$15 Million Sight and Sound Theater Fire and Building Collapse - (Lancaster County, Pennsylvania - January 1997) » Fire Building

The fire occurred in a modern legitimate theater complex built specifically for live stage performances. This public assembly building had seating for 1,400 and was advertised as the largest indoor Christian theater in the nation. The theater specialized in presenting epic biblical dramas from a 100-foot main stage and two 75-foot side stages that formed a U-shape front, right and left of the audience seating. The Sight and Sound Theater Complex included four buildings constructed at different times that were inter-connected. This included prop and scenery construction and assembly buildings, prop and costume storage buildings as well as specific carpentry and electrical shop areas. The complex also included stand-alone barns for the animals and livestock used in the performances.

The original stage and auditorium were built in 1990. The plans were reviewed by the Pennsylvania State Department of Labor and Industry in accordance with the Fire and Panic Act originally issued in 1927 and revised in 1984. The Fire and Panic Act cross references other state codes, including sections such as safety, fire prevention, egress, stairs, exit doors and exit access doors, and general fire alarm requirements.

The State Fire and Panic Act is a minimum code. Local governments are permitted to adopt stronger fire and building codes. The State’s code does not incorporate or reference the model (standard) building, fire or life safety codes.

The theater was built of steel rigid frame construction to allow for the large open space of the auditorium, unobstructed by columns. This construction typically employs columns along the walls that widen at the top and attach to the roof support girders. The columns are connected under the floor with turn buckles and steel rods. This type of construction requires wind bracing that usually consists of diagonal steel rods and turn buckles between columns. The exterior walls had metal panels on the side and rear walls. There were no windows in the auditorium and only three windows in the rear of the side stages. The interior finish in the auditorium was drywall. The front entrance structure consisted of brick veneer walls, a gabled metal roof, and palladian windows in a colonial architecture design.

The storage area under the stage was accessible at grade level in the rear of the building. This room had a 25-foot ceiling with an elevated mezzanine for offices and dressing rooms accessed by a separate hallway leading from the stage. The storage area was accessible through a passage door and an overhead door. The storage room utilized the high ceiling space for tall props as well as the lower ceiling space (approximately 12 feet) under the mezzanine. The main electrical circuit boxes were also located in this area.

The Sight and Sound Theater grew through multi-phased additions. The first phase included a prop construction building of rigid steel with a built-in open shaft freight elevator. The elevator had 40-foot exterior roll-up doors to facilitate the movement of props and scenery into and out of the building. This addition was connected to the main stage by an elevated hallway approximately 40 feet wide by 40 feet high which did not have fire doors. The prop construction building was used to fabricate props and transport them by elevator through the elevated hallway to the main theater stage.

The second phase of construction for the theater complex was the prop assembly building. When completed, this addition connected the prop construction building to the new prop assembly area, and ultimately to the theater. The prop assembly building was built using a steel rigid frame and steel clad exterior and roof.

Exit and Life Safety Features

The auditorium appeared to meet acceptable standards for aisle and seating configuration and exiting2. It was equipped with proscenium curtains on the main and side stages, which are standard life-safety features in this type of building.

The 29 auditorium exits were adequate to quickly evacuate a typical audience, using a measure of 60 people per exit door per minute. However, the patrons of this theater tend to be elderly and more mobility-impaired than “typical” theater-goers. Had the theater been occupied, patrons using the eight exits closest to the stage would have had to move toward the smoke, and the exits on side two near the stage had steps which would have slowed egress.

Fire Protection Features

The Sight and Sound Theater was built in a rural township without tie-in to the municipal water supply. When the theater (Phase I) was built, a drafting pond was established behind the main building to provide water for fire suppression. As subsequent additions to the complex were initiated, the pond was eliminated to free space for new construction.

The Pennsylvania State Fire and Panic Act requires public assembly buildings with a capacity greater than 500 people and a storage room of over 100 square feet to have an automatic sprinkler system. The owner requested that the State Labor and Industry Department waive the sprinkler requirement because of the financial hardship caused by providing a water supply for the sprinkler system. The owner also argued that the possibility of accidental sprinkler discharge could cause costly damage to props and electrical equipment. The owner offered to provide a centrally-monitored combination smoke and heat detection alarm system and to increase the fire resistance rating of structural assemblies in the storage room to two hours, both of which were done.

Once the theater was operational, the centrally-monitored smoke detection system in the stage area was prone to false alarms due to theatrical smoke used on stage. These nuisance alarms interfered with stage performances and resulted in unnecessary fire department responses. After numerous fire department responses the theater management replaced the smoke detectors with heat detectors. The investigation conducted by the Pennsylvania State Police revealed that the theater management routinely shut off the alarm system during stage performances to prevent interference from false alarms. Instead, a fire watch was maintained using trained theater staff.

The stage storage area, prop assembly building, and prop maintenance building were protected with a sprayed-on fire resistant coating on all structural steel. The plans called for the coating to meet a two-hour fire resistance assembly rating. The sprayed-on coating, which was susceptible to damage from the movement of theater equipment, was protected by attaching plywood coverings on the columns to a height of eight feet.

The walls of the storage area beneath the stage were layered drywall to provide a two-hour fire protection rating for the mezzanine offices, and sprayed-on fire-resistant coatings on the structural steel columns and ceiling bar joists supporting the stage floor.

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