Million Dollar Sight and Sound

¶ … Million Dollar Sight and Sound Theater Fire -- a summary

The sight and sound theater, located in the Lancaster county of Pennsylvania suffered a loss of over $15 million when it caught on fire on January 28, 1997. It was supposedly the largest Christian theater in the country with 100 feet long main stage and a couple of 75-foot side stages. The complex had four buildings linked to each other. Even though it was closed to the public when the fire happened, at least 200 people were present inside working, revamping its staging area. The unavailability of prompt water supply, lack of sufficient fire protection facilities, inadequately trained volunteer fire departments and a faulty alarm system which was unsuccessful in notifying the fire department on time were some of the reasons which made the problem worse. However since the auditorium (which had seating arrangements for 1400 people) was closed due to some renovations, there were no fatalities and the construction workers escaped with a few minor injuries (Poole & Stambaugh, 1997)

The auditorium was constructed in 1990 in compliance with the Fire and Panic Act, which is the minimum requirement for these kinds of buildings. It is associated with other state codes stating the general fire alarm requirements, fire prevention, door access etc. Plans on renovating the floor covering so as to show the corrugated steel deckling located below and fusing steel sheets at its top caused the owners to declare it closed from January 13th to March 8th, 1997. Investigations conducted by a Pennsylvania State Police fire representative revealed that the fire started when a construction worker was welding around the stage floor. Exposed screw holes which allowed sparks to spread along and a molten welding rod falling into comburent props were the possible reasons which caused the fire to ignite. Two employees working for the theater were the first to spot the situation in the storage area where a stage prop had caught on fire in three different sections. They got aligned to the sparks coming from above. They made an effort to put it out using dry chemical fire extinguishers. The welder had detected some smoke as well, but associated it with something related to their work. They notified emergency services when 8 portable extinguishers failed to stop the fire (Poole & Stambaugh, 1997).

Theater employees informed investigators that the fire proofing arrangement usually sprayed on, had been removed from the bar joists on the floor and the steel supporting the structure. In fact it was attached to a wire mesh meant for the coating. Striking the floor as a part of their efforts in removing the stage floor caused the protective layer to get knocked off. Incomplete constructions in the mezzanine rooms were another factor. The unavailability of fire doors let the fire get access through the openings and spread. The vertical spread of the fire (with temperatures in the $1,000-1500 range) to the stage area resulted in tensile strength of the steel to weaken which caused the roof to fall on the lobby fire wall. The horizontal spread of the fire towards the hallways made steel pieces fall into the prop assembly (Poole & Stambaugh, 1997)

On receiving the emergency call at 9:19 AM, the Strasburg fire department dispatched their team by 9:21 AM. However due to several instances of false alarms in the past, the dispatch center had informed their units that the warning had not been issued by an alarm system. There were not a lot of windows to see the fire from, so the employees in the theater guided the firemen on where to position their engine. On receiving the signal that all the workers had been removed from the building, the firefighters started their hoses. Strasburg Chief Wentz connected a 5-inch hose to a nearby pond located beside a nursery. The master streams working on the fire have around 5400 gallons of water flowing per minute. They were not working to their potential initially since it took a while to identify the best way to direct its flow. The roofs of the auditorium had to be broken down. The fire control authorities managed to stop the fire after three and a half hours of fighting it, at 1:02 PM (Poole & Stambaugh, 1997).