually shut off before a manager arrived with a key. i also mad a sugestion about a fire procedure for employees, but 3 months later and nothing of teh sort. oh well i guess one day im destine to burn in there

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 02-03-2004, 12:16 AM:

What? Your post has such bad English that I must point and laugh at you.

I think we need to introduce minimum spelling policies here at Film-Tech. If you can't spell at least 90% of your words correctly, you are banned. At least TRY the spell check feature!

Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 02-03-2004, 12:20 AM:

Itnt tere a spill chiqer?

We had a fire alarm go off today while I was running all 30 screens. There was a internal malfunction somewhere and we were down for a good 5 or 6 minutes.

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 02-03-2004, 12:29 AM:

Joe, he did put it through the checker. You need to correct the data base... [Razz]

>>> Phil

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 02-03-2004, 02:28 PM:

quote:
So your tale served an instructive purpose. Thanks!

We aim to please... [Smile]

The fire officer who gave us the lecture also bought along a load of extinguishers which had just gone out of date and were about to be refilled anyway, and had us set one off in the car park. I found that extremely useful (for example, you've got to hold the hose very firmly to aim the water where you want it); if I ever have to fight a real fire with one I'm sure I'll appreciate not having the added stress of wondering what exactly is going to happen when I discharge the extinguisher.

Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 02-03-2004, 05:05 PM:

that's a damn good idea. i for one have never used one. the safety pin would probably have tripped me up a little too.

carl